While many people throw charity solicitations away as soon as they come in the mail, Mary Stelmaszewski saved them and ended the year with 1,430 letters.

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She told the Minneapolis Star Tribune she received an average 27 charity appeals each week, many from groups she had never heard of. Non-profits sent out between 14 billion and 15 billion pieces of mail in 2004.

Stelmaszwski said she got enough letters, cards, calendars, gimmick cashable checks and religious medals to paper her home.

She gives to about 20 charities each year like the Salvation Army, American Lung Association and Catholic Charities and gave to help victims of the Asian tsunami.

Charities buy, sell and share mailing lists and Stelmanszewski says once you are on a list you never get off.

The 800,000 charities registered as non-profits with the Internal Revenue Service raise an estimated $240 billion a year.