We Stopped Sending Holiday Cards – Find Out Why

The past couple of weeks, a lot of our friends, family and clients have asked us when they’ll be receiving our annual holiday cards. They’ve been a big hit the last nine years , but unfortunately we have stopped sending holiday cards. Seriously. It’s not because we’ve #GoneGrinch on our friends, family and clients. For many years, our clients and friends looked forward to the holiday cards sent by our company. They were not your typical cards from a business. Unlike the pre-printed, store-bought card, likely stuffed with a business card you probably receive from your real-estate agent, dentist, or interior designer – these cards were uniquely different.

Each envelope was personally hand-addressed, each had a special message crafted for the recipient, and the art work was unique and creative. We collaborated with an amazing artist who illustrated an image for us each year based on a general theme. I was always impressed with the final product when we received the box of cards from the printer. If you keep reading, we’ve shared a gallery of images from some of our favorite holiday cards.

So why did we stop sending holiday cards? After all, I love cards and I even wrote  a post in the past to help all our friends and clients make the process of sending cards easier. You can revisit that post here: Time Saving Tips to Mail Holiday Cards.

So, why did we stop sending holiday cards?

When we started sending cards in 2006 our mailing list was considerably smaller than it is now. We’ve seen a $.10 increase of postage from $.39 to $.49, which quickly adds up when our mailing list is now in the thousands. The overall cost for the holiday card project, including buying envelopes, postage, hiring the artist, and printing cards, has increased dramatically from around $500 in 2006 to over $3500 the last time we sent cards in 2013. If you know me well, you know I don’t mind spending money on my family, friends and clients! However, we’ve decided to spend the same amount of money and more, by helping others.

The last two years, we’ve been contributing money to the Unstoppable Foundation, who we’ve partnered with to sponsor a village in sub-Saharan Africa, which includes building a schoolhouse. I’m a former teacher and believe there’s nothing more important than education. More than 53 million children don’t have easy access to education and over 47% of those children live in Africa.

To build the school requires $25,000. As a company we’ve donated over $15,000! We need your support to sponsor this village. With this financial commitment, Unstoppable will ensure that a schoolhouse is constructed, provide villagers access to clean water and sanitation, feed hot school lunches and support community gardens, and assure basic healthcare needs are met. Children will have a school provided to them to receive the education they need and adults will receive community education on basic skills, such as household budgeting. They will also train adults on specific skills, to help produce alternative income for their families.

We share all of this with you for two reasons:

First, like I said previously, we’ve been asked “where’s your card this year” countless times the last two years and we felt it was time to come clean on why we no longer send holiday cards. I’ve explained that I have redirected my focus on helping those less fortunate which has unfortunately taken from my budget of being able to provide our annual holiday cards to our family, friends and clients, which I’m certain you understand.

Second, we wanted to invite you to contribute to our efforts in building the school so together. You can donate online by clicking here. Please know, 100% of your donation goes to sponsor the village. Your donation would greatly be appreciated and you would be helping so many families! With the $15,000 we’ve donated, and a few additional donation, we’ve raised $17,329 – only $7,671 is needed to sponsor our first village.

In addition to you making that donation, we thought you might like to review our cards from 2007 – 2013 (which you can view larger by clicking on the images below). Please share in the comments section of this post which card is your favorite? Also, we want to know – do you support our decision in no longer sending holiday cards? If you were on the mailing list, does it make you think that we care about you less? Inquiring minds want to know!

Thank you so much for reading about all the good that we do and understanding why we no longer send our annual holiday cards. It has truly been a pleasure knowing and working with you all! All of us here at The Organizing Agency wishes you and all your loved ones a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Cheers!

In addition to building a school with the sponsor a village program, we’re  being more ‘green’ by not using the ink, chemicals, and paper for the cards, polluting the air with the gas to deliver get the cards to us, and to you! So many positive reasons to not send holiday cards.

6543