Some charity shops not very profitable
Howard Lake | 2 March 2017 | News
Charity shops in Ireland can be expensive to run and return much less to charitable causes than many people think, according to a detailed report in the Irish Times.
The report found that for every €1 spent in an outlet of Age Action about €0.33 went to the work of the charity, while the figure is lower, at €0.14, for Enable Ireland, and €0.09 for Oxfam.
Age Action’s charity shop operation had a turnover of €773,000 and had a profit margin of 33%, the highest in the survey. Of the big operators in the charity shop sector, St Vincent de Paul was the most profitable in money terms with a profit of €6.8 million.
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According to the Irish Times there are 300 charity shops in Ireland with all depending on a mix of paid staff, volunteers and donated goods to trade. Expenses such as rent, rates, electricity and paid staff, however, eat into margins, the report says.
The report also drew on a report by the True and Fair Foundation in England which showed that charity shops are on average less profitable than some high streets retailers even though they have a large volunteer input and free goods.
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.