Cards for Good Causes at St Michael & All Angels
Each year, we sell hundreds of Christmas cards for charities, through the Cards for Good Causes shop in the Church. At least 75p in the pound goes to the charities - far more than most retailers' charity cards.
They include St Michael's own cards. The 2009 image shows a view from Acton Green of St Michael & All Angels in the snow, above right, photographed by David Beresford
In 2009 the shop was formally opened by Father Stephen Stavrou, St Michael's Assistant Curate, on Saturday November 7th, with some jazz and rock music from Son of Father, guitar duo Jago and Brent Furnas (right). It closed on Friday December 18th.
The shop also sells Advent calendars, a range of gifts and stocking-fillers, and everything needed to wrap Christmas parcels. We ask customers to bring their own shopping bag - as part of our Green Christmas campaigns, supported by St Michael's and Cards for Good Causes, we encourage recycling and the use of fewer plastic bags!
The shop is managed by Anne Mower and Gill Stevens and staffed by volunteers from the church.
In 2008 the recession meant difficult trading conditions all round. Cards for Good Causes took £6.88 million overall, a reduction of 7.3%, in 383 outlets. In 2009 the return to every charity was a minimum of 75%. This is excellent value to the charities taking part - high street shops generally only return about 4% on their charity card sales. The profits from the sale of Christmas goods fund the administration of CFGC so the more goods sold the more can be passed on to the charities.
In 2008 Macmillan Cancer Support sold the most cards, and for the first time RNLI came second and NSPCC third. In 2009 the St Michael's shop stocked cards for 34 national charities. Age Concern and Help the Aged had merged but had not yet decided on a new name and CARE had become Self Unlimited. Our local charities were Epilepsy Research UK, St Michael and All Angels Church, and Hammersmith Hospital Kidney Association. The Hammersmith now has one of, if not the, largest dialysis units in the UK.
With around 300 different designs from which to choose there was something to suit everyone.
You can link to the charities websites here:-
Action for Children (formerly NCH), Alzheimer's Society, Arthritis Research Campaign, Barnardo's, British Heart Foundation, Cancer Research UK, CARE, Cystic Fibrosis Trust, Diabetes UK, Epilepsy Action, Help the Aged, Leukaemia Research, Macmillan Cancer Support, Mencap, Mind, Multiple Sclerosis Society, National Autistic Society, NSPCC, Perennial: Gardeners' Royal Benevolent Society, Queen Elizabeth's Foundation, Royal National Institute of the Blind, Royal National Lifeboat Institution, Save the Children, Shelter, SSAFA Forces Help, The Home Farm Trust, National Deaf Children's Society, The Stroke Association, Christian Aid/Traidcraft, Multiple Sclerosis Trust, National Animal Welfare Trust, The 1959 Group of Charities, The Children's Society, Epilepsy Research UK, Unique: Rare Chromosome Disorder Support Group, National Eczema Society and St Michael & All Angels Church.