When people think about “achievement,” they often picture big launches, viral moments, or flashy new features. But 2025 was a year of the kind of work that makes all of those future wins possible. Looking back across our 2025 meetings, a clear story emerges: LetterMo matured from a passion-driven project into an organisation with stronger operations, clearer governance, and a more realistic path to sustainable growth.

This year, we did not just add “more.” We did the harder thing: we built better. We strengthened the infrastructure that supports our community, improved how we protect the people who trust us, and clarified what it will take to keep LetterMo thriving long after any single person steps away.

We tackled the unglamorous work: cleaning up legacy risk and stabilising operations

We took concrete steps to address inactive accounts, including a plan to prompt users to log in before deletion deadlines, noting that hundreds of accounts had not logged in. This was more than a technical clean-up. It was a commitment to good stewardship: reducing exposure, improving data hygiene, and making the platform easier to manage.

Alongside that, we began planning for hosting changes once the existing web hosting expired. Again, not glamorous. But necessary. Reliable hosting, controlled access, and thoughtful data handling are the kinds of decisions that prevent emergencies and give a volunteer-led organisation the breathing room it needs.

We grew membership and stayed transparent about finances

In 2025, we monitored membership growth carefully. In April, we noted an increase to 21 paid members and tracked specific membership contributions, along with a clear statement of current balance. By late May, we had additional paid member registrations and also saw the realities of the internet: spam sign-ups and deletions that come with running an open community platform. Now, we are standing at 30 paid LetterMo members.

The achievement here is not only the numbers. It is the habit of tracking them, sharing them, and using them to inform decisions. Transparency is a form of trust-building. When a community can see that decisions are tied to real constraints and real goals, people are more likely to contribute, volunteer, and advocate.

Looking at LetterMo finances, 77% of the income that was received in 2025 came from memberships being purchased by some of the most supportive users (thank you!). The rest, around 23%, was very generously donated by those who wanted to contribute to ensure that Lettermo continues to be financially viable, ad-free and free for all to use. On the other side, 27% of that income was spent in LetterMo’s servers and email capabilities, which constitute one of the key operational costs to ensure that the website and all the forms are always up and running. The rest of the money has not been spent yet, given the Board’s decision to build a provision to ensure that 2026 IT and operational costs are covered – just to give you an idea, our servers are around $150 every year and boosting our email capabilities in February is around $15.

Lastly, it is very satisfactory to see that the costs that were incurred in designing and printing the beautiful LetterMo stickers were recovered by the purchases that users made in 2025, with an 8% profit. This is very encouraging, and the Board, together with the volunteer team, is researching other merchandising initiatives for future years.

We moved from “merch ideas” to a real merchandise plan

One of the most tangible threads throughout 2025 was merchandise: stickers, stationery, and how to ship items affordably and consistently.

We explored options for stickers and stamp-like merch, from sourcing to format to pricing. In September, we compared 4×6 versus 5×6 sheets, discussed square cut versus die-cut, and aligned on a plan to order a first run of 100 sticker sheets, with pricing targets and quality checks. We even got specific about envelope sizing across regions and how to protect stickers during shipping. That level of detail is the difference between a fun idea and something you can actually execute.

This is an achievement because it reflects a shift: we started treating merchandise not as a one-off fundraiser, but as part of an ecosystem. An ecosystem that supports membership, encourages participation, and funds community operations.

We strengthened governance and made privacy a priority, not an afterthought

Perhaps the most important evolution this year was our increased focus on governance and policy.

By September, the concern became even more direct: we acknowledged that collecting volunteer applications without an active privacy policy was a problem, and agreed to publish an attorney-approved privacy policy immediately. That is a major achievement. It shows we are taking responsibility for the trust people place in LetterMo.

We also clarified governance roles, including confirming the various volunteer positions and aligning on how volunteer coordination would be handled moving forward. The goal is not bureaucracy for its own sake. The goal is continuity, accountability, and clarity, so that the organisation can grow without burning out the people who run it.

We laid the groundwork for a strategic plan that supports succession and long-term sustainability

A recurring theme in 2025 is that LetterMo needs to be bigger than any one person. In June, we discussed what the board should prioritise, including SOPs, strategic planning, and project management. By September, we were actively revising objectives to emphasise succession planning in board recruitment, with the strategic plan nearing completion.

This is significant. Many community projects struggle because they rely on a small set of people holding too much context in their heads. A strategic plan is not just a document. It is a shared map. It helps volunteers plug in, helps the board make consistent decisions, and helps the community understand where we are going and why.

We invested in volunteers and community engagement, with real onboarding in mind

Volunteer interest is one of the most encouraging signals of community health. In June, we noted that participants wanted to volunteer and began identifying projects that needed ownership, like a volunteer handbook and onboarding guide, newsletters, stickers, and longer-term community initiatives.

By September, the conversation became more operational: recruitment posts went live, we defined a target number of volunteers, and we discussed training sessions tailored to specific roles: WordPress, business tools, design, and moderation. We did not stop at “we need help.” We started designing a real onboarding experience.

We also recognised the importance of forum moderation not just as a maintenance task, but as community-building work: expectations around engagement, topic creation, and challenges were part of the discussion. That matters because healthy communities do not happen automatically. They happen when people are supported, welcomed, and invited into meaningful roles.

We improved our public-facing presence and used data to guide decisions

In 2025, we also took steps to refine how we show up publicly. We discussed updating the board webpage with shorter bios and photos, and even planning blog posts to refresh introductions ahead of a February launch period. This kind of work helps members and potential volunteers feel connected to the humans behind the organisation.

We also began using analytics more deliberately. In September, we noted steady growth in sign-ups, tracked referral sources (including Postcrossing and community forums), and used GDPR-compliant analytics to learn without over-collecting data. Data is only useful if it informs action, and this year we started treating it as an input to strategy: monitoring patterns, learning where growth comes from, and using that information to shape outreach and engagement.

The real story of 2025: momentum with maturity

If 2025 had a headline, it would be this: LetterMo grew up.

We made progress on membership and fundraising, yes. But more importantly, we built the systems that allow a volunteer-led organisation to operate responsibly: clearer governance, stronger privacy practices, more deliberate volunteer onboarding, and a strategic plan built for continuity.

Those are the achievements that do not always look exciting on a timeline. But they are the ones that make everything else possible.

And now, with these foundations in place, LetterMo is in a much better position to do what we all care about most: support meaningful connections through letter-writing, build a community that feels safe and welcoming, and sustain the project for years to come.