Lead Times Charities Should Plan For
By The Velocity Wear Team
Production takes 10 to 15 working days from artwork approval, and delivery transit sits on top of that. For a charity working to a fixed date, sign the order off about six weeks ahead rather than three. The clock does not start when you email us. It starts when the artwork is agreed, and that approval stage is where most charity orders lose their week.
How long does a charity order actually take?
Split the timeline into four parts and it stops being vague. Quoting and garment choice takes a few days, depending on how quickly the decision can be made. Artwork setup and proofing takes two to five days, longer if the logo needs redrawing from a low-resolution file. Production is the 10 to 15 working days. Transit depends on where the boxes are going. Nothing in that list is unusual, but a trustee board that meets fortnightly can quietly add a fortnight to the approval step. Our wholesale process explains each stage in order.
When should the order be approved for a fixed date?
Take the date the kit must be in hand, not the date of the event, because a box arriving the morning of a fundraiser is a box nobody has time to unpack. Count back the transit days. Count back 15 working days, using the top of the production range rather than the bottom. Then add a week for artwork and a week of slack. That lands you around six weeks out, and six weeks is a comfortable order rather than a rushed one. Planning lead times with buffers works through the same arithmetic for commercial buyers.
What usually delays a charity order?
Approval, artwork and indecision, in that order. Charities often have more people entitled to an opinion than a company of the same size, and a logo that has drifted over the years may exist in three slightly different versions. Decide which one is correct before you ask for a quote. The second common delay is a colour that has to be matched to a brand guideline, which is worth doing but needs to happen during proofing rather than after production. Understanding lead times and delays lists the rest.
Does asking for a sample change the timeline?
Yes, and it is usually worth it. A sample costs £150, credited against the bulk order, and it adds its own production and shipping time before the main run can begin. If you want one, build it into the calendar from the start rather than deciding halfway through. For an annual campaign, the sensible pattern is to sample once in a quiet month and then reorder against the approved piece for years afterwards. The charities and fundraising page covers what we produce for this work, and summer event deadlines applies the maths to a fixed season.
Who needs to be ready before the order goes in?
Three people, usually. Whoever holds the logo files, whoever controls the budget and whoever will be at the address when the boxes arrive. Charity orders stall when the first of those is a volunteer who designed the logo four years ago and no longer answers email. Find the original artwork before you start the process, because rebuilding a logo from a website image is work that happens before the production window opens rather than inside it.
The delivery address matters more than it sounds as well. A community office that is staffed two days a week is not a reliable destination for a pallet, and a failed delivery can cost several days at exactly the point in the schedule where there is no slack left. Name a person, a full address and a day the kit can be received when the order is confirmed.
One more habit is worth building. Put the target date at the top of the order thread and keep it there, so that every message about garment colour or logo placement is read against the deadline rather than in isolation. Charities rarely miss an event because production was slow. They miss it because four small decisions each took five days, and nobody was counting.
