Don’t be fooled by the festive card sharks
THE spirit of Christmas can get lost amid the frenzy of excessive seasonal spending – but fortunately it still extends to charity cards. More than £50million a year is raised for good causes from the sale of charity Christmas cards in Britain, according to trade body the Greeting Card Association.
Yet this still represents only a fraction of the £375 million of revenue generated from the sale of a billion Christmas cards every year.
This is primarily because the amount of money that card retailers pass on to charities varies widely. While charity shops give all their money from card sales to a chosen cause after costs, most high street shops hand over only a small slice – between ten and 20 per cent.
Dame Hilary Blume, founder of the Charities Advisory Trust, which helps good causes raise funds more effectively, says: ‘Some shops exploit Christmas goodwill by advertising how much they donate to charities at this time of year. But this is often no more than a cynical marketing ploy to fool customers into believing they are a wonderful company – when they are not.’
She adds: ‘You are far better off buying cards directly from a charity shop or by using the Card Aid scheme, where proceeds are shared out between more than 200 charities.’
Card Aid helps charities sell greetings cards through an online shop and at ten seasonal stalls around London and the South East. For every £1 customers spend on Card Aid cards, between 50p and 75p goes directly to charities. A similar amount goes towards good causes for Christmas cards bought from charity shops, such as those run by Oxfam and Scope.
Such donations compare favourably with high street shops, which must by law advertise the charity donation amount on the back of each packet of cards.
Blume says the soaring cost of postage – with first-class stamps now priced at 63p and secondclass at 54p – means that so-called e-cards are becoming increasingly popular. These are sent as attachments to emails.
Primary school teacher Jessica Kelly, 37, from Brighton, East Sussex, makes a £10 donation every year to charity the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC). In return, she downloads 30 Christmas cards to send by email to family and friends. The charity recommends a minimum donation of £5.
Jessica, married to 39-year-old decorator Martin, with whom she has two children, Amelie, four, and eight-month-old Iggy, says: ‘It may sound impersonal but this way I get to give to good causes all the money saved from not buying cards and stamps. It is better value than sending a charity’s own brand card where there are production and distribution costs plus the waste of cutting down trees.
‘It is also far more generous than a high street charity card, where the store pockets a juicy profit.’
The cards that Jessica sends contain a short animated cartoon and there is room for a personalised message. But there are also a variety of seasonal illustration cards to suit all tastes that can be sent via email.
Other charities that offer e-cards include cancer charity Marie Curie, where £1 buys one or £5 ten. Children’s charity Great Ormond Street Hospital also provides e-cards but asks for a minimum £3 donation.
Friends of the Earth offers e-cards for free but suggests a minimum £5 donation. Card Aid allows 50 personalised e-cards to be sent for £22.50 – with all money going to good causes.
Jessica adds: ‘As a family, we still enjoy the thrill of sending and receiving real Christmas cards. Amelie insists on sending her friends a real card – so we usually end up buying a bundle from an Oxfam shop while she makes others herself.’