Oxfam putting on the glitz

The Times

11 September 2007

Back to Press coverage

YOUR local Oxfam store may once have bustled with bargain hunters searching out cheap clothing, but today only Armani will do, darling!

Threatened by competition from discount retailers and supermarkets, charities are going posh in pursuit of your dosh. According to the Charity Shops Survey 2007, featured in Charity Finance (Sept), 23 per cent of charity shop chains have opened a designer clothing outlet in the past year.

A Worcestershire charity shop has even entered an exclusive market, selling rocking horses at £1,200 each, the survey adds. The St Richard’s Hospice’s Broadway store is elegantly decorated to match its merchandise, which aims to attract visitors from the nearby Cheltenham Festival. Customers may not expect such decadence from a charity shop, the organisation’s commercial director, Dan Corns, admits. He says: “Our Broadway shop’s decor is not like other charity shops. It was just a matter of matching up the product to the buyers’ interests and trying to capture a niche market.”

Indeed, giving to charity should feel as good as splashing out on a Rolex watch or a Gucci handbag, according to a report, The 21st Century Donor, by the consultants nfpSynergy. Increases in mass affluence and wealth mean that donating is now a lifestyle choice, such as having a second home or holiday. It says that charity brands need to become more powerful and distinctive, like their commercial competitors.

Charities are advised that they need to raise their game and move away from showing “the same level of customer service and flexibility as a 1950s seaside B&B”.

Large donations are likely to rise and charities should swallow their “overwhelmingly negative (and British) response to overt displays of wealth”. Donors should be publicly named and praised – they will give even more if they are allowed to “bask in fawning gratitude”.

Back to Press coverage