Postal Service Announces Price of Fund-Raising Stamp

The U.S. Postal Service has announced that it will charge people 40 cents to buy a first-class postage stamp to raise money for breast-cancer research.

Seventy per cent of the money remaining after the post office covers its costs of designing and marketing the stamp will go to the National Institutes of Health, and 30 per cent will be given to the Department of Defense, which will channel the money to a major breast-cancer research effort being conducted by the Army.

Advocates of the stamp say it could raise as much as $60-million a year for research.

Over the years, the post office has issued several first-class stamps to promote awareness of certain causes — including one new stamp for tissue and organ donation and another for hospice care that are planned for sale in August and November, respectively.

But the Breast Cancer Semipostal Stamp, which is expected to go on sale in August, was approved as the first stamp in the United States that would channel proceeds to a specific cause. The Postal Service action came after Congress passed legislation last year ordering production of the stamp.

The sale of the fund-raising stamp will last for at least two years. If it proves to be popular, many charities are expected to lobby for stamps for their own causes. But if it does not sell well, Congress is likely to stop the sale of the stamp and reject all similar ideas.