About us

The trade association for charity shops and charity retail

We facilitate an incredible community of members that run around 9000 charity shops, both bricks & mortar and online, between them.

What the Charity Retail Association does

  • Lobbies on key issues for charity shops including Gift Aid, waste charging, sustainability and donated stock supply

  • Provides a sense of community and collaboration amongst charity retailers through a range of events

  • Promotes best practice through Primary Authority, policy guidance and practical resources

  • Increases public support for charity retail through campaigns and media work

  • Carries out and commissions sector-specific research

  • Provides charity retail-specific training and learning opportunities

Strategic Plan 2024-2027: From Strength to Strength

Our vision

A sustainable, inclusive and trusted charity retail sector, successfully supporting the causes it serves.

Our purpose

To lead and support the charity retail sector, inspiring everyone to be involved and understand its social, environmental and economic value in a changing world.

Our values

Integrity | Inclusivity | Sustainability | Support | Innovation & leadership | Collaboration

Our objectives for charity retail and CRA

Lead positive change | Accelerate growth of reuse | Unite, connect & support | Be the recognised authority for insights | Raise profile | Robust income streams

Get more detail on our strategy ...

History of the CRA

The Charity Retail Association, formerly known as the Association of Charity Shops, has its origins in the Charities Advisory Trust (CAT) in the early 1990s. CAT was, and still is, a group dedicated to improving the effectiveness of charities, especially in their trading and income generation dimensions, and was started in 1979 by Dame Hilary Blume. Dame Hilary responded to the large increase of charity shops in the 1980s and early 1990s by offering training sessions and advice, and it soon became clear that there was an appetite for a forum dedicated to discussing the issue of retail in the charitable environment.

Charity Shops Group

As a result, the Charity Shops Group was formed at an inaugural meeting at the National Council for Voluntary Organisations in 1992. CAT acted as the secretariat for the Group, which offered networking, lectures and seminars, working lunches and other ways of exchanging information. This proved so successful that a steering committee was formed, whose first chair was Colin Sandford of the British Heart Foundation. At this point the group was also starting to attract smaller charities as well as the established large retail chains.

Association of Charity Shops logos

Association of Charity Shops

In the late 1990s a national sector voice became increasingly desired, especially to deal with business rates relief and VAT. The group co-funded a consultancy project whose conclusion was that a formal association was sustainable.

In 1999 this led to a separation from CAT, and Lekha Klouda, who had been running the group for CAT, moved to become the first director of the Association of Charity Shops (ACS).

ACS’s first offices were donated by Nicholas Walter of the Rationalist Press Association - a couple of rooms off Upper Street in London’s Islington, swiftly moving to new offices on Shoreditch High Street. The first memorandum and articles of association were drawn up pro bono by Oxfam’s legal advisor Joss Saunders, and at the first AGM Colin Sandford was elected chair. One of the first services delivered to members was the quarterly market analysis of sector performance - continuing today in an almost unchanged format.

ACS became established as the leading voice of the sector. The first conference, held in 2000 at Church House in Westminster, attracted 200 delegates, and became a successful annual affair with a trade exhibition attached. 2000 also saw the first website, the first special interest group and the first corporate members. Subsequent years saw additional member services, the website members’ area, more interest groups, lobbying, advocacy and the Charity Retail Awards.

In 2004 ACS, by then with five staff and a much bigger membership, moved to share premises with the Association of Charitable Foundations in Bloomsbury, central London. The following years saw a gradual increase in the profile of ACS within government and the appointment of the first Head of Policy in 2007.

CRA logo

Charity Retail Association

After more than ten years with the organisation, having built it up to a position of stability and influence, Lekha Klouda retired, and Warren Alexander took over as Chief Executive, and a number of significant activities took place.

  • A move to new premises in Holloway Road, London (2010)

  • Strengthening of lobbying and PR activity with the appointment of Wendy Mitchell (2012)

  • Change of name to Charity Retail Association (2013)

  • Publication of “Giving Something Back”, the Demos report on the social impact of charity shops (2013)

  • Blockage of the Welsh Government’s attempt to charge business rates to charity shops (2014)

Graph showing CRA membership growth since 1999

Present day

This has brought the CRA to its current position as leader of the UK charity retail sector with over 80% of charity shops under its umbrella. Warren retired in 2015, to be followed by Martin Blackwell, Steve Biddle, and now Robin Osterley.