Charity Membership

Membership is open to ...

• Registered charities in England, Scotland and Wales
• Exempt charities
• Charities registered or recognised in Northern Ireland
• Charity subsidiary trading companies

... that run or are interested in running shops.

Charities outside the UK may apply to be Overseas Members (this also applies to the Channel Islands and Isle of Man).

Charity Membership applications are subject to approval by the Board of Directors.

Our Board of Directors are elected to represent the range of size and type of charity retailer, with members from large, medium and small operations, including hospices. This broad and balanced representation allows the Association to take forward issues important to the sector as a whole and to understand and respond to the differing needs of members.

By pooling expertise and joining forces to promote common interests, we help members to operate their shops as effectively as possible.

• Effective lobbying and public relations on behalf of our members on key issues for the sector, such as Gift Aid improvements, donated stock supply and re-use issues.
• Promotion of good practice and increased public support for charity retail through the Code of Charity Retailing and the Members’ Handbook.
• Consumer research and market analysis, not available anywhere else, on issues such as sales figures, rag prices, salaries and shop user behaviour.
• Discounted attendance to the two day Charity Retail Conference, Exhibition and Awards.
• Free online training and free advice lines on tax, security and legal matters for staff and volunteers.
• Interest groups, workshops and members’ meetings – valuable networking opportunities.
• Virtual Meeting Spaces on a host of sector issues, giving you access to the best charity retail brains in the country.
• Exclusive website members’ area and bulletin.
• Group discounts: Working with commercial companies, we are able to negotiate substantial discounts for charities on costs such as energy.

Our largest members look to the Association as the 'voice of the sector' best placed to lobby on key issues. We bring the sector's concerns to the attention of policy makers, the media and the public and achieve real change. Our ongoing waste campaign illustrates this approach and has already saved the sector many hundreds of thousands of pounds. We provide for our larger members:

• Monthly market analysis reports of charity retail performance
• Well-attended national charity networking opportunities

"Oxfam proudly supports the Association, which plays a central role in the development of the sector and is a key source of information and support for charity retailing."
Barney Tallack, Deputy Trading Director, Oxfam GB

The Association provides information and services centrally that smaller charity retail operations may not have the resources to provide for themselves.

• Comprehensive guidance on key legislation in the Members' Handbook
• Training opportunities
• Consumer research
• Access to legal advice
• Bursary scheme for first time Annual Conference attendees

"As a small organisation we feel supported by the Association and have access to information ... that we would not have the capacity to access ourselves."
Isobel Stefaniuk, Scheme Manager, Home-Start Teesside

We have 134 hospice members and we recognise the differing profile and needs of this part of the charity retail sector.

• We provide hospice-specific benchmarking data in our market analysis reports.
• Hospice members play an active part in our interest groups.
• There are 5 hospice representatives currently on our Board of Directors.

"As part of the hospice movement we are proud to be members of the Association as the help, support and advice given is invaluable to smaller organisations."
Dawn Charlesworth, Area Retail Manager, Barnsley Hospice

Please read carefully as invoices will be based on the following information. The appropriate fee band will be calculated based on the number of permanent shops.

Permanent shops

• Minimum fee: £200 plus VAT pa
• Charities with 0-4 shops: £200 plus VAT pa (ie. the minimum fee)
• Charities with 5-20 shops: £47.50 plus VAT per shop pa
• Charities with 21-100 shops: £40 plus VAT per shop pa
• Charities with 101+ shops: £36 plus VAT per shop pa, up to max 500 shops

Applications received after 1 September 2011 will be charged at half price, for charities with UK permanent shops only

Temporary and overseas shops

• Temporary shops are in, or expected to be in operation for less than 6 months at 1 January 2012
• Overseas membership is for charities running shops outside the UK
• Temporary and overseas shops are charged at half the rate for permanent shops plus VAT, subject to minimum fee of £200 plus VAT per annum.

Membership year: 1 April 2012 to 31 March 2013 (except for new members that join us via the '15 months for the price of 12' offer in January 2012).

Please do not send payment with your application as you will be invoiced for your membership fees. You can then pay by either cheque or BACS. The Association does not accept credit card payments.

PLEASE NOTE: A few people have experienced problems submitting this form, for which we apologise and we are working on fixing this. If you find that you cannot submit this form, an error message occurs, or you just don't want to fill in all the fields only to find that the submission fails, then please download the PDF version of the form and either fax to 020 7255 4475, or scan and email to susan@charityretail.org.uk, or post to CRA, Central House, 14 Upper Woburn Place, London WC1H 0AE.

Purchase order number
Organisation
Registered charity no. or equivalent for N. Ireland
Main contact person
Job title
Address
Address2
City
County
Postcode
Country
Tel
Fax
Email
We will communicate by email unless you indicate otherwise:    Post
Website
Invoice address (if different from above)
No. of permanent charity shops ( at 1/1/2012)
No. of temporary charity shops (at 1/1/2012)
We carry out house-to-house collections for goods	Yes      No
We operate collection banks	Yes     No
Membership categories and Code of Charity Retailing 2012-2013 The Code of Charity Retailing is the code of conduct for charity retailing in the UK. Please read the Code of Charity Retailing carefully. It is mandatory for full members (box 1, below). The Code does not apply to Overseas Members, Provisional Members or members with no shops (box 2, 3 or 4) To be awarded status as a member of the Charity Retail Association you must tick one of the four boxes below.
1. Full Membership: We undertake to abide by the Code of Charity Retailing, and apply for full membership of the Charity Retail Association.
2. Provisional Membership (new members only): We will abide by the Code of Charity Retailing within 12 months of joining the Charity Retail Association. (Provisional Membership is for one year only, when Full Membership should then be applied for).
3. No shops yet: We do not run shops, but are interested in doing so and will develop our retail activity in line with the Code of Charity Retailing.
4. Overseas Membership: For charities that run shops outside the UK, including the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man.
Member Consent: This information is a requirement under company law, and under our constitution, that member organisations give their formal consent to be a member of the Association and nominate an individual as their representative. We hereby consent to become a member of the Charity Retail Association and we nominate  (name) as our representative until further notice. For an on behalf of (charity).
Declaration: I apply for membership of the Charity Retail Association on behalf of the above named charity and consent to pay the relevant fees. I declare that I have read and understood the Code of Charity Retailing 2012-2013, I am responsible for the charity's retail operations and / or I am authorised to apply for membership on behalf of the above named charity. Click in this box to state your declaration:
Code of Charity Retailing window stickers: Full charity members receive free window stickers, 1 per shop. If you would like more please contact Paula on 020 7255 4470.
Find a Charity Shop: As part of our role to promote charity shops our website has a search engine, called Find a Charity Shop. This facility is used by the public to locate shops. If you would like your shops to be included download a form here or send a spreadsheet with details of your shops to Isabelle.
Please save or print a copy of this form for your records.

If you would rather post or fax your application, you can download a form here.

Join or renew: Download application (pdf)

Code of Charity Retailing 2012-2013 (pdf)

Charity Membership brochure 2012-2013 (pdf)

Find a Charity Shop form