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Starting a Charity Shop
SimonX_2
Posts: 2 Newbie
I have recently started as a Trustee of a comparatively small local charity which to date has existed from one off grants. However we now need to generate modest ongoing funds (circa £50k to £100k per annum) and are wanting to consider a charity shop. Does anyone have experiecne of starting such a venture which they would be willing to share?
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The first thing to consider is that if your trading income is over 25% of yoour turnover, you will have to operate the shop through a trading company - usually a company lmited by guarantee which coventants all its profits to the charity. I would contact your local coperative development agency.£705,000 raised by client groups in the past 18 mths :beer:0
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The Association of Charity Shops at https://www.charityshops.org.uk are worth contacting. They produce a booklet that costs around £70, which might be a good investment.Who having known the diamond will concern himself with glass?
Rudyard Kipling0 -
hi
i started a branch for save the children and as a project set up a charity shop, it was not that hard, takes a bit of time but not that hard really thought it would be harder.
if you want to know how let me know and i will write a longer post for you
good luck and kind regards0 -
Its the death of the high street. Reasonable quality retailers close down and cheap and nasty charity shops move in that have an unfair commercial advatange in terms of business rates. Its a disgrace.When dealing with the CSA its important to note that it is commonly accepted as unfit for purpose, and by default this also means the staff are unfit for purpose.0
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Its a disgrace.... to raise money for good causes?£705,000 raised by client groups in the past 18 mths :beer:0
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Its a disgrace.... to raise money for good causes?
No I never said that.
I think its a disgrace that charity shops get a discount on business rates when other retailers dont. Especially now a days when so many charity shops sell 'new' products, not just second hand things, such as christmas cards etc;
They shouldnt get an unfair commercial advatange. Nothing against charity shops apart from that.When dealing with the CSA its important to note that it is commonly accepted as unfit for purpose, and by default this also means the staff are unfit for purpose.0 -
All charities are 80% exempt from rates, whether they are shops or not. This is the law - in the same way as they are exempt from Corporation Tax and Income Tax. I dont see what difference it makes whether they sell old or new items. Its all fundraising.£705,000 raised by client groups in the past 18 mths :beer:0
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Hello,
The main street in our local market town is littered with charity shops. It didn't used to be.
Perhaps the favourable treatment of such shops with regard to rates etc is squeezing out the small retailers who bring diversity and charater to market towns.
I know I hear a lot of locals grumbling about the excessive number of such charity shops so, although these same people are happy to give their unwanted goods to charity, they now feel their town would benefit from having fewer.
Cheers, Hunnie0 -
Just picking up on a theme here ...
I learnt a couple of months ago that one of our local charity shops contributed just £3 net to the charities coffers from one weeks trading. Why? Because the shop manager and the deputy manager had to be paid - which together with other overheads all but erradicated any 'profit'.
Borders Dude wrote:Its the death of the high street. Reasonable quality retailers close down and cheap and nasty charity shops move in that have an unfair commercial advatange in terms of business rates. Its a disgrace.
Sorry but I disagree. Yes, reasonable quality traders are closing down, and I agree that charity shops move in to the void so created but ... it's not the charity shops that cause the reasonable quality traders to close down but the Banks refusing to lend, the Council's high rates etc. If you took out all the charity shops now seen in many high streets your high street would have its trading heart ripped out. Already many town centres have 1 in 7 units empty and boarded up. If the charity shops were not there their would be even more empty units. Get over a critical mass of say 1 in 5 units and people stop going into the high street - it just becomes too depressing. The result is that more shops loose trade with the drop in foot flow and close and the 'death of the high street' you refer to will occur.
As for starting up another new charity shop ... does the underlying charity have the 'cute' [as in babies and children], 'how sad' [as in mistreated animals] or 'I hope I never end up there' [as in cancer, growing old, hospital] factor? If not you might find it difficult to get people to give you donations.0 -
Willman_Rodders wrote: »Just picking up on a theme here ...
I learnt a couple of months ago that one of our local charity shops contributed just £3 net to the charities coffers from one weeks trading. Why? Because the shop manager and the deputy manager had to be paid - which together with other overheads all but erradicated any 'profit'.
Well, if you can get the charity to close down that shop I will pay them A fiver a week. Pity the manager and deputy manager will be out of a job but im sure they will understand my deal would make the charity £2 a week better off.When dealing with the CSA its important to note that it is commonly accepted as unfit for purpose, and by default this also means the staff are unfit for purpose.0
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