# Charity shops – getting the balance right

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2017/02/02/charity-shops-getting-balance-right/
- Published: 2017-02-02T16:48:58+00:00
- Author: Howard Lake

**Charity shops feature on nearly every high street. They are often a source of 
significant unrestricted funding, allowing charities to continue delivering their
work. More than that, they offer a chance for charities to communicate what they
stand for, develop brand awareness and in turn can attract further support. But 
charity shops can be left to their own devices in terms of managing risks, missing
vital opportunities to improve the return from your shops.**

Most charities realise that they need to have good procedures in place to manage
people, health and safety, finance and compliance with good practice. You can put
the procedures in place and provide induction and training, but that will not necessarily
give you all the assurance you need that procedures are being followed. You need
to visit regularly to check that staff and volunteers are up to date and implementing
good practice.

## Using a shops audit checklist

Once you have your training and procedures in place, you can use a checklist to 
help structure and record visits in a systematic way. We have developed a checklist
with ‘traffic light’ ranking of red-amber-green for the answers so that retail managers
can quickly see how the shop is doing on a range of measures from the tidiness of
the stock area to a balanced till. The traffic light system is used as sometimes
an answer is not simply a yes or no. The red, amber, green ranking allows for some
judgement, together with a space for comments. The idea is that most statements 
should be given a green or amber answer and if there are 25% or more red answers,
then the shop will receive a prompt follow up visit.

## Advertisement

Even if the ranking is green or amber, there may be room for improvements. For example,
a procedure may be followed most of the time, but consistency could be improved.
The additional space for comments and actions ensure that the improvements are identified.
These are clear targets and can be followed up by the shop manager or other senior
staff.

Each charity has its own way of organising and managing its shops, so the checklist
needs to be adapted to fit your charity’s circumstances. This can be achieved fairly
easily with a review of the procedures and sitting down with managers to check that
the points are all relevant and phrased appropriately.

The checklist can be used by a supervisor responsible for several shops, or one 
shops chain introduced some independence by a form of peer review – the manager 
for one area visits the shops in their neighbouring area. The checklist is completed
with the shop manager so it can be used to develop them and improve performance.
A low score will trigger a repeat visit within a short time-frame to give the shop
manager time and clear targets to improve.

> “We have started to use the shop [audit checklist](https://www.whitehat-seo.co.uk/website-audit)
> supplied as part of the toolkit. It is simple to use and effective, enabling staff
> to identify areas for improvement. It helps to ensure review visits are targeted
> and supports improvements in both shop performance and controls.”
> **Steve Melling, Finance Director, St Peter’s Hospice**

 

![Sayer Vincent Charity Shops checklist](https://wfay6x.infiniteuploads.cloud/2017/
02/sayer-vincent-charity-shop-checklist.jpg)

Example of the first page from the Sayer Vincent charity shops checklist

 

## Getting the balance right

You do need to keep things in perspective. This approach aims to help retail managers
improve shop operations as well as manage risks. You can signpost them to advice
from the [Charity Retail Association](http://www.charityretail.org.uk) to bring 
your practices up to a high standard. And the annual charity shops survey run by
Charity Finance magazine is a useful source of benchmarking data.

You do not want shop staff and volunteers to feel that you are suspicious and constantly
checking up on them. But an open approach during the visit and using it as an opportunity
to explain why you have procedures will help to embed good practice. Having regular
visits with a structured checklist will also provide assurance to senior managers
and trustees that you have it all under control.

 

_**[Arlene Clapham](https://fundraising.co.uk/2017/02/02/charity-shops-getting-balance-right/Ar************@*************co.uk)**
is Risk and Assurance Manager at [Sayer Vincent](http://www.sayervincent.co.uk).
She is also a trustee of Off The Record, a charity providing young people with counselling
support in Croydon. _

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