Who Are We
- Where we came from,
- and how we started...
In 1965 a small group of friends, led by Peggy Percival, the wife of the City Architect at that time, negotiated the use of part of one of the Norwich city centre shops in order to sell Christmas Cards in support of their favourite charities. That first year about £2000 was raised and our organisation was born. Since then this group of friends and helpers has enlarged to almost a hundred but the aim is still the same - to raise money for our chosen charities. We lead an extremely precarious existence in that, as we function for less than three months each year, we have no permanent residence and each season began with the search for accommodation. For the last three years through the generosity of St Peter Mancroft Church we have had a space in this beautiful centrally situated building. There are many tales about the funny little shops from which we have sold our cards - one on Timberhill had no loo so a deal was struck with the local pub - we used their loo, buying our coffees there in exchange. Another, also on Timberhill, had a kettle which was situated directly under the fire alarm - with inevitable results. We sell Christmas Cards, calendars, diaries, gift wrap, candles and similar, on behalf of around 30 charities. Some are International, like Save the Children, some are national, such as Amnesty while others are local, like the Norwich Foodbank and the Friends of Norwich Cathedral. All our charities are people-related. It has always been our aim to give every penny taken back to these charities which we are able to do by keeping our overheads as low as possible. Over the years the operation of the group has depended on committed charity friends of representatives, shop team leaders and volunteers and a small committee. All our team members are volunteers meaning we employ no salaried staff; team members donate gifts to make a Christmas Hamper which is raffled to raise enough money to pay the running costs. We now take cheques or credit/debit cards which can be contact-less. The fun and friendship generated lasts throughout the year, and we are so proud that our efforts have to date raised over £1.7 million!
Spring 2023
Transparency:
Our accounts for 2022-2023
Financial Distribution for Christmas 2023:
WEEKLY TILL SALES COMPARISON, 2023-2022:
Did you know...
Every penny goes to the Charities
The shop is entirely run by volunteers - an army of them!
Everything else is covered by donations or fund raising - otherwise that would take from the money we donate to the charities.
We rely on being offered a shop (or church!) for free in central Norwich.
0% comes out of the running costs for organising it or setting it up.
We even pay the credit/debit machine card fees out of separately raised funds.
