The Charity Shops Survey 2025 is now open, and we would be grateful for your participation.
Now in its 34th year, the survey provides essential benchmarking information and analysis of key charity retail trends and performance figures.
Participants in this year’s survey will be entered into a prize draw to win a £100 John Lewis voucher.
In light of the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, we previously removed some questions and simplified the survey.
However, following feedback from the sector, we decided to rebuild the survey over the next few years and started this process by reinstating a number of questions in 2023.
Last year, we produced a list of frequently asked questions (FAQs), which you can find in the questionnaire and below, to help you understand some of the questions.
To take part in the 2025 survey, please download the questionnaire below and return your completed questionnaire to [email protected] by 4 July 2025.
Download the Charity Shops Survey 2025 here
The final survey will be published in the October issue of Charity Finance magazine, Civil Society’s sister publication.
FAQs
What is the Charity Shops Survey?
Charity Finance launched its first Charity Shops Survey in 1991. It provides detailed benchmarking data for charities that operate in retail, giving them a better understanding of the sector.
When does the survey close?
The deadline for responses is 4 July.
Why is the questionnaire longer than in previous years?
In light of the impact of Covid-19 on the charity sector, we previously removed some questions and simplified the Charity Shops Survey. However, following feedback from charities, we decided to gradually rebuild the survey over the next few years and began this process by reinstating a number of questions two years ago.
What are dormant/inactive shops?
Dormant/inactive shops are shops that are not currently trading and do not generate income but might have a lease.
What is rag?
Rag is any clothing item a charity receives but cannot sell due to defects or being too worn out. Rags are sold by the kilo to textile recyclers and provide a source of income for charity shops.
What is full-time equivalent?
Full-time equivalent (FTE) – or whole-time equivalent (WTE) – is a unit of measurement that indicates the number of full-time hours worked by all employees in an organisation. The calculation does not indicate the number of employees in a company, but the equivalent of a full-time employee. So, if you have 10 full-time members of staff and two part-time members working 50% of the time of a full-time employee each, your FTE is 11.
What are reconcilable and not-reconcilable figures?
Our Charity Shops Survey goes out every May and is published in October. Because of the nature of charitable annual accounts and the timeline of our survey, some of our respondents can only provide figures from their management accounts. This means that these figures are likely to differ from those that will be published in their annual reports. Reconcilable figures are figures provided by our respondents that match those of their annual reports.
Why did we split the league table into two?
A few years ago, we decided to split the league table into data that reconciles with charities’ annual accounts and data that does not. We did this to ensure that like is compared with like.
Will I get to see the final results before they are published?
Yes, we will send every charity that took part in the survey a snapshot of how their results will be presented in the published survey. This is to give them a chance to review their data before publication. If we do not receive a response within a week, we will assume that they are correct and good to go.
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