The People Bulletin

Although charity shops have been reporting improved turnover and profits, the Association of Charity Shops confirms that an ever-increasing number of its 300 members are reporting problems in getting hold of enough good quality stock and of increasing pressure on margins in their house-to-house collections. ‘Whether because of criminals stealing bags and impersonating charities, commercial partnerships with charities without shops or quite simply increased competition between charities, returns from house to house collections are falling and the costs are rising’, it reports.

To tackle the stock sourcing problem, Oxfam, which had 693 shops at the end of its last financial year  launched the first ever permanent workplace charity stock donation programme on 14 October. Oxfam Collects aims to bring in an extra £1m worth of donated clothing, books, music and other unwanted goods directly through offices and workplaces across the UK.

The scheme is designed to persuade workers that clearing out their clutter and donating it to charity as easy as simply turning up to work each day. Oxfam reports back to every individual who donates through this scheme to tell them how much their unwanted goods have raised and illustrate what this amount of money could fund in the charity’s work.

The charity is aiming to work with up to 100 companies in the next twelve months to follow in the footsteps of its successful City pilot with international law firm Freshfields, Aviva Investors and others to sign up around 10,000 donors. This could raise around £1million – enough to buy safe water for 1.1 million people or to fund all of Oxfam’s work in Niger for a year.

Every company that participates also receives a corporate impact report that celebrates its employees’ contribution – referencing the contribution the total funds could make to Oxfam’s beneficiaries.

Since the credit crunch hit the UK, donations of stock to Oxfam shops have seen a double-figure fall: in 2008, donations fell by 12 per cent, and this decline has increased to 15 per cent in the last year. At the same time as the fall in donations, sales of donated goods are up 3% year on year, so the need for stock is greater than ever.

Recent research by Oxfam indicates that 17% of people haven’t donated anything to a charity shop in the past year, with a further 26% only donating once or twice. In addition, once the decision to donate to charity has been made, the most important factors when making a charity shop donation are ease and convenience.

How it works
 
To participate, staff members sign up to Gift Aid via their company’s dedicated web page, bring in their donations to a central collection point in the office, and Oxfam arranges their collection and sale. The scheme makes use of Gift Aid so that the charity can claim an extra 28% on top of every donation. Oxfam provides participants with a unique donor number that is used to track what they’ve donated and to report back on how much that has raised for the charity – right down to a single donation. Oxfam Collects is a long-term scheme, so donors can just bring in one or two donations at a time as they finish using things, rather than saving up donations for a trip to the charity shop as they do at the moment.

As well as reporting to individual employees and teams, Oxfam Collects reports back to participating companies about the volume of donations received and how much their employees have raised. This means that teams within the same company can compare, contrast and compete with one another to raise the most money for Oxfam.  At the end of each year, the company receives an official Corporate Impact Report, detailing the volume of donations received, the total amount of money raised for Oxfam and examples of the work this money could fund.

www.oxfam.org.uk/oxfamcollects.

See also ‘Geared for giving’ by Duncan Bannatyne in The People Bulletin, 22 October 2009.