A new model of charity shop that opened in south London last week intends eventually to give its customers the opportunity to choose the organisations that benefit from the takings.

The shop, called ‘Give a little’ on Streatham Hill, has been set up by former charity and social worker Caroline Watson-O’Duffy.

Until a few months ago, Watson-O’Duffy managed the children’s section at the Refugee Council.  After she was made redundant she spent a few months working in another charity shop in Balham, and while there she decided to fulfil her long-time dream to establish a “charity shop with a difference”.

“I want to cut out all the tiers of management and overhead costs associated with the bigger charity shop chains,” she told Civil Society. “Because it seems to me that what actually trickles down to the grassroots is really quite minimal.”

The store, which was opened last week by comedian and activist Mark Thomas (pictured with Watson-O'Duffy), will support charities on a three-month basis. For the first nine months the profits will fund three different small charities chosen by Watson-O’Duffy, and then in the last quarter of the year, once the enterprise is established, the local community will be invited to suggest and vote for the recipient charities.

Give a little is registered as a limited company and Watson-O’Duffy intends to apply for charitable status once she can provide evidence that the shop exists for charitable purposes.

She has been collecting items to sell in the shop for the last year and plans to work seven days a week in order to get the store up and running, with help from friends and volunteers. Films of the work carried out by the charities being helped by the shop will be played on a TV in the store.

She has set herself a target of turning over £150 a day but hopes to far exceed this.

Photos by Nathalie Heyden