Cards for Good Causes/The 1959 Group of Charities

Who we are

Cards for Good Causes Limited (CFGC) is the trading company of The 1959 Group of Charities, Registered Charity No 249039 (The Group).  CFGC sets up  temporary outlets nationwide to sell charity Christmas cards on behalf of The Group’s twenty five member charities.  Although membership of The Group is limited to twenty five by its Constitution, the work of a large number of other charities is helped by their cards being sold on a ‘guest charity’ basis.  It is a condition of participation for both member and guest charities that proceeds from the sale of Christmas cards must go to the published aims of the charity concerned.

Cards for Good Causes' aims are simple - to offer the widest possible choice of charity cards to the public and help the participating charities to raise as much money as possible each year.

SHOPS

Shops are located in sites such as churches, libraries, community centres, museums, building societies and tourist information centres.  They usually trade for six to ten weeks running up to Christmas.  In most towns CFGC returns annually to the same place, so local people know where to find their charity Christmas cards each year.

Every CFGC shop has a manager who runs the shop and most shops have volunteer support provided by representatives of member and guest charities and other local people.  Charities may sell no more than eight designs of cards in a shop, of which an assorted pack counts as one.  No other goods are sold on behalf of individual charities.  However, where space permits, a selection of seasonal wrapping paper, tags, calendars and other Christmas goods are sold on behalf of CFGC to help offset the operating expenses.

FINANCE

CFGC pays the participating charities (or their trading subsidiaries) at least 70p in every pound (less VAT) from their card sales.  The amount retained by CFGC covers the costs of running the temporary charity Christmas card shops.  In addition to these costs, the participants have to pay for the production and distribution of their cards.

During the Christmas 2015 trading season CFGC operated over 300 outlets and were supported by 6000 volunteers.