Harrods shamed again for charity Christmas cards

Fundraising | Celina Ribeiro | 26 Nov 2008

The Charities Advisory Trust has named Harrods as the retailer of charity Christmas cards which donate the least amount of proceeds to charity for the third year in a row.

Of the 174 types of charity cards sold at the Knightsbridge department store, 82 per cent donated less than 10 per cent of the face value to charity while nearly half donated less than 5 per cent.

These figures mean Harrods is given the Charities Advisory Trust's dubious honour of the Scrooge Award for the third consecutive year.

The Trust has issued a secondary award, the Georgy Porgy Award, to specialist card retailer Cards Galore after research carried out on between the last week of October and early November revealed that 147 of the 171 different cards available in those stores gave less than 10 per cent of proceeds to charity.

The Trust says such practices result in less income to charities and the low price of the cards threatens to squeeze charities themselves out of the charity card market.

Large charities also came under fire from the Charities Advisory Trust. The organisation said: “This year more than ever it is the big, national charities that get the licensing deals, which makes the fact they agree to such poor deals even more surprising. They seek short-term gain whilst undermining their own market.”

Who's Who: Celina Ribeiro

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