Beginnings: back in 1979, courtesy of Home Office funding, Hilary Blume started the Charity Trading Advisory Group to provide impartial information on all aspects of trading and income generation for charities.As the Charities Advisory Trust, our name might have changed, but our objectives remain the same.
Aims: dedicated to finding practical methods of redressing inequalities and injustice, our method is to unleash a charity's entrepreneurial impulses and curb its excesses.
Evolution: our methods, on the other hand, have evolved considerably. We quickly moved from giving advice to setting frameworks in which charities could succeed.
Innovation: we're wedded to the idea that nagging problems are best served by innovative, pragmatic solutions.
Ethical: the generation of funds should never imperil an organization's ethical concerns.
Policy: before we embark on any initiative, we consider the venture's viability and sustainability.
Self-financing: the income we earn finances our activities. And surpluses are donated to charity.
Effective: while we've pioneered many different ways of giving, we've also helped charities raise money more efficiently.
What we've achieved
Card Aid: in 1980 we established Card Aid and revolutionized the charity Christmas card in 3 ways: (a) by providing charities with a tailor-made service plus pragmatic advice, (b) by supplying Christmas cards to companies who welcome the ability to support charity and (c) helping charities access new markets through the Card Aid chain of charity Christmas card shops, the largest in London, selling high quality cards for over 300 charities. Over the years, Card Aid has raised tens of millions.
Scrooge Awards: We have run a very successful campaign to highlight the small amount going to charity on so called charity cards sold on the high street. Commercial card companies and retailers try to cash in on the charity card market. Each year report on how little goes to charity on so called charity cards. The scrooge award was won by Harrods in 2008.
Charity Shops: on inaugurating the Charity Shops Group, to increase the profitability of the sector through shared information and effective lobbying, Hilary Blume wrote 'The Charity Shops' Handbook' to improve this important stream of income generation (the Charity Shops Group is now independently constituted as The Association of Charity Shops.
Good Gifts Catalogue: in autumn 2003, we launched the Good Gifts Catalogue, a radical concept in giving, employing charitable donations to buy imaginative gifts like 'goats for peace' and acres of threatened rain forest. The soaring success of the idea has not only generated many millions of pounds, but also a slew of imitations. However, Good Gifts remains the catalogue committed to the principle of actually buying the gifts stated, rather than using the income for general purposes.
Grant Giving: the Trust gives away over £500,000 a year, eclectically and nearly all pro-actively. We find the projects and the people and help them develop their ideas (see Guidelines for Grant Applications).
The Green Hotel: we established The Green Hotel, in Mysore, South India as a model of sustainable tourism with all profits directed towards charitable and environmental projects in India. Green in both name and operation, our hotel has been garlanded with numerous travel accolades and awards, with the most satisfying comment coming from Time magazine (Asia): "the best place in Asia to improve your karma".
Peace Oil®: Peace Oil®, a Charities Advisory Trust initiative, is produced in Israel by Jews, Arabs, Druze and Bedouin working together. The olives, grown in the foothills of the Carmel Mountains, are pressed within hours of picking to produce a prize winning extra virgin oil. By encouraging co-operation between communities and helping to market their produce, we hope that Peace Oil® will deliver economic prosperity, encouraging others to follow its example.
Slim Peace: inspired by the film, Slim Peace, we are running a project which brings together Women, separated by different ethnic and religious backgrounds, united in a common purpose: slimming. Experience has shown that, while they share problems and anxieties, jointly dieting, prejudices evaporate. Our initial programme is among Jews and Arabs in the Middle East. Using the same principle we plan to bring women together to stitch and bitch in our "Knit for Peace" project.
Museum Trading: to help museums and galleries improve their trading, we provided new outlets by opening The Museum Store in Covent Garden, with branches in Knightsbridge and Hampstead. Not only did the stores promote interest in museums but the profits were channeled into arts projects, most notably a £100,000 donation to help the British Museum work with schools. The Trust also ran the trading for the Royal Shakespeare Company and Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery, converting loss into profit. The then Office for Arts and Libraries commissioned Hilary Blume to write The Museum Trading Handbook, giving practical advice on profitable training. Eventually,having acted as a catalyst for the development of museum trading the Museum Stores' project ended.
Development from the Inside: for people interested in working in international development, we organize an annual 4-week training course at the Green Hotel titled 'Development from the Inside'. It comprises a series of seminars by leading Indian activists, 2 work placements with local NGOs and visits to development projects in the area.
Medical Student Electives: to provide medical students with a unique opportunity to undertake their elective in India, we have established a program with the ASHWINI health project in South India. Click here for more information.
Employment: people relish working at the Trust. The buzzy atmosphere in our old Hampstead mews is fascinating, friendly and inspiring. Our sizable Graduate Internship Program employs about 50-60 graduates for 3-4 months pre-Christmas, to work on Card Aid and the Good Gifts Catalogue. Work is combined with training and seminars.
