The worst charity Christmas cards

by Robert Powell on 18 November 2011  |  17 comments
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High street shops can still label a Christmas card as charitable even if only 1% of the sale price goes to charity. Robert Powell takes a look at this year’s Christmas card scrooges.

Heard of the heap paradox?

Here goes: imagine you have a heap of sand. You then remove each grain of sand individually until you are left with one grain. Now, is this still a heap? Clearly not, I here you say.

Ok then, here’s a tougher question: at what point did it stop being a heap? (Answers on a postcard, or in the comment box below.)

So what does this nugget of philosophy have to do with Christmas cards?

Well, quite a lot as it happens.

Online stores

At what point does a Christmas card become charitable? When 100% of the card price goes to charity? Or just 70%... or 50%?

Guess again. According to a new report from the Charities Advisory Trust, some retailers selling charity Christmas cards are passing on as little as 1.1% of the card price to the appropriate good cause.

The tenth annual Scrooge awards looks at retailer that market charity cards but actually pass on low percentages of the product price to good causes.

Online shops were identified as the worst offenders with over a quarter of internet retailers giving less than 2% to charity. Moreover, a huge 67.5% of online card publishers gave less than 5% to good causes.

Reformed sinners

The Charities Advisory Trust found that many high-street stores had improved since last year. Most now gave at least 10% to charity. Waterstones, Marks and Spencer and Debenhams now donate 20%, while John Lewis gives 25%.

However the Trust did criticise many high street retailers for using three-for-two offers, as if you are only paying for two out of every three cards, this reduces the amount actually given to charity.

The growing trend of manufacturing charity cards overseas was also highlighted. 40% of the cards surveyed this year were made in China. The director of the Charities Advisory Trust, Dame Hillary Blume, said that by shifting card production overseas to save on costs card companies were damaging the UK printing jobs sector.

Cards Galore emerged in good shape from the survey and was given the Reformed Sinner award. The company ‘won’ the Scrooge Award last year for passing on the lowest amounts to charity. However it now gives 10% to good causes on almost all of its cards.

Biggest scrooges

It is the first year the Charities Advisory Trust has analysed online retailers, looking at 40 companies offering bespoke charity cards. They found that many stores offered a flat per card donation, usually 10p. Fairly impressive at a first glance, however when extra charges such as additional artwork and foil printing are factored in, this 10p becomes a very low percentage figures.

This was the case for the winner of this year’s Scrooge Award: CCA Occasions. CCA give 10p to charity per card. However the Trust says that cards can cost up to £9.35 each when additional charges are included, resulting in a donation to charity of just 1.1%.

CCA strongly defended their charity cards, stating that most sales were made at £2 per card, making the donation 5%.

The company also stated that they have raised £5m for charities over the past 20 years. And indeed, figures like this do highglight the problem with the Scrooge awards.

Better than nothing?

Should we really be having a pop at private, profit making companies for not giving enough to charity? After all, high street charity cards do make millions every year for good causes. Isn’t this – in the current financial climate – enough?

Obviously the accusation is that private companies are trading off the charity brand to boost profits. But charities are also trading off private companies to boost donations. Surely a compromise has to be reached?

Alternatives

The simple way to ensure that every penny you hand over for a charity Christmas card goes to the cause is to buy direct from your preferred charity. Of course, charities have manufacturing and job bills that donations help foot. But at least by going direct you know your cash is going nowhere near a private company.

Several pop up charity card shops also start emerge throughout November and December. Cards for Good Causes is one of the largest networks of temporary shops. The shops stock cards from 300 charities and are mainly staffed by volunteers. This allows at least 75p to be given back from every £1 purchase.

But charities are responsible for creating the cards, so part of proceeds that come back from the shops will be spent on production and distribution. This varies between charities and often depends on the image on the card and what the card is made from. Some charities will use their own trading arm to produce the cards and hence costs may be higher than other smaller charities. But it does mean that potentially a charity could make a loss if the shops do not sell enough cards.

This is different to high street stores where the retailer (or a manufacturer) will produce the card, print the charities logo on it and then give back a straight donation. This means there is no risk to the charity in receiving donations from high street cards as they make no initial investment.

The Charities Advisory Trust’s own network, Card Aid has several locations across London and the South, as well as an online shop. Card Aid guarantees that a minimum of 25% of the price of a pack goes to the charity named on the card. However the trust says that 40% to 60% of the card price tag usually goes to the named good cause.

A further alternative is to forego cards altogether and just make a donation to your favourite charity. Perhaps just pick up one joint card for the office notice board to show you’re not being rude!

Your take

How charitable should a ‘charity card’ really be?

Have you say using the comment box below.

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