Address Labels

Today, I opened a letter requesting a donation to a charity that does good work. The non-profit organization included a special gift: address labels!

I’m happy to receive useful gifts from any non-profit organization. It’s just that I don’t consider address labels as useful as they used to be. This is a comment on how our world continues to change.

I don’t send many letters through snail mail.

I like to pay my bills online, donate money online, and collaborate with others online. I also prefer sending emails over handwritten letters.

So, how often am I likely to use address labels? Perhaps twice a month at most. I’m not sure I’ve needed more than five address labels for the past year!

Others may use more address labels than I do. But I doubt that most people need very many. This begs the question: What would be a better gift?

I don’t have a good answer.

I don’t mind getting printed photos showing the impact a non-profit organization makes. Even a description of their work over the past year is interesting. Specific organizations send gifts related to their mission.

It turns out I still use small pads of paper to make notes, so this is a better gift than address labels. And I still need Christmas labels to put on gifts!