Fat cats cash in on charity Christmas cards

Neill Ghosh
  Neill Ghosh
Intelligent Giving Lead Researcher
A buzzy bee

 

YES IT'S THAT TIME OF YEAR AGAIN when a handful of shops sell 'charity' Christmas cards that give next to nothing to good causes.

Some of the poshest retailers, including Harrods and Liberty of Regent Street, are the scrooges this year. Buy a card from them and often only a pitiful few pence will reach your chosen cause. But buy your card from a good-fairy retailer like WHSmith, Clinton Cards or, even better, direct from the charities, and you'll be making a real difference.

Scrooges

At Harrods only three per cent of the price of some of the cards goes to charity - compared to 25 per cent at Clinton's.

How could Harrods explain this unseasonal behaviour? Their usually chatty spokespeople were tight-lipped when we raised the subject, but they did issue a statement. They denied that they had anything to do with how much was donated with each pack, and shifted the blame onto the card printers - who negotiate the percentage with the charities. Liberty of Regent Street had the same excuse.

But when a retailer decides to stock charity cards, it negotiates with card producers and often puts pressure on them to cut costs - which can mean the charitable donation will be the first overhead to suffer. If Harrods and Liberty had asked their suppliers to give more, things might be different.

Surely, though, a small donation is better than none at all? Well, things are rather more complicated than that. Harrods and Liberty might actually be doing charities harm by stocking their scrooge-like cards, because for every pack they sell, good-fairy shops sell one less.

Good fairies

The good news is that the far more accessible Clinton Cards and WHSmith offer a much better deal. Cards bought from them this year will contribute between 20 and 25 per cent of the value of their charity cards to good causes.

And the thoughtful giver can go one better. Buy your cards direct from your chosen charity, through its website or in its shops, and all profits will go straight to it.

> An alternative to charity cards
The charity smoothie

The famously clever soft drinks company, Innocent, has got a super charity scheme running this winter. Buy one of its special smoothies from Sainsbury's or EAT, and 50p from the purchase price will be given to Age Concern (see profile). Not all of Innocent's products are included under this scheme, but you can tell those that are because they're the bottles wearing little woolly hats. No, really - and those hats might even have been knitted by real-life grannies.

Considering the average price of one of these smoothies is £2, we think a 50p donation from each one is pretty good going.

Innocent Drinks' Supergran Campaign

If Innocent wants to leave a Christmas hamper in our reception, Monica the administrator will be happy to sign for it

Also you can buy from organisations that sell on behalf of charities and promise to donate all profits. The most popular of these are Card Aid and Cards for Good Causes. You can buy direct from their websites or in one of the temporary shops they set up each year at Christmas time.

The Charities Advisory Trust has been researching the good, the bad and the ugly of the Christmas card world - and handing out relevant awards for several years. See its website here.

> Our Top Ten Christmas cards  

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