Charity shops are retail outlets selling mainly second-hand donated goods to raise funds and awareness for their parent charities. Charity shops can only be set up by charities. An individual cannot set up a charity shop.
Charity shops benefit from tax concessions because all the profits from a charity shop serve a charitable purpose. Charity shops benefit from exemption from corporation tax on profits, a zero VAT rating on the sale of donated goods and 80 per cent mandatory non-domestic rate relief. This 80 per cent relief is funded by central government. A further 20 per cent rate relief is available at the discretion of local authorities.
Civil Society publishes an annual survey of charity shops in the UK, allowing charities to benchmark the performance of their own shops against other charities. In 2010 the Charity Shops Survey will be in its 19th year.
Minister for the third sector Angela Smith has been challenged to reveal the true cost to charities of the forthcoming music licensing changes, after she claimed in Parliament that the predicted figure of £20m was “an overstatement”.
British Heart Foundation, owner of the UK’s second largest charity shop chain, has chosen to install Toshiba Tec’s ST-A10 TouchPOS system in its 600 stores.
The government has today launched a public awareness campaign to help the public identify charity collections from commercial operations.
NCVO met with music licensing body PPL last week to discuss its concerns over forthcoming licensing charges for charities that play recorded music in public.
Donations to Oxfam shops have dropped by more than 12 per cent for the second year running, while the charity reports an increase in sales of donated items.
The press are in a snow flurry over the UK’s favourite water-cooler subject – the weather. From panic-buyers emptying superstores to revellers being trapped all night in pubs by snow and the UK running out of gas by Sunday, the media has milked every angle of the cold snap possible. But the Metro’s charity angle has taken it a bit too far, even by tabloid standards.
The advertising regulator has rejected a complaint against a company asking for clothes donations to help the needy, in an adjudication that has been opposed by the Fundraising Standards Board.
The Association of Charity Shops has appointed Warren Alexander at its new chief executive. Alexander will begin in November, having previously been chief executive of Core, a charity which funds research into gut and liver disease.
Never knowing what treasures you might find in your local charity shop is one of the joys of venturing in, but a 1970s condom, a set of false teeth and live rifle ammunition go way beyond most people’s expectations. Amongst the standard donations of books, clothes and general bric-a-brac, veterinary charity PDSA has discovered some rather strange items in its pink collection sacks in the last year.
Charity shops increased their profits by 4.1 per cent in the past year, according to the Charity Shops Survey 2009 While the gross income of the 69 shop chains in the sample fell by 3.1 per cent to £526.1m, their costs fell even further, by 4.9 per cent to £414.6m, leaving a collective profit of £111.5m. Charity shops have now increased their profits for four years running, and in eight of the last 11.
Charity shops run by Oxfam, Mind and PDSA have been threatened with superglue attacks on their premises if they put Christmas cards on sale before 1 November. A group calling itself the 'Movement for the Containment of Xmas' has sent hand-delivered letters to three charity shops and a newsagent, located in the Leeds area, threatening to vandalise their premises if they carry on selling Christmas cards out of season.
Charity shops are now accused of bulldozing their way into neighbourhoods and impoverishing them as a result of their own failures. Right on the heels of attacks for being too successful.
As someone who does the conference rounds a lot, I too am constantly frustrated and let down at the lack of charity representation, particularly from 'small shops'. I read a great piece in the latest edition of Canadian Fundraising & Philanthropy's e-newsletter about Canadian fundraising stars missing from conference stage. Hot on the heels of an earlier post of mine endeavouring to make conferences really useful, this caught my eye.
Charity shops may be finding it increasingly hard to find quality stock, but one went too far when it sold a walking stick belonging to one of its volunteers. Irene Drane, who works at the Macmillan Cancer Support charity shop in Perth, had bought the new cane after a hip replacement operation, only for a fellow volunteer to sell it thinking it was a donation.
The 36 Action for Children charity shops earmarked for closure have been saved after medical research and support charity DebRA agreed to take them over.
Oxfam has launched a major high-end literary push to raise its profile, and income, as a book retailer. On July 4, the charity, which is the largest second-hand book seller in Europe, released a collection of short stories by top authors and launched its first annual literary festival, Bookfest. It is hoping the initiatives will stem the decline in charity shop donations and increase the £1.6m it already earns from book sales each month.
