Online charity Christmas card venture to donate 51% of cover price
Howard Lake | 8 July 2007 | News
A new online charity Christmas card venture launching at the Institute of Fundraising Convention today (stand 20) is committed to passing 51% of the sale price to charities, compared to a typical 10%, or less, from cards sold through high street retailers.
Studio51 lets charity supporters buy their Christmas cards online, complete with the charity’s message. The venture has been set up by greetings card specialist Alan Hawkes, who ran greetings card company Paper Rose until it was sold earlier this year, and is a former vice-president of the Greetings Card Association.
With 25 years’ experience in the greetings card industry, Hawkes explained the need for the new service. He said of the industry: “They’re just not giving enough. Charities get around £10-15 million a year and that is just plain disappointing when more than £350 million a year is currently spent on charity Christmas cards in the UK. But the internet has now made it possible to re-write the rules and direct the funds directly to the charity.”
Hawkes believes that Studio51 will be particularly attractive to any charity that, for whatever reason, does not have access to its own Christmas card retailing operation. Equally it could fit well with charities that have existing Christmas card arrangements.
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He has ensured that the money raised will be delivered to the charities: 51% of the sale price is paid into a protected trust account, so this money is not held by Studio51. The trust account pays accrued income to the charity every three months.
He added: “With the advent of Internet shopping and Studio51, I feel I can do what I wasn’t able to do throughout the past 25 years – and that’s make sure charities receive a bigger slice of sales of charity Christmas cards.”
The Studio51 website goes live on 1 August 2007. The company has already applied for corporate membership of the Institute of Fundraising and membership of the Fundraising Standards Board.
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.