A charity label is a label resembling a

postage stamp A postage stamp is a small piece of paper issued by a post office, postal administration, or other authorized vendors to customers who pay postage (the cost involved in moving, insuring, or registering mail), who then affix the stamp to the ...

, sold by

charities A charitable organization or charity is an organization whose primary objectives are philanthropy and social well-being (e.g. educational, religious or other activities serving the public interest or common good). The legal definition of a cha ...

to raise funds.Mackay, James. ''Philatelic Terms Illustrated'', 4th edition, Stanley Gibbons, London, 2003, p.25. They are generally intended to be used on

mail The mail or post is a system for physically transporting postcards, letter (message), letters, and parcel (package), parcels. A postal service can be private or public, though many governments place restrictions on private systems. Since the mid ...

, as a way of advertising the sender's support of the charity's cause.

Christmas Seals Christmas seals are labels placed on mail during the Christmas season to raise funds and awareness for charitable programs. They have become particularly associated with lung diseases such as tuberculosis, and with child welfare. Christmas sea ...

and Easter Seals are perhaps the two best-known types, although many kinds have been made. While designed to look like postage stamps, they only rarely include a denomination, and never the name of a country. They are distinct from charity stamps which also include a charge for postage. Charity labels are one of several kinds of

cinderella stamp In philately, a cinderella stamp is "virtually anything resembling a postage stamp, but not issued for postal purposes by a government postal administration". There is a wide variety of cinderella stamps, such as those printed for promotional ...

. File:1908 Messina earthquake stamps.jpg, Italy 1908, Messina earthquake charity labels File:Bombay Presidency War and Relief Fund half anna charity label 1916.jpg, India 1916, Bombay Presidency War and Relief Fund half anna charity label File:FellinCharityLabelRussia1916.jpg, Russia 1916, 10 kopecks War victims charity label of Fellin

References

{{philately-stub Philatelic terminology Cinderella stamps