An ethical question

Ok. Dollie Show me where you got your information from so I can see it for myself. Post me a link to your information.

Back to the OP: it would depend on how badly I needed the money. If I was broke and got lucky, 'charity would begin at home'.

Into their accounts?

i dont think its rubbish nellie ...i wasnt 'given' the information i did some investigations of my own...

Dollie I am sorry but the information you have been given about Oxfam's finances is absolute rubbish.

Just look at their accounts.

www.oxfam.org.uk/~/media/Files/OGB/What%20we%20do/About%20us/Plans%20reports%20and%20policies/documents/Annual-report-2011-12.ashx

If you scroll down to page 7 in the income and expenditure part of their report you will see how this is calculated.

2011/2012. tax year
Straight fundraising.
£282.8 million income.
costs £23.0 million that is only about 12% on admin.

Charity shops, (their "trading income") has much higher overheads as they rent shops on the high streets etc .
£89.9 Million income costs
£67.6million costs
Net income & 22.3million

Yes they do sell on clothes etc to allow projects in Africa. This is to benefit from business opportunities from reusing fabrics etc. I think they do make some charges and give "Micro business loans etc to help people learn skills with which to start there own businesses.
www.oxfam.org.uk/donate/donate-goods/what-happens-to-your-donation

JessM, some of the bigger cities, like York, had their own vintage shops.
People would go there from all over Yorkshire to get good bargains. I do not know if they still have.

Lilygran, that's the reason I give past-it stuff to Oxfam, because of the sorting centre in Bradford. Don't they also make their own recycled fabrics to make new bags, etc? I think that's Oxfam.
The better stuff I send to AgeUK and the Air Ambulance.
There has been so much adverse publicity about charities in the past few years that they have to be more open and transparent than the government.
I notice somebody mentioned what they were told twenty years ago. It's not like that now because there is so much competition between charities.

Harking back to what someone said about Oxfam decades ago
Oxfam also have a big centre in MK - vintage items get picked out and sold through their online shop.

A big van comes to our local Oxfam shop and all the others and takes away a huge quantity of stuff to a sorting and distribution centre in Bradford. There was a TV programme about that as well, quite recently. Rubbish is sent for recycling, really good stuff identified and sold individually and the rest distributed to retail shops or sold on-line. We gift aid the things we give to Oxfam and we get a regular acknowledgement of how much they have made from our donations. If you regularly give stuff to charity shops, I urge you to ask if they do a scheme. It isn't any trouble to you and it makes the things you give more valuable to the charity.

@ Dollie ...let's agree to differ. Peace.

Charities are struggling in these tough economic times. I know people are as well, but I hope that I wouldn't exploit a charity in this way.

There's no ethical dilemma buying cheap and selling high - the original buyer got lucky.

Not very moral if the charity doesn't share the windfall.

To get back to the original post 'question'.... If I bought an item cheaply at a charity shop, then was able to sell it later for a lot of money, I would keep half and send half to my favourite charity The Salvation Army.Not sure about the true ethics of this, but I would have done the legwork of selling it on so would take a cut, but I would make sure that a charity made some money as well.

@ aka...just because you dont agree with comments doesnt mean to say we are wrong ..

As I said on another thread, SCOPE, and no doubt some other charities, bar-code the goods and take donor contact details .... they send you an email/tax declaration on how much they've raised.

If anyone is concerned, they should use charities who have this system.

Dollie is not correct Petra and if you know that this is going on in these two charity shops then you ought to report it to their Head Office. That is stealing and it is certainly NOT how things were managed in the shop I volunteered at.

A van did arrive at our shop weekly to take away the 'tat' that was donated by people who couldn't be bother to take it to the local tip. And I would take with a piece of salt anything told to you by a priest (small p in my book) especially the ones in 'holy' orders 20 odd years ago .

Brenda is correct, in fact it is more common for staff to offer a bit more than the item is priced at.

You might also remember this is a public forum and there is something called libel.

You would also be amazed and the amount of stuff stolen from charity shops and the forged money we get.

Aka. Yes volunteers can have a discount when they buy BUT it's not compulsory. I buy a lot from the shop where I work buy rarely take a discount. I pay what anyone else pays.

dollie is correct. I have two friends who manage charity shops. All friends and family get ' first pickings.
As for Oxfam, I was told by a Priest over 20 years ago how bad Oxfam were.
If you could see the large van that arrives every month at the rear of our local Oxfam shop to take away dozens of sacks. These are sold on to companies in Africa.
This is the same situation ( Africa) with our local tip. This isn't hearsay, there was a programm on TV about it.
I only give 'stuff' to The Samaritans.

Ditto!

if it wasnt true i wouldnt have posted the link!!!

an urban myth

No true Dollie get your facts correct before you denigrate worthy charities.

i wont donate to oxfam as the majority of their money goes into admin not to where its needed most...

http://www.snouts-in-the-trough.com/

People that have little boutiques selling retro clothing items do this all the time. Its their business. Savvy charities like oxfam pretty good at valuing donations so that's why I give to them not others.

Well as many items as priced at about £2.50 it's hardly robbery to have 25p off and to be honest when I worked at a charity shop I took in far more of my own stuff for them to sell than I ever brought home,