Volunteering: we offer frequent opportunities for volunteering, some office-based in Hampstead, others in Card Aid shops. Many members of our permanent staff were once graduate interns or volunteers.
Aims: dedicated to finding practical methods of redressing inequalities and injustice, our method is to unleash a charity's entrepreneurial impulses and curb its excesses.
Evolution: our methods, on the other hand, have evolved considerably. We quickly moved from giving advice to setting frameworks in which charities could succeed.
Innovation: we're wedded to the idea that nagging problems are best served by innovative, pragmatic solutions.
Ethical: the generation of funds should never imperil an organization's ethical concerns.
Policy: before we embark on any initiative, we consider the venture's viability and sustainability.
Self-financing: the income we earn finances our activities. And surpluses are donated to charity.
Effective: while we've pioneered many different ways of giving, we've also helped charities raise money more efficiently.
What we've achieved
Card Aid: in 1980 we established Card Aid and revolutionized the charity Christmas card in 3 ways: (a) by providing charities with a tailor-made service plus pragmatic advice, (b) by supplying Christmas cards to companies who welcome the ability to support charity and (c) helping charities access new markets through the Card Aid chain of charity Christmas card shops, the largest in London, selling high quality cards for over 300 charities. Over the years, Card Aid has raised tens of millions.
Scrooge Awards: We have run a very successful campaign to highlight the small amount going to charity on so called charity cards sold on the high street. Commercial card companies and retailers try to cash in on the charity card market. Each year report on how little goes to charity on so called charity cards. The scrooge award was won by Harrods in 2008.
Charity Shops: on inaugurating the Charity Shops Group, to increase the profitability of the sector through shared information and effective lobbying, Hilary Blume wrote 'The Charity Shops' Handbook' to improve this important stream of income generation (the Charity Shops Group is now independently constituted as The Association of Charity Shops.
Good Gifts Catalogue: in autumn 2003, we launched the Good Gifts Catalogue, a radical concept in giving, employing charitable donations to buy imaginative gifts like 'goats for peace' and acres of threatened rain forest. The soaring success of the idea has not only generated many millions of pounds, but also a slew of imitations. However, Good Gifts remains the catalogue committed to the principle of actually buying the gifts stated, rather than using the income for general purposes.
Grant Giving: the Trust gives away over £500,000 a year, eclectically and nearly all pro-actively. We find the projects and the people and help them develop their ideas (see Guidelines for Grant Applications).
The Green Hotel: we established The Green Hotel, in Mysore, South India as a model of sustainable tourism with all profits directed towards charitable and environmental projects in India. Green in both name and operation, our hotel has been garlanded with numerous travel accolades and awards, with the most satisfying comment coming from Time magazine (Asia): "the best place in Asia to improve your karma".
Peace Oil®: Peace Oil®, a Charities Advisory Trust initiative, is produced in Israel by Jews, Arabs, Druze and Bedouin working together. The olives, grown in the foothills of the Carmel Mountains, are pressed within hours of picking to produce a prize winning extra virgin oil. By encouraging co-operation between communities and helping to market their produce, we hope that Peace Oil® will deliver economic prosperity, encouraging others to follow its example.
Slim Peace: inspired by the film, Slim Peace, we are running a project which brings together Women, separated by different ethnic and religious backgrounds, united in a common purpose: slimming. Experience has shown that, while they share problems and anxieties, jointly dieting, prejudices evaporate. Our initial programme is among Jews and Arabs in the Middle East. Using the same principle we plan to bring women together to stitch and bitch in our "Knit for Peace" project.
Museum Trading: to help museums and galleries improve their trading, we provided new outlets by opening The Museum Store in Covent Garden, with branches in Knightsbridge and Hampstead. Not only did the stores promote interest in museums but the profits were channeled into arts projects, most notably a £100,000 donation to help the British Museum work with schools. The Trust also ran the trading for the Royal Shakespeare Company and Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery, converting loss into profit. The then Office for Arts and Libraries commissioned Hilary Blume to write The Museum Trading Handbook, giving practical advice on profitable training. Eventually,having acted as a catalyst for the development of museum trading the Museum Stores' project ended.
Development from the Inside: for people interested in working in international development, we organize an annual 4-week training course at the Green Hotel titled 'Development from the Inside'. It comprises a series of seminars by leading Indian activists, 2 work placements with local NGOs and visits to development projects in the area.
Medical Student Electives: to provide medical students with a unique opportunity to undertake their elective in India, we have established a program with the ASHWINI health project in South India. Click here for more information.
Employment: people relish working at the Trust. The buzzy atmosphere in our old Hampstead mews is fascinating, friendly and inspiring. Our sizable Graduate Internship Program employs about 50-60 graduates for 3-4 months pre-Christmas, to work on Card Aid and the Good Gifts Catalogue. Work is combined with training and seminars.
Volunteering: we offer frequent opportunities for volunteering, some office-based in Hampstead, others in Card Aid shops. Many members of our permanent staff were once graduate interns or volunteers.