Studio51 argues all Christmas cards should be charity cards
Howard Lake | 21 November 2007 | News
Every Christmas card sold in the UK should be a charity card by 2012, argues Alan Hawkes, managing director of specialist charity card retailer Studio51, which passes 51% of the sale price to nominated charities. He goes further: in his view, not buying charity cards during the festive season should be seen as socially unacceptable.
Hawkes, a former vice-president of the Greetings Card Association, wants to double the annual amount given through charity Christmas cards to £30 million by challenging commercial card retailers to give more to charity than they currently do.
“It’s easy to buy a box of so-called ‘charity’ cards in the high street and that is all many people do, even though charities get such a poor deal out of the arrangement. And of course many people don’t buy charity cards at all.”
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Hawkes says that attitude must change. “I want buying charity cards to be so normal that if you receive a Christmas card from a friend or relative and there is no charity donation attached, you’ll be saying something like: “I can’t believe cousin John didn’t send charity cards this year.”
He advises people to buy cards direct from a charity to ensure most of the money goes to that charity. His company provides a service to those charities which don’t have the time or resources to set up a retail operation.
He is critical of high street retailers. “Throughout my 25 years in the greetings card industry,” he said, “I have been saddened at how little an amount retailers and publishers pass on to charities, which is often as little 10p on a box of cards costing more than £3.
“Charities get around £10-15 million a year and that is just plain disappointing when more than £100 million a year is currently spent on charity Christmas cards in the UK. That figure should be – and could be – around £20 to £30 million by Christmas 2012.”
Similarly, he criticises charities for entering into agreements in which they get such a small percentage of sales. “Charities must not undersell their brands”, he argues, “to companies who will receive disproportionately more in increased sales than they will give back as a financial donation…
“A 10 per cent donation on a pack of cards undervalues the charity, the cause and the person who buys the cards.”
Boosting the percentage of sales income received by charities could have a significant impact given the scale of the market. Mintel’s 2003 report on the UK greetings card market found that 72% of all cards sold in the UK are Christmas cards – 1.03 billion cards with a value of £350 million.
Studio51’s message echoes that of the Charity Advisory Trust who this week announced their 6th Annual Scrooge Awards, which aim to highlight cards which generate less than 10% for charities. Research by Which? shows that the public expects at least 40% of the price of charity cards to be received by the charity.
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.