Your cards should be blank inside with a beautiful design on the front of the card. We encourage you to use your talents in embossing, cut-outs, stamps, scenic pictures you have taken, or even your own artwork.

We need two different types of cards for general use. The first is “blank but beautiful”. These cards have no writing on them and can be used for any occasion by our troops.

The second is a “sentiment card” that includes a message on the front that the service member can use to convey his or her feelings to loved ones. Some examples are “Thinking of You”, “Missing You”, “I Love You”, or a simple “Hello”. Or have some fun and find some humorous stamps and sentiments to put on your cards.

Yes! We can use Birthday, Anniversary, and Christmas cards, but we would appreciate you making the majority of your cards more generic so our troops are able to mail at any time of the year. We do not send sympathy or thank you cards to the troops.

All cards MUST arrive no later than October 30th to be included in this year’s Holiday Care Packages. We suggest mailing your cards no later than October 20th in case of delays in transit. This will allow our team the time needed to sort, process, and package your cards for our Care Package assembly day in mid-December.

Cards received after October 30th will be held for the following year.

Each card should measure between 4.25″ x 5.5″ to 5” x 7”. Please do not send oversized “poster board” cards.

YES! We need an envelope for every single blank card you send us so the recipients can mail them home.

Please do not place your cards in its envelope. Simply slide the card under the flap of the envelope before you mail them. This will allow our team to determine if the card is a blank card our troops can send home to their loved ones, or a letter of gratitude to a Service Member/First Responder.

Please use light-colored envelopes. Addresses written on dark paper may be rejected by the post office because the writing can not be seen.

PLEASE ENSURE THAT YOUR CARD WILL FIT IN YOUR ENVELOPE! Please understand that we do not have extra envelopes to use if your card will not fit in the one you provided. Cards without envelopes will be used by our volunteers to write letters of gratitude to be included in our Care Packages.

Members of the Armed Forces on duty in designated combat areas can send personal correspondence, free of postage, to addresses in the United States. We do not know where the recipient who will receive your card is located, so we do not recommend placing stamps on your envelopes.

If you are using dark-colored cardstock, please be sure to adhere a piece of white paper inside your card. Words that are written on dark colored cardstock ie: dark greens, blues, black, or purples can not be seen.

Yes. When adding any 3D embellishment such as ribbons, lace, bows, or 3D stickers, please ensure those decorations are securely attached to the card and will not come loose once the glue dries. We want your card to be as beautiful as the day you made it when we send it to our troops, and when they are mailed back to their loved ones.

DO NOT USE ANY TYPE OF GLITTER! No matter how careful you are with your glue, glitter tends to rub off of your cards and will end up covering the rest of the items in our Care Packages. This can result in glitter being transferred to our troop’s uniforms, and that is not acceptable. Cards with glitter will not be sent to our troops.

Please avoid using pearls or rhinestones as they almost always break off or damage the envelope during transit. Please avoid religious icons and scripture quotes on your cards.

You are welcome to put your cards in a clear stationery card sleeve for extra protection, but it is not required.

Yes! In fact, we encourage it! You are welcome to include a small note on a separate piece of paper placed inside the card or put your name and email address on the back of the card. This will allow our troops to send you a thank you note if they would like to. We cannot guarantee that you’ll hear from them, but we hope you’ll give them the opportunity.

No. Unless all of the cards are the exact same size, a rubber band will damage both the envelopes and cards in the stack and it just isn’t necessary. Remember that you want your cards to look exactly as you made them and we don’t want something as simple as a rubber band damaging your beautiful cards.

While we do look at each card you send, and will separate them as needed, we would appreciate you sorting your cards based on type before you send them to us.

Operation Gratitude is now partnering with Give Back Box to offer discounted shipping to our donors! All boxes up to 50 pounds qualify for $20 shipping throughout the U.S. The steps are simple. Visit Give Back Box to add your label to your cart. Pay for the postage, print your label, put it on your box, and drop it off! It’s that easy!

You can send one or you can send one thousand! Each year we send over 100,000 Care Packages specifically to our Deployed Troops and we need cards for every package we send!

Yes, we will send you a thank you letter within eight weeks of receiving your donation. If you want earlier confirmation of delivery of your shipment(s), please use the tracking system provided by your shipper.