One product sold = one to charity

[Jordan210]

Hopefully someone will know the answer to this question

For example if you sell a product to a customer with a promise of every time you purchase an item the company donates one to charity. where to they measure the sale.

For example Toms shoes are sold in many shops. Do they donate the pair of shoes when the shoe retailer buys them off them in bulk or wait until the seller as sold a pair to the customer ?

http://www.toms.co.uk

[Butter Face]

There was an interesting piece about these guys on 'Adam Ruins Everything' which basically says it's all fluff and giving shoes away to africans is actually not helping at all....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hX0g66MWbrk

[Jordan210]

Butter Face said:

There was an interesting piece about these guys on 'Adam Ruins Everything' which basically says it's all fluff and giving shoes away to africans is actually not helping at all....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hX0g66MWbrk

Thanks thats pretty interesting. Toms is not a good example.

I will change my question to

So basally if you sell a product and donate a % of that sale or so on to charity were do you measure the sale from ? The bulk deal to the retailer. So the charity has all ready received said % before the customer has even purchased the product or once the customer buys it the retailer lets you know how many have sold ?

Charity christmas cards for example

Edited by Jordan210 on Tuesday 10th November 15:39

[s2kjock]

Are charity xmas cards not normally effectively "own brand"? If so, whenever they sell one the relevant amount due to be donated to charity is accrued in the retailers' accounts as a liability.

If the retailer buys in cards that say an amount will be donated by the supplier to charity, the supplier could accrue the donation based on numbers it sells to the retailer and adjust for any returns in due course.

In theory the retailer could log sales of the card, then advise the supplier so it could accrue the exact donation. Preferable I suppose as that would seem to be the true recognition point.

[Storer]

I suspect it depends on when the manufacturer is paid for the goods. If the wholesaler pays the manufacturer, and no returns are accepted, then that should be the point at which the charitable payment/gift is made.

[anonymous-user]

s2kjock said:

Are charity xmas cards not normally effectively "own brand"? If so, whenever they sell one the relevant amount due to be donated to charity is accrued in the retailers' accounts as a liability.

If the retailer buys in cards that say an amount will be donated by the supplier to charity, the supplier could accrue the donation based on numbers it sells to the retailer and adjust for any returns in due course.

In theory the retailer could log sales of the card, then advise the supplier so it could accrue the exact donation. Preferable I suppose as that would seem to be the true recognition point.

In this case, there are two main methods.

If you buy a 'charity' card in say John Lewis, then your example will apply. A % of each pack sold (-any returns) will be donated by the charity, usually by the publisher.

Charity cards bought in a charity shop will normally have been bought and paid for by the charity., in the way that any other shop sources products. Any profit made on the sale of these cards is kept by the charity.

The latter carries a risk for the charity (of unsold stock), but much higher reward. There are often complaints that 'charity' cards sold in non-charity shops offer pathetically small charity donations, but the truth is that the level of donation simply reflects the fact that it's the publisher and to a lesser extent the shop that is taking the risk, for the charity it is money for nothing (except allowing their logo to be printed on the cards).