’tis the season to be jolly
Being such an Ebenezer I don’t usually send Christmas cards but, in the spirit of glasnost, I thought I’d do the decent thing and chip a few quid into the coffers of my local charity shop. By buying direct I was confident the lion’s share of me hard-earned was going to the cause, but, having fallen out with Amnesty International in the past over their use of funds, it did get me thinking as to how much is actually handed over to the good causes named?
It shocked me to discover everyone’s favourite supermarket, Waitrose, is paying only 3%, 10p out of the cost price of three quid, to each of its worthy causes. For all your partnership pretensions and soft & fluffy Christmas ads, shame of you, John Lewis. Sainsbury’s and WH Smith fare marginally better with a donation of 10% and Aldi appears to lead the way in terms of supermarkets with 26% going to the Teenage Cancer Trust. Mind, everyone needs to be thankful for small monies as, now under the tutelage of Walmart, Asda see fit to offer no charity cards whatsoever.
Thankfully, the podium is populated by three sterling organisations. Bronze goes to Card Aid with a donation of 60%, Silver for a 70% pay-out by Cards for Good Causes and a worthy Gold winner, Sreepurcards, who genuinely hand-over every penny it makes. In support of destitute families and abandoned children, British Airways flies the cards into the UK free gratis, and it’s worth ferreting around sreepurcards(dot)com to find out more about their 100% record.
