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Clothing collections :
Clothes Aid
Headings on this page :
The company
Website: www.clothesaid.co.uk
Full name: Clothes Aid (Collections) Ltd
Company no: 04159246
Address: Essex Road, London N1
Established: Around 1997
Clothes Aid is the largest and most well-known clothing collector in the UK.
Their website states :
"Clothes Aid, the UK's leading clothing collection agent - fundraising for charity"
They go on to say :
"We collect clothing donations on behalf of our charity partners all across the UK. Our experience and hard work has helped us to raise over £1.8 million for UK charities and NHS trusts."
They're not a charity. They're a commercial company which works with registered charities and NHS Trusts as a commercial partner.
We understand that their collectors on the ground operate as
franchises, self-employed.
The company is an Associate Member of the
British Franchise Association (BFA).
The entry for Clothes Aid on the BFA website describes them as :
"Professional fundraising organisation and commercial collection of charity clothing donations on behalf of various UK charities."
Well-known businesses which are run as franchises include ANC (couriers), Cash Converters, McDonalds (restaurants) and Prontaprint (print shops).
Partner charities
As at October 2008, their partner charities comprise :
- Make-A-Wish Foundation UK
- Barnardo's [children's charity]
- WellChild
- Birmingham Children's Hospital Charity (BCH)
- Noah's Ark Appeal
- Papworth Hospital Charity
- Yorkshire Cancer Centre.
Note: When Clothes Aid started, their first partner charity was
Great Ormond Street Hospital for Sick Children in London (known as 'GOSHCC').
However, from Spring 2008 they're no longer the official clothing
collector for the hospital - see the
.
Proceeds - In some cases, the partner charity receives 75% of the proceeds raised by Clothes Aid. With the other cases they receive 90%.
Clothing collections and licensing
Clothes Aid have a reputation for keeping within the law (eg obtaining collection licences from local authorities). They work closely with the government regulators.
All Clothes Aid collection vans are marked with the Clothes Aid logo, their collectors wear a uniform and they carry identification.
Thefts - Clothes Aid experiences serious problems with thefts of their
filled bags from doorsteps and streets. For example see the article of
15 Aug 2006 on the
LetsRecycle.com
website. Often the police have been unwilling to prosecute the thieves. The
company has its own collection protection team (including motorcycle patrols) -
which monitors collections and attempts to reduce thefts. See the page on
Thefts of collection bags.
Clothes Aid's website includes a useful section entitled "Collection protection and 'bogus collectors'. It gives details of how Clothes Aid are working with government regulators in a public awareness initiative (launched December 2007) "to help people check whether a clothing collection is for charity or not".
Central to this initiative was the production by central government of a two-page leaflet entitled "Give with care". We understand that Clothes Aid have distributed around 500,000 of these to householders.
We've seen programmes on television (eg 'Inside Out' on BBC1, 24 Sept 2008) which look at bogus (and genuine) clothing collections. The programmes have included interviews with Clothes Aid staff, in which they explain how a reputable collector operates.
Other points
Extract from an agenda item by Licensing Panel 1 of East Northamptonshire Council in 2006 :
'Many Licensing Authorities have issued licences to the company. However, the company were prosecuted by Brentwood, Braintree and Salisbury regarding two unlicensed collections and an incorrect message on a leaflet in 1999 resulting in fines totalling £1850. All three Authorities now issue licences following improvements and alterations made by the company.'
Don't confuse Clothes Aid with 'Christian Aid' and 'Action Aid' - they're both registered charities.
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