Give us some Tax Deductible love!
Everything we do comes out of our own pockets, and we could use a little help!
We’re working hard to respond to a huge backlog of requests from inmates seeking mentorship.
Our angel volunteers are lined up to help – but to make this happen we need to cover the cost of
stamps and printing to fund our final volunteer work sessions of 2017.
Leah and I are using the holiday to put in a solid four days of work to clear out some of the back log of mail.
About 11:00, we had a surprise visitor bearing a holiday meal for each of us (provided by the local Elks Lodge:
AND, a personal donation of $500 to go towards our website fundraiser!
We are so grateful.
A blessed Thanksgiving to our entire AI family.
We’re needing some help with postage! Since our recent listing in the PARC (Prison Activist Resource Center) Directory, the mail has just exploded and we have well over 300 on our waiting list. We are getting prisoners adopted every day, but the backlog is significant, and our unpaid volunteer staff adopts every one of them while we are finding them the right adopter(s).
A donation towards postage is an angelic gift, and an easy way to help. We’ve just started a YouCaring campaign (Compassionate Crowdfunding), and hope to raise enough to see us through til we can find adopters for these forgotten inmates.
Thank you for donating, sharing, and caring.
Postage is our biggest expense, along with ink, paper, and envelopes.
Please consider donating a book of stamps by mailing them in*, or by clicking on the donation button at the top of the sidebar on the right. A book of 20 stamps costs $9.80 – or some of the specialty stamps shown below come in sheets of 16 for $7.84 – either way, 49¢ per stamp.
He poured his soul into stories, articles, and poems, and entrusted them to the machine. He folded them just so, put the proper stamps inside the long envelope along with the manuscript, sealed the envelope, put more stamps outside, and dropped it into the mail-box. It traveled across the continent, and after a certain lapse of time the postman returned him the manuscript in another long envelope, on the outside of which were the stamps he had enclosed. — Martin Eden by Jack London
I love the rebelliousness of snail mail, and I love anything that can arrive with a postage stamp. There’s something about that person’s breath and hands on the letter. — Diane Lane
Stamps are a critical commodity for prisoners. They are often the main form of tender, and are traded for everything from laundry service, to soups, from handmade artwork, to books. My brother recently traded three stamps for a $12 book. That’s how valuable a stamp is in prison.
There are few facilities that actually allow prisoners to receive stamps in the mail – most must purchase them from commissary or canteen (at a cost increase); and indigent inmates who qualify are generally only allowed a limited number of postage-paid outgoing envelopes per week.
We burn through a LOT of stamps every week, by both responding to letters from prisoners, and also sending stamps to those who are allowed to receive them. These letters serve many purposes, including encouraging literacy, stimulating creativity, and providing comfort. Nothing is more desired from a prisoner than to hear his or her name at mail call.
A piece of mail carries with it validation from the outside, tangible confirmation that he or she has not been forgotten. That letter becomes even more welcome when the stamp is visually eye-catching, and reminiscent of something pleasurable – like music.
Be an Angel, Donate Some Stamps!
*Mail stamps to:
Stamp Campaign
Adopt an Inmate
PO Box 1543
Veneta, OR 97487
