Celebrities Push The Envelope with Pitney Bowes

Howard Lake | 21 September 2006 | Newswire

Some of Britain’s top actors, writers, illustrators, musicians, sportspeople and personalities have been using their creativity to design envelopes for the 2006 Pitney Bowes ‘Pushing the Envelope’ charity auction.

Now in its third year, the Pitney Bowes ‘Pushing the Envelope’ campaign sees some of the nation’s favourite stars put pen to envelope in aid of the National Literacy Trust (NLT) – the only charity concerned with raising literacy standards across all age groups.

The designed envelopes will be auctioned on eBay.co.uk starting on 10th October at 11am and will run for 10 days. In the UK, all funds raised will be donated to the National Literacy Trust, with a simultaneous campaign in France benefiting a local literacy charity.

Contributors to ‘Pushing the Envelope’ so far include:

Presenter Noel Edmonds

Best-selling author Joanne Harris

Children’s book illustrator Rod Campbell

Illustrator and author Raymond Briggs

Actress Kate Winslet

Best-selling author Tracy Chevalier

Founder of Viz Magazine Chris Donald

Ashes Squad Captain Andrew Flintoff

Poet Laureate Andrew Motion

Artist Anita Klein

Television Personality Graham Norton

Children’s book illustrator Axel Scheffler

Graphic designer Milton Glaser

Paranormalist Uri Geller

Founder of the Rubik’s Cube Erno Rubik

Renowned Actress Prunella Scales

Legendary singer Dame Shirley Bassey

Author and Poet Margaret Atwood

Great Olympian Sir Steve Redgrave

Comedienne Jo Brand

Actress Zoë Wanamaker

Novelist Louis de Bernieres

British Spy Novelist John Le Carre

Cartoonist Kipper Williams

Artist David Bellamy

Children’s Laureate Jacqueline Wilson

Beautiful South singer Paul Heaton

Graphic Artist/Writer Simone Lia

With many more celebrities committed to the cause and lots of envelopes yet to be submitted, Pitney Bowes anticipates that a total in excess of 50 designs will be available for bidding in October.

David Denney, Vice President Human Resources, Pitney Bowes comments: For Pitney Bowes, the link to the NLT is an obvious one. The charity is concerned with raising literacy standards across all age groups and improved literacy will always mean improved communication. Our own solutions help to make communication simpler and more integrated. We are committed to engineering the flow of communication across the mailstream”.

The response so far has been fantastic and seems to have captured the imagination of some of the UK’s most well-known faces. We look forward to raising a substantial sum for the NLT”.

Richard Sved, Head of Fundraising, The National Literacy Trust comments: We are delighted that Pitney Bowes are continuing to support the NLT for a third year with the Pushing the Envelope campaign. Our successful partnership means we can continue to do valuable work, providing a supportive network throughout the UK”.

A full list of contributors and their envelopes can be viewed at www.pushingtheenvelope.info.

About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale. He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.