Why should charity retailers join the CRA?

Photo: The Air Ambulance Service, West Bridgford

Encouraging charity retail growth, innovation and recognition

The past 25 years has seen a transformation in charity retail growth, innovation, recognition and reputation that we are honoured to have been part of. Join us as this remarkable journey continues. 2024 marked the 25th anniversary of the Charity Retail Association. We’re committed to ensuring the next 25 years – and beyond – are even better!

“A sustainable, inclusive and trusted charity retail sector, successfully supporting the causes it serves”

The Charity Retail Association vision

By joining the CRA you are adding strength to our collective voice of more than 460 charities of all sizes running over 9000 shops. Harness our services to drive sustainability, success and trust in our amazing sector. Help us to put charity shops first and foremost in the minds of shoppers and enable your retail operation to raise optimum funds for your parent charity.

Leadership

We aim to lead the way on issues that matter to charity retailers and be ahead of the game on innovations (such as the Charity Shop Gift Card and social return on investment) and challenges (such as helping to establish TRUST for the textile recycling industry). In 2023 we met 38 MPs, sat on 5 different Government forums, contributed to 8 consultations and held two parliamentary events. We also had the best year ever in terms of media exposure. Our influence helps to shape a successful charity trading environment on issues such as Gift Aid, Business rates, reuse and safeguarding. We have our own safeguarding scheme for charity retailers.

Our highly regarded research programme – a priority service for many members – adds not only weight and credibility to our lobbying efforts, but allows you to benchmark your retail performance. We encourage all members to take part.

We released the Charity Shop Manifesto for the general election in 2024 with an emphasis on reuse drawn from contribution by our members. Members have fed into our strategic plan for 2024-2027, giving us a strong steer on where they want us to focus our resources.

Support

To make the most of the successes that come from our lobbying and influencing, we provide a catalogue of support and resources. Our volunteering toolkit takes you comprehensively through each stage of the volunteering journey from recruitment to recognition. Your staff and volunteers have access to Retail Trust’s excellent online wellbeing provision. We have over 100 policy guidance notes on all aspects of charity trading, from sale of goods to HMRC-approved Gift Aid operations. And we encourage sharing of expertise through case studies and our online forum.

We provide low cost recruitment advertising, health & safety and fire safety resources, and your shops appear on our Find a Charity Shop online search, which attracted 900,000 hits in 2023. We have a calendar of impactful social media campaigns for our members to take part in on all the big issues – volunteering, sales, donations, sustainability, recruitment and more – always with diversity and inclusion in mind.

Community

A massive 98% of members say they would recommend CRA membership to another charity. Our packed calendar of events holds 50 opportunities to meet your fellow retailers, whether online or face to face. Expert speakers from within and outside of the sector ensure learning and development events that link you with charity retailers of every size. Take advantage of 10 different types of special interest group and special groups for hospices, small retail chains, nationals, area-specific groups and of course our flagship events – the Charity Retail Conference and the coveted Charity Retail Awards.

The Charity Retail Conference was bigger and better than ever in 2024 and our 25th anniversary celebrations come with a massive nod to you – the charity retailers that make all of this possible. Together we have put charity retail firmly on the shopping map – outdoing other high street retailers in performance and sustainability. Let’s go forward together, onwards and upwards into the next 25 years.

View our infographic of 2023-24’s achievements

Here’s everything we do!

Who can join?

• Registered charities in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland
• Exempt charities
• Charity subsidiary trading companies
• Charitable community benefit societies
• Other not-for-profit structures such as CICs, co-operatives and social enterprises
• Overseas charities

What are the fees?

The fee structure is explained here