Postcards To Voters is a group of American volunteers who write postcards to targeted voters in the hope of increasing Democratic turnout in close, key elections across the country. Founded and registered in 2018 as an LLC by Tony McMullin, the group started informally in March 2017 with a handful of volunteers who wrote postcards in support of Georgia congressional candidate Jon Ossoff. By July 2020 the organization had grown to nearly 76,000 volunteers from every state in the U.S., including Alaska and Hawaii, and sent approximately 9 million postcards. While not every volunteer who signed up for Postcards To Voters is still actively participating, approximately 9000 unique volunteers request addresses each month. Volunteers write and often decorate the postcards by hand, paying for their own supplies and postage. Although it is not clear exactly how effective the postcards are, a 2007 study showed that handwritten notes were three times as effective as machine-printed ones, however, there have been instances of voter confusion and suspicion after receiving some handwritten postcards from the organization. A full list of races and results can be found on the group's website. McMullin makes good use of technology to keep the organization running smoothly. He has an interactive texting system, called Abby, that was created and donated by a volunteer. Paired with Abby, a commercial Help Desk assigns addresses to his volunteers. Other commercial intelligence packages are utilized to track the number of postcards written by individual volunteers, and the number of postcards written by zip code. Additionally, address lists are "seeded" with addresses belonging to members of the group to verify that the postcards are being written as prescribed. Operational costs for Postcards To Voters is funded through the sale of postcards and monetary donations. There are more than a dozen postcard designs available for sale on Amazon, Etsy, and on the Postcards To Voters website. Further funding is provided by MyPostcard and the Out Loud Shop, where a portion of their merchandise sales benefit the organization. Campaigns pay nothing for the service but, if a candidate is happy with the service they are asked to be a reference for future campaigns. Additionally, in an effort to help candidates, Postcards To Voters teamed up with Ragtag, an organization that can assist candidates build an online presence. Postcards To Voters is not a non-profit organization and donations are not tax-deductible. Volunteers are not able to deduct the cost of postcards, postage stamps, or any other cost associated with writing for the group. in a 2017 podcast interview, McMullin described how he sponsored a postcard design competition. The winning design was selected and offered for sale as an affordable alternative to the rising cost of retail postcards. They were sold at a price of $5.50 for a package of 100 postcards. The first printing of 5,000 postcards sold out in less than 8 hours and at the time of his interview 60,000 postcards had been sold; by 2020, a pack of 100 postcards, as listed on the organization's website, cost $15. Free downloadable templates are available. During a 2018 interview, McMullin described how he quit his job in order to run his group full-time. According to the interview, he stated that he didn't make money on the venture, though he did sell postcards on Amazon. In a 2020 podcast interview, McMullin stated that he replaced his income by selling postcards and doing consulting work from time to time. He went on to describe, what he referred to as a new cottage industry, selling postcards, forming around his movement. One entrepreneur began designing and selling postcards, reporting that in her first year, sales totaled $60,000. Exactly how much McMullin earns and when he began receiving compensation from postcard sales is not known; because the organization is a Limited Liability Company there is no requirement to publicly disclose donations or financial records.