Can a three-week project in a London shopping centre help change national attitudes to charity shopping and be replicated elsewhere? The charity shop that popped up in West London’s plush Westfield shopping centre last month was no average charity shop. In addition to a consistent flow of designer label stock – some brand new, some donated by fashionistas - and sporadic appearances from celebrity volunteers, the ‘living and giving’ shop counted Louis Vuitton, Mulberry and Dior among its neighbours.
Millions watched retail expert Mary Portas transform a Save the Children charity shop in Orpington in a recent television series, but what happened after the camera crew left? Lucy Harvey reports. Conventionally, a charity shop is not the final destination for a tour bus. Day-trippers might pop-in as they search for a high street cuppa en route to an attraction, but they don’t tend to be the focus of a trip. Until now that is.
Retail expert Mary Portas has revamped a Save The Children charity shop in Kent, transforming its fortunes but upsetting a few volunteers along the way. So who's right?
The former founder of Freeserve has criticised charities for being too slow to respond to fundraising opportunities presented to them. Ajaz Ahmed recently launched JumbleAid.com, a not-for-profit auction website which works just like eBay except all the money raised goes to charity instead of the seller. People list items for sale and specify which charity they want to donate the proceeds to – there are more than 25,000 on the JumbleAid database. The money is collected by the Charities Trust, gift aided where possible, and distributed to the charities.
Charities reliant on clothing donations are being hit by companies posing as charities and commercial organisations taking goods as part of legitimate, but often exploitative, relationships with charities. Trading Standards in South Devon has seized a truckload of leaflets from a now-dissolved company, W&W Help Ltd, claiming to be a charity collecting clothing for the poor of Eastern Europe, while the Rainbow Trust Children’s Charity is considering its options regarding Homeless Children Limited, a company which has distributed clothing appeal leaflets using the name ‘Children’s Rainbow Trust Limited’.
The chief executive of the Association of Charity Shops has announced she is stepping down as the organisation steps up lobbying for changes to gift aid. Lekha Klouda (pictured front left), who has been with the ACS since its establishment in 1999, plans to retire at the end of the year.
Technology is driving huge change in all areas of operations within civil society organisations, and charity shops are no exception, finds Tania Mason The last year or two has seen the widespread adoption of a new income stream for many charities – the collection of gift aid on items donated to shops. Several of the bigger shop chains have embraced this technology, including Help the Aged, Sense, British Heart Foundation, and Sue Ryder Care.
A website has been launched with the aim of raising money for charity while reducing the amount of waste sent to landfill. JumbleAID.com, which its creators say combines the ethos of Freecycle with the technology of eBay, allows individuals to post their unwanted items online free of charge, while nominating the charity they wish to support and their target donation. Prospective buyers then indicate how much they are willing to donate to the charity in return for the item.
Oxfam is launching a fashion-led publicity campaign to promote its charity shops as beacons of cutting-edge style and sustainable shopping. Even touting the new campaign, SUSTAIN ME, as having a ‘Spring/Summer launch’, the advertisements feature imagery by top fashion photographer Rankin, and feature celebrities including models Heidi Klum and Jourdan Dunn (pictured), actor Jaime Winstone, television presenter Cat Deeley and singer Natalie Imbruglia.
I always thought charity shops were meant to be value for money. Recently, however, I've been shocked with the prices at local stores. At one charity retailer, who will go unnamed, the lowest price for an item of clothing has been around £6 for ages, and books go for £3 - £4
Christmas can be a stressful time and many of us will be glad to have got through it without any mishaps, but Margaret Gardiner of Tonypandy in Wales has more reason to be relieved than most. She feared she had ruined her family's Christmas when she mistakenly took a bag containing hundreds of pounds worth of presents to a charity shop. But the Church Charity shop in nearby Penygraig saved the day by writing out a cheque for £200 to replace the clothes and games meant for her two grandchildren, aged 14 and eight.
Christian Aid has revealed that its ethical gift shop, Present Aid, saw sales in October that were up by 372 per cent on the same period last year. The shop received 506 orders in October 2007, compared to 2,391 this year. Present Aid, which was created in 2004, anticipates that if the upward trend continues it will surpass last year’s total earnings of £2.1m ‘substantially’. A spokeswoman for the charity said there had been no increase in marketing compared to last year.
Charities are already feeling the strain of the credit crunch, according to a new report by Cass Business School.
A branch of Age Concern has opened a charity shop at a rubbish dump in order to divert items away from landfill and back into the community. Age Concern Warwickshire won the tender to run the shop, situated at Hunters Lane Household Waste Recycling Centre (HWRC) in Rugby, after Warwickshire County Council refurbished the complex to increase its recycling capacity.
