Why we’re changing our charity donations to 1% of our sales

The 10% profits model

When we founded the Edgard & Cooper Foundation, we were keen to make a significant donation to charity, and decided to give 10% of our profits to support important projects. Just to be clear - profits are what’s left over after all business expenses are taken care of. So, for a business like ours that includes everything from salaries, rent, advertising, stock, expenses... the list goes on. A young, fast-growing company like ours often has high expenses because we are investing in growing our business. That means we don’t always make a profit. And, because it’s difficult to predict what our profits will be each year, we don’t always know what we are able to donate. This can be difficult for the Foundation and the charities it supports: unpredictable income makes it harder to plan for the future. 

Changing to 1% of our total sales

When we refer to ‘our sales’, this is all the money that the company makes before expenses are deducted. It can also be referred to as turnover or revenue. By moving from a profit-based donation to a sales-based donation, we are fully committing to guarantee a substantial donation every year. No matter how much we spend on growing our business, we’ll still be able to give a reliable, generous donation to charity. At this stage in our journey, 1% of our total sales is usually more generous than 10% of profits*. Think of it like this: we’re giving a smaller percentage of a much bigger pie. So it doesn’t mean we give less money. In fact, we’ll give at least the same as before and sometimes even more. 

A commitment to giving back 

Our new way of donating will mean the Foundation can plan better. This means they’ll be moving towards their mission faster - to end the suffering of dogs and cats both now and for future generations. At Edgard & Cooper we believe in transparency and accountability, taking the time to carefully review our charitable donations is part of a wider charity strategy which you can read more about here. *We want our charity work to have the best impact possible. If in the future, 10% of profits was more than 1% of sales, we commit to give the greater amount.