Everyone has heard of Oxfam. As one of the world’s leading humanitarian aid agencies the charity has an international reputation for excellence and has, in the course of its 68 year history, become a national institution. Its work divides into three major sectors: campaigning, development work and emergency response. The latter has been the organisation’s principle concern in recent weeks, with the focus on the earthquake-stricken Haiti and its displaced 85,000 people.
With Oxfam operating on such an international scale it is easy to forget its original, local roots – it was in Oxford that Oxfam was founded and its connection to the city remains significant. Their national headquarters are based in Cowley and the first Oxfam charity shop is still operating on Broad Street today.
The committee was formed in 1942 in response to the developing aid crisis in Greece, which was suffering famine as a result of Allied naval blockades. The country was in urgent need of assistance and by 1960 the charity had developed into a major international non-governmental aid agency. The number of Oxfam related shops in Oxford is impressive, with establishments to be found on Turl Street, Banbury Road and in Cowley to name but a few. However there is one shop that stands out from the rest – the Oxfam Book Shop. Nestled on the corner of Pusey Street and on St Giles, the bookshop is the second most profitable Oxfam store in the country; it has on its own generated £4.6 million for the organisation. For its twenty-first anniversary last year Phillip Pullman worked a shift as a volunteer.
Chatting to the manager of the store provides a great insight into the mentality of Oxfam that sets it apart from many similar charities. Their aim is to be fair to the customer, but to remain committed to their humanitarian goals: do not go there to get a bargain, go there to find value for money. The shop operates in an extremely professional manner, confirming the widely held view that charities need to work as a business in order to achieve sustained results.
There is a worrying fact about charity shops, however. While the shops may be a very useful source of income for charities, purchases are an inefficient way of donating your money- don’t let yourself soak in that charitable glow just yet because on average it is only 27p of every pound spent that makes any difference, according to a survey published last year by the magazine NGO Finance.
The rest of the money is soaked up in the expenses of running the shops – so charity shops need to maximize what they sell. It’s not easy task: Help the Aged, which has 374 shops, pays councils £300,000 a year to dispose of goods left by the public that are impossible to sell. The Children’s Society spends more than £30,000 each year for the same reason.
Oxfam, in fact all charity shops, want to change the perception of trawling through broken children’s toys and lumpy, Marks and Spencer jumpers, only to find, ah… nothing that you really want. Last year, it launched Sustain Me, a campaign supported by celebrities as diverse as Jourdan Dunn, Jaime Winstone, Cat Deeley and Honor Blackman. Photographed in Oxfam finery (although, one doesn’t imagine that they did the trawling themselves…) it was all about persuading the public that charity shopping was cool, not just for those with a lot of time on their hands and have no qualms about the colour beige.
If you think about it, charity shopping is just quick vintage – and the stock, although sometimes slightly suspect, is not all that different from the vintage shops that litter the Cowley Road, the only difference is in the mark up. The Oxfam on the Broad regularly sells next to new white tie ball gowns – you don’t even have to want to do your bit for charity to buy one.
Recently, as more and more charity shops have capitalized on the fashionista’s clamor for chic vintage wear, charity shops have become big business. The need for better business mentality on the side of charity shops was highlighted in a programme for the BBC last year, where Mary Portas – of Topshop revamp fame- was called in to bring a much needed sparkle to a Save the Children shop, and after seeing the success of the transformation many shops are now following suit.
The annual income of the largest five chains of shops alone is now in the order of £150 million. Many of the big chains are using paid staff to work alongside the volunteers, creating a rather uncharitable hierarchy- but one that only works to the benefit of the shop. It seems, capitalism and charity go rather comfortably in hand.
The new approach has upset some local shops, and with the high street struggling as it is, there have been complaints of unfair competition since charity shops enjoy a rather hefty discount on business rates – generally around 80% – and may even, depending on the local authority, not pay rates at all.
Oxfam still benefits significantly from its connection with Oxford University, and why shouldn’t it? Just because we may have forgotten its connections with the city, it doesn’t mean the University has. College libraries often contact the store to offer their services and boxes of unwanted books. With donations often including extremely rare items, a team of experts are consulted by staff to price books, so that their true value is reflected. Several top university professors are included on their contact list, while the most profitable book ever sold by the shop was a first edition of Graham Greene’s ‘Rumour at Nightfall’, auctioned for £15,000 in March 2008.
Although Oxfam is undeniably an old institution it is by no means stuck in its ways. Banish the image of dusty, cluttered piles of bric-a-brac; this is a smooth, twenty-first century operation. Their latest development is the establishment of an online Oxfam bookstore, a rival to Amazon and similar companies.
Oxfam is an organisation the university and city in which it was formed in should rightly be proud of. Perhaps one explanation for the surprise many feel on discovering their connection is this – Oxfam has become so famous in its own right that it has transcended the fame usually associated with the university. It is not by any means defined by this relationship, operating on such a huge global scale. Having grown from a small meeting in a local church to the international juggernaut of humanitarian relief that it is today, Oxfam is a reminder of what can be achieved with dedication, organisation and the determination to make a difference using the undeniable opportunities and talents that we all have.
