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BHF says commercial house-to-house collections mislead the public

Fundraising | Celina Ribeiro | 31 Aug 2011

The British Heart Foundation has claimed that commercial house-to-house collections mislead the public and has caused a drop in charity bag donations as it releases research showing that most people don’t know that commercial collections exist.

Research released today by the charity shows that less than a third (30 per cent) of items donated to charity via bag collections end up at charity shops and that two-thirds of the public (65 per cent) do not understand that not all collections are by charities directly.

The charity’s research, which involved surveys of 100 households, found that nearly all felt “shocked, cheated and disheartened” when they were told that some collections donate as little as 5 per cent of the total value of the donation to the charity.

The British Heart Foundation claims that the increase in commercial collections is putting pressure on charity shops; its own shops have seen a 36 per cent drop in donations over the past two years.

The charity’s attack on commercial collections comes ahead of a drive for more donations to BHF Shops with its BIG Donation stock appeal set to run through September.

Mike Lucas, retail director at British Heart Foundation, (pictured) said, “It is vial commercial companies act responsibly and be transparent on their charity bags – particularly around how much profit the named charity will actually make from a collection. Householders have the right to know what happens to their donations and currently this information is not clear.”

BHF is asking people to donate directly to their shops. Lucas said, “100 per cent of the profits made from charity bag donations stay with the charity.”

All collections cost, says TRA

But the Textile Retail Association, the membership body for commercial collectors, graders and the like, has responded to the BHF research and demanded charities be more upfront about the costs involved in running charity shops. 

Alan Wheeler, national liason manager at the TRA, said: "We agree that there should be complete transparency when it comes to declaring how much money is raised for charity.  Doorstep collections have significant collection costs and these have to be met by the charity if they undertake the collection themselves.  If the collections are undertaken by a commercial company the amount actually going to the charity is immediately visible to the public.
 
"One of the largest national charity shop operators put out publicity which states that for their collections '100 per cent goes to charity' or that they receive "'00 per cent of the proceeds'. However they have failed to be transparent and to declare that about 85 per cent of all their income from their retail activities is ploughed back into running costs," he added.

"We would like to see all charities that hide their costs, brought into line with the rest of the industry by declaring their costs, so that the public are able to make a fair and informed choice about which charity collections they wish to support. We would also like to see all relevant stakeholders signing up to the Institute of Fundraising's revised Code of Practice for Charitable Door to Door Collections."

 

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Directory: British Heart Foundation