Donate stamps to Kidney Care UK and raise funds for kidney patients

How do used stamp donations help charities?

It sounds unusual, but there is money to be had in your used postage stamps, so much so that 1kg of stamps you donate generates around £20 of income to support kidney patients.

Sending us your old postage stamps is a zero-cost way of supporting us and our donors send us hundreds of kilograms of stamps each year.

What to do with your old postage stamps

If you’d like to recycle and donate your stamps to benefit charities, simply request a Kidney Care UK Collector’s pack and we will send you everything you need.

You’ve worked hard collecting the stamps, so we’ve kept it easy and free to send them to us.

1. Collect your used stamps. In fact, collect everyone’s used stamps, from work or local business to those from your neighbours, family, and friends. We would love to receive letter and postage stamps, special stamps, and commemorative stamps (these stamps are all known as philatelic stamps). Unfortunately, we are unable to use any pre-printed or pre-paid stamps or labels (such as the large gold labels from the Post Office).
2. Trim and separate your stamps. Please trim your stamps to have a finger’s width (or 1cm) of paper all the way around and then separate them into British or foreign stamps (Channel Island and Isle of Man count as foreign).
3. Complete your returns form. Please complete the returns form in your Collector's pack so we can thank you for your support. You can also request a new envelope or collection box with this form.
4. Post your stamps and returns form back to us for free. Using the prepaid self-addressed envelope enclosed in your Collector's pack, fill the envelope as evenly as possible, add your returns form and pop it in the post. There is no rush to get the stamps to us, so please hold onto the envelope until it is full.

If you’d like to pay for postage and send your stamps directly to Xchange Master, the address is: Kidney Care UK Stamp Appeal, Xchange Master Ltd, 272 Bath Street, Glasgow, G2 4JR.

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact us on 01420 541424 or via email ([email protected]).

Unfortunately, we cannot send the Kidney Care UK Collector’s pack to the Channel Islands. If you’re living in the Channel Islands you can still donate, but you will have to pay for postage yourself. The address to send your stamps to is Kidney Care UK Stamp Appeal, Xchange Master Ltd, 272 Bath Street, Glasgow, G2 4JR. Thank you!

What happens to stamps I donate to charity?

First, you package up all your used postage stamps in the prepaid envelope in your Collector's pack and mail them to our partner company, Xchange Master, a leading stamp and currency service provider. From there, the stamps are sorted to ensure we at the charity receive the maximum possible price whilst also covering all the costs of the materials and postage.

Used stamps are in demand. Xchange Master sell your donated stamps on to collectors, artists, and manufacturers across the globe who use stamps for their products. Some valuable stamps can even end up at an auction house or on eBay. Basically, you send the stamps to Xchange Master, they sell them on, and we at Kidney Care UK receive roughly £20 per kg.

What stamps can I donate to Kidney Care UK?

There are three major categories of postage stamps you can send.

1. Modern UK stamps
2. Old UK stamps
3. Foreign stamps

Modern UK stamps are the most highly sought-after stamps, so if you have any stamps printed after 2008 those are especially valuable to us. But every single stamp you have will be worth something to us. Just be sure to separate your stamps into British and foreign.

It is only the pre-printed and prepaid stamps that we ask you not to collect.

I'd like to donate a stamp collection to charity.

If you have a larger number of stamps to donate, Xchange Master can arrange a courier collection for you. There are two courier options:

1. You’ll be sent a drop off label, via email or post, for any major courier service. You then package up the stamps/coins and and drop them off at your nearest collection point.
2. Xchange Master organise a courier to collect the stamps/coins from your home or workplace. However, there are no specific time slots offered, so somebody will need to be in.

If you think you may need the courier service, you can contact Xchange Master directly on 0141 328 9357, or email them at [email protected]. Xchange Master are open weekdays between 9:00am and 4:30pm.

Request a Collector's pack to donate used stamps to Kidney Care UK

Thank you for choosing to support Kidney Care UK. Fill in our Collector's pack request form and we will send you everything you need to post us your stamp donation for free. The Collector’s pack includes:

• Our step-by-step guide to collecting stamps
  
• Our step-by-step guide guide to donating old and foreign currencies 
  
• A prepaid returns envelope (so it is free for you to send us your donation)

Encourage friends, family and colleagues to collect stamps for Kidney Care UK

You can also request a Collection box to get your whole community involved in collecting stamps for us. Why not ask your work colleagues or a local business or school to start collecting? Get your friends, family and neighbours involved too and you’ll soon have boxes full of stamps to donate. We will put every single stamp you send us to work to raise funds to support our kidney community.

If you have any questions or need any support, please email [email protected] or call 01420 552698 and tell us how we can help.