First-Class Service

Stamp cancellations deliver a free plug for charities and, sometimes, a sticky situation

United Way of America sent one billion advertisements to people across the country last fall, and it didn’t cost the charity a cent.

The United States Postal Service cancels the stamps on all first-class letters, usually by inkjetting

them with the service’s familiar wavy lines. But for two months last year, first-class stamps were canceled with the almost-as-familiar rainbow and open-palm logo of the United Way. Every birthday card, letter, or bill paid by mail turned into a free plug for the organization.

The process was not perfect: Bold-colored stamps sometimes obscured the United Way logo. But the charity’s name, which appeared at the far left of each inky cancellation, found its way to millions of Americans.

Few Groups Seek Advertising Opportunity

For more than 40 years, the Postal Service has offered charities the opportunity, at no charge, to have their names and images used to cancel first-class stamps, either nationally or regionally.

Few advertising outlets offer such ubiquity, says Anthony W. Conway, executive director of the Alliance of Nonprofit Mailers. “It potentially provides the name associated with the cancellation to thousands, if not millions, of mail recipients,” he says. “It’s an old, old business technique.”

Yet aside from a handful of big-name charities like the American Red Cross, Goodwill Industries, and the Salvation Army, few nonprofit organizations take advantage of stamp cancellations.

Postal officials say they cannot explain why there is “next to no demand” for the service, and they receive only about 30 requests for cancellations per year. Local requests, they note, are approved by the 80 regional post-office branches. That could bring stamp cancellations, and more visibility, to thousands of small charities with limited reach.

But fund-raising and marketing officials differ on whether the practice is tastefully “unobtrusive” or downright tacky. It turned out to be a little of both for United Way: Its name was splattered with a bit of mud after the charity’s logo appeared on a direct-mail campaign seeking to ban abortion in South Dakota, a cause the organization would never actively endorse or reject. United Way also rankled other nonprofit groups when its name appeared on those groups’ fund-raising appeals.

Still, United Way officials are pleased with their first national cancellation campaign, especially since it coincided with the charity’s fund-raising drives across the country. Says Tish Young-McCutchen, director of national field communications at United Way, “It was perfect timing for us.”

Putting a Stamp on Events

Postal officials say that, like the United Way, most charities tie their stamp-cancellation campaigns to specific events — National Salvation Army Week, for instance.

The Red Cross sponsors a monthlong stamp cancellation each year as part of its “March Is Red Cross Month” promotion. But unlike United Way’s coordinated national effort, the charity lets each local chapter decide if it wants to participate.

The American Red Cross of the Quad Cities Area, in Moline, Ill., which has advertised itself with canceled stamps for nine years, has one of the longest-running cancellation campaigns in the country.

Leslie D. Anthony, the chapter’s communications director, says that the cancellations are more of a publicity tactic than a fund-raising device.

“We’re not saying, ‘Support the Red Cross with money,’” she says. “We look at it more as celebratory.”

But the exposure helps: Ms. Anthony says people often tell her that they notice the cancellation, as they did when it appeared on her wedding invitations last March. Her Red Cross even runs a notice in its newsletter urging people to watch for cancellations — sort of an advertisement for an advertisement.

According to postal guidelines, cancellation drives must promote an event of “general public interest,” not one held for private gain. That requirement keeps businesses as well as organizations that are primarily political, fraternal, or religious from applying. Also, annual stamp cancellations are limited to 60 days per year.

However, postal officials interpret “general public interest” with some latitude.

Last November, the Winter Haven Bike Fest, a Florida motorcycle rally, benefited from a 30-day cancellation promotion featuring a grinning alligator astride a motorcycle with Art Nouveau-style flames licking the stamp. At the bike rally — held to benefit a local Red Cross — enthusiasts could get stamped envelopes canceled by hand or purchase precanceled envelopes.

“There was a huge line all night” at the event’s stamp-cancellation booth, says Scharlene J. Paul, treasurer of the fest. “Probably 600 to 800 people went through.”

