Some charity cards not so charitable

Howard Lake | 26 November 2007 | News

• Tagged with:
• Ireland

Some charities in Ireland are getting as little 10 per cent from the sale of charity Christmas cards, according to a survey undertaken by the Irish Times. The newspaper surveyed 20 charity cards and found the range of return to the charity varied from 10 per cent to 80 per cent.

The Irish Times found that in most cases it was impossible to tell from the cards what the return was to charity. Two exceptions were Marks and Spencer cards sold in Ireland, which is giving 10 per cent of the sales price to Focus Ireland, and Debenhams, which is giving 20 per cent to the ISPCC.

Not surprisingly, buying cards directly from the charity gives a much larger percentage to the charity. The Irish Cancer Society says 80 per cent of revenues goes to their organisation if people buy directly from them but as little is 10 per cent if people buy their cards from Boots.

An umbrella group, Irish Charity Cards, says 25 per cent of their revenues go to
seven charities. The ICC is not in favour of putting the direct return to charity on the card as is the case in the UK because large card producers have greater economies of scale.

An Post says Irish people will send 110 million cards this year.

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.