Hi, Ive just opened my shop on Folksy and am looking for some advice/ideas. I only have a dozen or so listings so far but hope to upload more in the coming days.
Having given up a full time job, I am now a full time carer for my elderly father, a twice stroke survivor. All monies from my sales go to The Stroke Association to support other stroke survivors. Ive tried to emphasise my focus on my site. Just wondered if there were any specific areas on Folksy for charity driven sales etc. Im new to selling on line so all advice is appreciated and well recieved. Thank you
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One thing I really like about Folksy is the Charity section that appears on their front page. If you donate all or part of your proceeds to charity, you can put " charity donation " as one of your tags and the item will appear in that section, at random.
Generally I have found people have mixed reactions to sellers who donate to charity. Some are very supportive, others are sceptical and even quite abusive ( not had this on Folksy though!) saying that people only say they are donating to try and get sympathy sales but never actually send the money on.
But I decided to rise above all that, I do donate all myprofits to charity, because, like you, that is the whole reason I am making and selling. So I state that on my items. But otherwise I try not to go on and make a big thing of it! Well, other than on this post, because that is the subject!
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I also make regular donations to charity with proceeds from sales but as Liz said people can be odd about it. There are some sites in Facebook which will decline your message if it says you’re donating to charity. I’d just keep it low key!
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Thank you for that. Its interesting how people view charity. I understand their scepticism.
Thanks for your advice. I didnt know about the charity section on the front page. Its all a big learning curve. X
I do not do that with my products here, but I have given quite a few of my knitwear to charities anonymously as a member of the public. In the future I might think about making & selling things for charities here on Folksy…
I’ve just started doing charity donations on my dog makes, donating to the Silver Fox Rescue which I give to myself anyway. I’ve had 1 sale so far. However, one aspect to be aware of - if you’re giving to charity, then other charities can see you do this and may be more inclined to ask you to support their charity (though I’ve been approached before I did this anyway). And it may not be something you want to support. I was asked in this instance but it was something I was comfortable with and I agreed - and I get some advertising in the process.
Update. I don’t know that saying that I will add £5 per sale of any item from my dog jewellery collection, to the Silver Fox Rescue (rehoming abuse dogs from the UK, Eastern Europe and China, many of them poodle and chihuahua types), has made any difference. However, I sold 3 items this year, so I sent the £15, along with my own donation, to the charity as a Christmas present. I will add more dog items to my shop soon and will continue to do this every year and donate the proceeds at the end of each year - unless I get alot more, in which case I will do it sooner!
According to work for good, businesses wishing to donate to charity need a contract which can be costly. You can donate to a lot of charities through work for good.
The charity I would wish to donate to is my local air ambulance but they aren’t on work for good. You can ‘nominate’ a charity to join but so far, they haven’t, so any donations I make are personal and not business related.
I do similar with my paw print items, £10 from every sale goes to the Evesham greyhound and lurcher rescue, where my current rescue dogs came from.
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Wasn’t aware of that. Silver Fox Rescue isn’t on their list. So it’s not legal for me to do this then? If not then I suppose I’ll just have to do my usual donations from myself and cancel what I do on Folksy - that would be a shame.
I haven’t looked into it any more than their website to be honest but reading what it says, you need a contract.
I’ve been in touch with Folksy Support about this. They’ve looked into it and this is the reply.
"After further research, it does appear that if you’re selling an item that specifies an amount goes to a specific charity, that a commercial participation agreement with the charity is required - Guidance for charitable institutions working with commercial participators | Fundraising Regulator
This is to help with transparency (to ensure the advertised money does go to the charity) and to give the charity some control about what’s associated with their name (for example they may not want unsafe products to promote they’re raising money for their charity).
It does not appear to be required if there is no association to a specific charity, for example if you donate from the money you make selling but don’t mention that you will, or if you don’t name a specific charity.
We’ll look into updating our guidance on selling items with proceeds to charity. "
I’ve now removed all reference to charity donations on my listings for the timebeing.
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