Friday, February 03, 2006

The more you donate, the less likely it will be accepted?

How hard is it to donate £5 million to charity? We are now four weeks into the new project and the operational side is starting to come together. We have some technical support, some celebrity support, some media support, but the most difficult people to persuade are the charities that will ultimately benefit.

You see, in order to raise the £5 million (yes, it’s increased again) we are staging a large international event that will cost around £200k in overheads. So that we can donate every penny of every donation to the five charities, we need corporate sponsorship to cover those running costs. That’s the problem. Every charity has a list of companies they won’t work with, because they are ethically apposed to them. So a list of blacklisted companies x 5 is quite a big list. Until we can persuade each charity that an objectionable businesses is not connected with the project they will not endorse us.

This was not on my list of potential problems when I started on this journey, but hey, live and learn.

Thursday, February 02, 2006

January Retail Sales : was I right? Of course!

Early indications are that UK retail sales slumped in January. Figures from the Confederation of British Industry confirm that spending was down much further than has been predicted. It’s a pattern I predicted, and have seen with my own shops. The general consensus however remains positive, although it is probably the usual ‘talk down the problems and nobody dare say the world reces***n’.

John Longworth, Asda's director and chairman of the CBI's DTS panel, said, "As retailers had feared the spending surge seen in December was short-lived and not sustained into the New Year. However, sales in January were the least negative for eight months, with the exception of Christmas. Looking ahead, expectations for growth are the strongest since May but sales remain heavily dependent on price discounts and promotions."

More here