If you're planning to send charity Christmas cards this year, be careful where you buy them from! If you purchase them from a well-known High Street name, the chances are that most of the money you spend will go to the retailer, not to the charity. Very few shops pass on more than 25 per cent of the selling price to the named charity, and the average figure is actually closer to 10 per cent. We don't yet have the figures for 2013, but the Charities Advisory Trust carried out research last year and has published its analysis along with the raw data.
The alternative is to buy from a pop-up charity christmas card shop run by Cards for Good Causes. You don't need to go far to find one, as for the 20th year in succession there will be a pop-up shop at Palmers Green United Reformed Church, which if you don't know it is located on the corner of Burford Gardens and Fox Lane (postcode N13 4AL).
In addition to selling cards from 29 national and local charities, including the North London Hospice, the shop will offer a variety of Christmas goods.
The shop will be open from 10am to 4pm on Mondays to Saturdays up until 10 December and is staffed by local volunteers. There's free on-street parking, the shop is wheelchair-accessible and the shop provides a very warming experience with good service, coffee and biscuits and often very good company too.
Cards for Good Causes pays the participating charities (or their trading subsidiaries) at least 70p in every pound from their card sales, less the VAT payable on the amount retained by CFGC. The retained amount covers CFGC’s costs of running the temporary charity Christmas card shops. In addition to these costs, the participants have to pay for the production and distribution of their cards.
