The United States Postal Service has issued semi-postal postage stamps which bear a higher-than-normal postage rate. The excess revenue is given to charity or some other cause.
A 1997 law directed the U.S. Postal Service to issue its first semipostal, a stamp sold with a surcharge to raise funds for a specific cause. Other countries have had mixed success with fundraising stamps, but the subject for the first U.S. semipostal was one that Americans truly took to heart: breast cancer research.
In 2013, President Obama signed an executive order combating wildlife trafficking in the US. To highlight this effort, a pan institutional team at the Smithsonian Institution created a traveling exhibition that would highlight the effects of wildlife trafficking and the ivory trade on elephant populations. As part of this team, the National Postal Museum hosted the exhibition along with a feature on the Saving Vanishing Species semipostal stamp, which raises funds for wildlife conservation, as well as several stamps showing the issues of elephant ivory poaching and wildlife trafficking.
The Postal Service issued a 40-cent Breast Cancer Research semi-postal stamp on July 29, 1998, in Washington, DC. This was the nation's first semi-postal stamp issued to raise public awareness and give energy to the pressing fight to find a cure for breast cancer.
The Postal Service issued a nondenominated (forty-five cent value) Heroes of 2001 semi-postal stamp on June 7, 2002, in New York, New York. Derry Noyes, Washington, DC, designed the stamp, and Thomas E. Franklin, Bergen County, New Jersey, photographed it.
The Postal Service issued the 45-cent semi-postal stamp Stop Family Violence on October 11, 2003, in Denver, Colorado. Carl T. Herrman of Carlsbad, California designed the stamp. Each semi-postal stamp was valid for postage at the first-class rate and included a surcharge. The net proceeds from the surcharge were transferred to the Department of Health and Human Services in accordance with the provisions of the Stamp Out Domestic Violence Act of 2001, which the 107th Congress passed and was signed into law on November 12, 2001.
The Postal Service issued the 55-cent semi-postal stamp Save Vanishing Species on September 20, 2011, in Washington, DC. Derry Noyes of Washington, DC designed the stamp. Each semi-postal stamp was valid for postage at the first-class rate and included a surcharge. The net proceeds from the surcharge were transferred to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to support the Multinational Species Conservation Funds, in accordance with the Multinational Species Conservation Funds Semipostal Stamp Act of 2010.