Consumer watchdog Which? has revealed how much mainstream retailers are giving to charity from their Christmas card sales this year
Newsagent WH Smith is set to donate 100% of the profits from one of its Christmas card collections to Children In Need, making it the most generous mainstream retailer this Christmas.
Consumer watchdog Which? has published a league table of charity Christmas card retailers which highlight how much, or how little, of the profits go to charity.
It has found that some retailers donate as little as 7% of profits from cards to good causes, while the average donation is around 20%.
Our investigation into 13 major retailers has found that some charities only get around 10p per pack,
While the train-station newsagent tops the table for its Children in Need cards other Christmas card ranges in the stores will see 20% going to Help for Heroes or just 10% to the Alzhiemer’s Society, Royal Voluntary Servcie, Place2Be or Buglife.
Discount supermarket Aldi and department store John Lewis come joint second in the table, with both donating 25% of Christmas card profits to their charities of choice.
Bottom of the table is the Co-op, which gives just 10p from its £1.50 cards to food poverty charity FareShare, equivalent of just 7% per pack.
Lidl is also at the bottom end of the table, with the equivalent of 8% (10p) of the £1.19 pack price going to child cancer charity CLIC Sargent.
“Our investigation into 13 major retailers has found that some charities only get around 10p per pack,” said a spokesperson for the consumer charity.
“As for the other major retailers, Asda told us that it is not selling charity Christmas cards this year. Morrisons is selling cards for Sue Ryder, but will donate £50,000 to the charity regardless of how many packs are sold.
“Tesco is also selling a range of charity cards and donating a total of £300,000 to Diabetes UK and the British Heart Foundation.”
Many charities sell their own Christmas cards online and from their charity shops, where 100% of the profits go to the cause. For exampl,e the Shelter Shop sells a wide range of cards, some of which feature Edinburgh.
