BEHIND THE SCENES : Do you know how your local charity shop works?

Welcome to Fratton’s Rowans Hospice charity shop! Let’s find out what they get up to on a daily basis and all the ways they help the community. 

Alison Canham’s archive 

Who are Rowans hospice? 

Rowans hospice is a charity based in Hampshire who provide high-quality palliative care to those with life-limiting illness. 

There are generally two types of hospice care, comfort care and end-of-life care. Rowans Hospice specialises in providing end-of-life care.

End-of-life care is generally given when death is close, usually within about six months. At this stage medical treatment is usually stopped and more attention is paid to making sure the patient is comfortable instead of actually curing them. 

They can provide in-house care or support in a home. Their services also extend to family members and visitors through bereavement support and wellbeing events.

Through donations and their profits the services they provide are completely free to those with life-limiting illnesses. 

Facts and Figures

There are more than 11,200 charity shops across the entirety of the UK, sixteen of these are the Rowans Hospices in Portsmouth and east-Hampshire.

Alison Canham’s Archive. Source : 2024 Annual accounts

In 2024, the charity received over £9,000,000 from various sources. Almost half of this income was used to directly fund in-patient care with other expenditure going to; fundraising bereavement support, at-home care and community care.

Meet the Store Manager!

Oli Gibson, Store Manager at Fratton, leads his team alongside the Assistant Manager, Tanya. Oli and Tanya are paid workers and the rest of his team work on a voluntary basis. 

Oli’s week typically includes rotating stock, sorting through donations and serving customers. 

FUN FACT : all stock on the shop floor has to be rotated every two weeks which can be a mammoth task.

Most people do not realise that the shop has a stock ordering system and so they do not rely 100% on what people are bringing in. This means that overspill can be sent back to their warehouse and they are able to order in any items which they may be lacking. 

Oli makes an order from the warehouse once a week for items that have not been donated. 

He says, “charity shops are important to our highstreets because they give chances for voluntary work,” which can help get people out of the house. 

“It gives people who are struggling a chance to treat themselves.”

The “C” word 

You probably don’t want to be talking about Christmas right now as it is only just over but we can’t forget what an important time it is for charity shops and people in need. 

Oli says that around Christmas they receive an influx of toys and games because people are generally sorting through things they don’t use anymore to make room for presents. 

He says that “funnily enough this year has not been as busy as it has been,” with donations after Christmas. 

Last year charity shops around he UK saw a record growth in sales around the Christmas period with people wanting to spend less and Christmas and “have a warm feeling that they’re contributing to a good cause.”

All Christmas stock (i.e. decorations) have to be stored in the warehouse until next year which is “the only way we can get it to work,” says Oli. 

Purbrook Hospice

”We are completely affiliated with the local hospice,” he says. This means that after essential costs everything they make goes to a hospice. 

Oli knows that some people assume that they make a profit but all of their sales money goes directly towards helping people.

All purchases made goes straight to Purbrook Hospice in Waterlooville which has a Living well Centre and a specialist in-patient unit. 

Taken from Google Maps

What can I donate?

”Some people think we can sell everything but we can’t,”

”Briefly anything that is sharp or explosive we can’t sell and we also don’t have the facilities to test anything electrical that isn’t portable.”

Oli says that they recieve more women’s clothing donations than anything else but they would always like to see more children’s toys and games.

Alison Canham’s Archive

If you have ransacked your house and cannot find anything to donate you can always just donate money here. You can feel good knowing that every penny you donate goes directly to helping people in hospice. 

How to be more charitable in your everyday life

Charity shops are great for so many reasons. They are a more sustainable way of shopping because it gives a second use to things that would otherwise end up in a landfill.

You can still find small ways to be charitable without emptying your closet such as:

• Always rounding up for charity at store checkouts - A lot of stores and restaurants give you the opportunity to round up your purchase to the nearest pound with those extra pennies going to charity. Would you really notice 40p leaving your account?

• Hand-me-downs - It is not just charity shops who are grateful for physical donations. If you have children , you can keep their good quality baby clothes and reach out to expecting friends and family. If you got a gift that is not really your vibe you can save it and re-gift. You can easily repurpose these sorts of items.

• Spread awareness - The more recognition that a charity gets, the easier it is for them to get sponsors/ donations and then help more people.