Our Hospice shops are all now accepting The Charity Shop Gift Card — the only nationally accepted, multi-retailer gift card that can be spent exclusively in charity shops. 

The Charity Shop Gift Card is a not-for-profit scheme that has been developed and launched in association with the Charity Retail Association. 

We are the first charity based in Surrey to be part of the scheme, and we’re now selling and accepting the card in all our Princess Alice Hospice shops.  

Recently, our Weybridge shop was delighted to welcome Robyn, a retail influencer on social media, who goes by the name of @secondhandsurrey on her social media channels. Robyn was there to help us promote our newly refurbished shop and to let shoppers know that we now stock the Charity Shop Gift Card – you can take a look at the video. Robyn has received Charity Gift Cards as birthday presents and says they’re a great gift to receive. Thanks Robyn!

The scheme supports the growing second-hand revolution, which is helping to reduce the amount of waste sent to landfill. It will also help national and regional charities boost their own income by giving them their first collective opportunity to tap into the £7billion-a-year gift card market.  

The Charity Retail Association has 450 members with 9,000 shops, and together they are already diverting over 300,000 tonnes of textiles away from landfill and contributing over £300million to help fund the work of their parent charities. 

As a social enterprise, a minimum of 65% of the gift card scheme’s surplus will go towards funding charity gift cards for good causes to donate to the communities they are supporting. 

The gift cards themselves are recyclable and compostable and are available from participating charities, supermarkets and other major high street retailers. They can also be purchased as e-vouchers from www.thecharityshopgiftcard.co.uk.

Duncan, the Hospice’s Head of Retail, feels that with our extensive network of charity shops supporting our vital work, it’ll be an exciting move to introduce people to the range of quality second-hand goods we have available. It’s also a brilliant way of supporting the Hospice through the year if you’re buying a gift card for friends and family. 

Alongside growing our audience and generating extra revenue, our participation in this unique scheme is an important step towards a greener planet.