Applying for the cancellation from the regional post office was simple, she says. All that was required was completing a form online and mailing in the artwork for the cancellation; two weeks later, she got approval.

Stamp-cancellation campaigns for small groups and events like the rally could soon become more common. In the past, charities had to order a special metal “die hub” — a stamper for a mechanical press that brands envelopes — and post-office workers had to stop production to change the hubs by hand. However, a switch to inkjets, which spray on cancellations and can be altered more easily, has reduced the cost to nothing.

First-Class Cachet

In an era of e-mail and cheap bulk mail, many fund raisers believe a first-class letter has cachet. And with good reason: Direct-marketing studies have found that people are more likely to open first-class mail.

“The marketing techniques of using the mail are extremely well-researched,” says Mr. Conway of the Alliance of Nonprofit Mailers. A first-class stamp draws more attention than the bulk postage on mass mailings, and if more people notice the stamp, more will notice the cancellation, too.

But that attention can detract from the groups that send the letters. “If a nonprofit is sending something out and somebody else’s message was on the cancellation,” Mr. Conway says, “it could confuse the recipient.”

Melodie Gellman, a grant-proposal writer at the Santa Clara Family Health Foundation, in Campbell, Calif., was miffed to find out that the 5,000 first-class invitations her charity sent out for its annual fund-raising event, a wine tasting, arrived at people’s houses with a United Way logo. She may not have known except for a handful of invitations returned due to incorrect addresses.

After a disappointing turnout for the event — with 25-percent fewer people than normal responding to the invitation — Ms. Gellman says she is upset. She estimates that her foundation, which helps children who lack medical insurance, paid an extra $1,500 in postage so the invitations could be mailed first class rather that at bulk rates, with stamps bearing the image of Jonas Salk, who saved millions of children by developing the polio vaccine.

“When a person pays to have their mail sent,” Ms. Gellman says, “they shouldn’t be required to advertise” for another cause. She says she understands that United Way did not purposefully interfere with her organization, but she wants to avoid being associated with the charity. “They don’t have the best reputation for managing their funds,” she says, referring to charges of embezzlement and other financial problems at some United Ways in years past.

What’s more, Ms. Gellman says, her foundation is prohibited by its corporate sponsors from accepting United Way money. Any confusion over an affiliation with United Way, she adds, “could put us in jeopardy of losing our funding.”

After calling the post office, Ms. Gellman found she could not opt out of the United Way stamp cancellations. When asked if her charity would consider running its own cancellation campaign, she initially sounds intrigued. Ultimately, though, she says, “given what happened to us, I don’t think that’s the right thing to do.”

A potential snare for charities that obtain stamp cancellations is that they have no control over the mail on which their names appear.

Ms. Young-McCutchen of United Way of America says one local affiliate — she could not remember which one — notified her that “a scam letter had gone out with some dubious offer” and was canceled with the United Way logo. The local United Way was afraid people would link it with the scammers.

Another concern is political mail. Most politicians take advantage of franking to send bulk mailings free, but some special-interest groups don’t, preferring first-class, stamped mail instead.

In South Dakota — home to one of the nation’s most contentious ballot measures in November — an organization called Vote Yes for Life sent out multiple rounds of first-class mail, urging recipients to support a referendum to ban all abortions. Because of the timing of the mailings, each letter was canceled with the United Way logo.

Jay Powell, president of the Sioux Empire United Way, in Sioux Falls, S.D., says his office got no complaints about United Way’s link with the antiabortion mail. And while he says that many people noticed the cancellations, he is sure that nobody connected his charity with Vote Yes for Life.

Meanwhile, with a billion pieces of mail sent out in eight weeks nationwide, it was almost inevitable that something would go wrong, says Ms. Young-McCutchen. Some regional post offices never got word about the United Way cancellations and did not use them. And problems arising from the overlap of the charity’s cancellation campaign and political campaigns are, she adds, “certainly something for us to think about.”

But United Way still plans to reapply for a cancellation next year, Ms. Young-McCutchen says. “We hope that we were a good partner with the U.S. Postal Service.”