# Few Oxford Street shops visibly support charities, says Give as you Live

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2014/12/15/oxford-street-shops-visibly-support-charities-says-give-live/
- Published: 2014-12-15T16:04:53+00:00
- Author: Howard Lake

Only one in five shops in London’s main shopping street Oxford Street are visibly
supporting charities, according to the online shopping site ‘with a heart’ Give 
as you Live.

 

The company commissioned research that explored the physical shops and websites 
of 45 major retailers on Oxford Street in October 2014.

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## Giving in-store

 

 * Two stores (4%) had a charity collection tin
 * Two (4%) had processes that promoted donating items to charity in return for 
   a gift voucher
 * Five (11%) had products in-store that generated donations to charity

 

## Giving online

 

Charitable support was more in evidence on the retailers’ websites.

 

 * 27 stores (60%) listed charities or good causes on their website, often on their
   CSR page
 * 18 (40%) on the other hand did not list any charities or discuss charitable support
   anywhere on their website
 * None of the stores offered online shoppers the chance to donate at checkout through
   methods like rounding-up to the nearest pound.

 

 

 

Annabelle Risdon, Head of Charity Partnerships at Give as you Live, explained why
they undertook the research. She said:

 

> “We deliberately wanted the research to reflect what retailers are doing in store
> outside the national drives like The Poppy Appeal and Christmas campaigns – unfortunately,
> it turned out to be very little.
> “Previous Give as you Live research from last year found that almost half of us
> would spend more money with a retailer if they donated to a charity. The same 
> research found that eight in ten Brits believe that retailers should be doing 
> more to support UK charities. Retailers could be increasing sales if their CSR
> efforts were more visible.”

 

She noticed that listing a retailer’s charitable activity on its website’s CSR page
meant that the partnership was not as visible as it could be: you would have to 
be looking for it to find it.

 

Risdon added:

 

> “We know that consumers want to see retailers giving back, so we’re calling on
> them to make more noise about the charities they support and the causes they fund.”

 

[Give as you Live](http://www.giveasyoulive.com) lets consumer compare prices and
shop online from over 3,700 retailers and generate a percentage of their expenditure
to the charity of their choice, at no extra cost to themselves. To date the site
has raised over £5 million for UK charities.

 

_Photo: [Christian Mueller](http://www.shutterstock.com/gallery-679411p1.html?cr=00&pl=edit-00)/
[Shutterstock.com](http://www.shutterstock.com/editorial?cr=00&pl=edit-00)_

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