4th Annual Charity Christmas Card Scrooge Awards
Howard Lake | 4 November 2005 | News
Charity Christmas cards, where does your money really go? At this time of goodwill, many of us buy charity Christmas cards. However, the amount going to help the charitable causes varies enormously depending on the card you buy.
In order to guide Christmas shoppers through this minefield, the Charities Advisory Trust has carried out research in 2005 on the amounts reaching charity from charity Christmas cards, and is proud to be able to make the following awards:
The Scrooge Award
The Scrooge Award goes to the John Lewis Partnership. Although the least charitable card was found at Fenwick’s (less than 1.5% to charity), we have decided the Scrooge Award should go to John Lewis because the extent of the John Lewis range of cards claiming to be charity cards (548 designs) makes the negative impact of their miserliness particularly significant. John Lewis had charity cards, which gave less than 4% to charity, and the average was a measly 7.9%. John Lewis were particularly disappointing because it had been rumoured that they were promising not to go below 10% this year.
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The Curate’s Egg Award
‘Good in parts’ goes to Clinton Cards. We like the amount going to charity (21%), but think the labelling is misleading (25% after VAT – we are not a nation known for our mental arithmetic!). Paperchase were runners up in the Curate’s Egg Award, with amounts to charity from 10% to 17%. Disappointing that they are less generous than they were in 2004 and 2003!
The Georgie Porgy Award for the Greedy
The Georgietros Porgy Award for greed goes to Liberty’s. They charge more for the same cards, but do not increase the donation to charity. They were the meanest of the department stores, with an average contribution to charity of a measly 5%. Runners up, Harrods, with an average 6% to charities, and Selfridges for a card giving a mere 3% to charity. How can they label them as charity cards? Wasn’t the Trade Description Act supposed to stop this?
New Award this year:
The Rip Off Award
This year, for the first time, we are proud to announce the Rip Off Award. This we give to card retailers in the UK: a sector-wide award! This award is given in recognition of the discovery that ‘charity’ cards in retailers’ surveyed (excluding bargain boxes) cost an average of 74p a card; the average in temporary charity Christmas card shops was 39p! We found cards of the same design and quality that cost 70p in John Lewis (with 8% to charity) costing 49p (with a minimum 25% to charity) in the Card Aid shops. So for rotten value, and not much going to charity, buy your charity cards at UK retailers.
The Good Fairy Award
For better value, and more to charity, buy at temporary charity Christmas card shops, such as Card Aid, or Cards for Good Causes, or from charity shops on the high street. Also, buy online at www.cardaid.co.uk < http://www.cardaid.co.uk > – 90 designs for 37 charities.
CAT Director, Hilary Blume, commenting on the Awards said we calculate if the charity contribution was at least 10%, the additional income for charity would be around £2million. That could pay for approximately 70,000 children in Africa to go to school for a year, or to restore the sight of 100,000 in the developing world. Don’t say to me it doesn’t matter, it’s only a Christmas card!
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About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.