I have been collecting stamps for an unknown charity via my mum for the last seven years.  I knew that they helped a charity somewhere in the world, but had no clue on how.

It wasn’t until recently when my mum’s friend who we had been diligently sending our stamps to, said he didn’t collect them anymore that I finally started asking some questions.  How did they help a charity? What charity did they support? How much money do they raise? And most importantly who can I give my stamps to now?

I have since discovered that charities collect stamps on bulk and onsell them by the kilo to stamp collectors or at markets to the general public.  Some charities claim to receive between $15 – $28 paid per kilo, and can raise between $10,000 and $12,000 per year doing this.  One charity even claims to make enough from this process to cover the cost of their own direct mail campaigns each year!

Paul Gleeson has been collecting stamps for 12 years for a Mission in Sydney where the stamps are sold to collectors at markets and the money raised helps to pay for shipping containers of clothes, uniforms, material, medical equipment and supplies, sewing equipment and supplies, stationery, books etc to Tanzania where they are distributed to hospitals, schools, churches, Mothers’ clubs etc.

Paul is planning to take long service leave soon to go and volunteer for the mission he has supported for so many years via his stamp collecting.  Paul will happily accept any stamps, whether mint, used, on paper, duplicates and for anyone to send them to:

Paul Gleeson at PO Box 486, Kilmore Victoria 3764

Give Now, (one of my fave kindness websites) is a free giving resources website and they have a fantastic list of charities in Australia who collect stamps for fundraising, check out their list here.

Now before you think this might be the golden goose of fundraising that your cause or charity has been waiting for, you will need to find out if your charity has the resources needed to collect and process this huge volume of stamps.  My mind is boggling trying to think about how many stamps = 1 kilo.

In the meantime, I am very happy to continue collecting my stamps to send off to a good cause, so check out the Give Now list and start collecting.  Too easy!