Charity Christmas cards for charities, not for profit

Just how much of the price of a charity Christmas card actually goes directly to the charity?

Well that depends on who you buy it from.

Large stores such as Harrods and Liberty of Regent Street are the worst offenders, giving just 3% of the price of the card to the charity mentioned on it. They say the percentage is negotiated between the printers and the charity and has nothing to do with them. Apparently.

Cards from other high street stores, such as Boots and Marks & Spencer, have about 10% of the price going to charity while Paperchase and Clinton Cards give up to 25%.

If you buy from the charity themselves, their net revenue on card sales can be between 35 and 80%. Oxfam say that once all costs are taken into consideration, 35% of the price is a clear profit for them.

However, selling cards through a third party such as a high street store means that the charity can benefit from increased sales due to a wider market, do not bear the production costs and do not have to worry about any leftover cards which aren't sold.

Websites which sell only charity cards from several different charities can pass on 79% of the price to the charity.

Many charities just do not have the funds to produce their own cards nor the resources to sell them.

Which is where e-cards come in.

Third party websites offering e-cards mean no production costs, little overheads and in the case of Everyclick, a whopping 121% of the price of the Christmas card goes to charity.

How do they do this?

The user makes a single donation (minimum of £5) to the charity of their choice available on the website in exchange for as many personalised Christmas e-cards they wish to send, on the date that they choose.

If they are a UK tax payer and they choose to Gift Aid their donation, then 121% of the donation will go to charity.

The charity benefits much more than from any other form of charity Christmas card and a few trees are saved in the process. Less waste goes into landfill and everyone benefits.

Over 200,000 UK charities are available to support on Everyclick, which means that even the smallest charities who would not even have thought of producing Christmas cards can actually benefit from e-cards.

We're all going to buy Christmas cards anyway this year, and with belts being tightened and Christmas budgets shortened what better way to do it than send as many cards as you like for a donation to charity. Charities will be hard hit during this recession, suffering from fewer donations as donors save their cash, just at the time when they will have more people coming to them for help.

Buy charity Christmas cards on Everyclick.com and help any one of 200,000 UK charities.