For every pack of cards sold on this site, £1.20 is paid to our charity partner. We believe this is one of the best returns currently available to charities.

We know what you're thinking: " What about all those Christmas card schemes that pay 70%, 80%, or even 100% to charity?" To compare these to mycharitycards.co.uk, we need to ask two questions:

1. How much does the charity have to pay?

Whisper it, but not all of the amount "paid to charity" actually ends up going to the work of the charity. Firstly the charity usually has to pay VAT, which weighs in at a hefty 53p on a £3.50 pack. Secondly, the charity needs to cover the cost of producing the cards in the first place. Obviously, we can't tell you the exact production costs for every charity, but a good rule of thumb is around £1.20 for a standard pack of 10 cards.

Here's an example based on a Charity Christmas Card Fair paying 79% to charity. Assume you buy a pack of cards for £3.50:

So, in this theoretical example, while the charity's income is £2.76 (or 79%), the profit is just £1.03 - that's less than 30%!

Mycharitycards.co.uk is different. When you buy through this site, mycharitycards.co.uk pays all the associated costs - the charity doesn't have to pay anything. Even this website is provided free of charge! So you can be sure that every penny of our £1.20 payment goes exactly where it is needed.

2. How much risk is the charity taking?

The Charity Card Fair example above assumes that the charity manages to sell all its cards. But what if it doesn't?

Christmas card fundraising is a risky business for charities. Before a charity can sell Christmas cards in their shops or through third-party card fairs and websites, it needs to choose designs and invest money in stock. Once that money is spent, there's no way to get it back without selling the cards. And if for any reason the cards don't sell as expected, the charity can end up with a mountain of unsold stock, and thousands of pounds out of pocket.

Mycharitycards.co.uk is unique in that the charity doesn't have to buy any stock. This is great for two reasons: Firstly, it means they don't have to invest money that could be used elsewhere. Secondly, if a design doesn't sell, we're the ones left with all the unsold stock - not the charity. Not only is this a big incentive for us to produce great cards(!), it means that the charity cannot lose out. If they sell just one pack, they've made a profit!