Subject: Starting up my own charity shop

hi,

i am getting a little bit lost as i cant seem to find much help on this particular issue and am hoping that someone here can help.

let me set the scene:

i want to set up a shop that accepts donations from the public. these donations are then sold to raise money. all the profit (after expenses) would then be given to a charity of our choice (possibly a differnent one every three months).

i know this is possible as i know a shop on my high street that does the same. i dont know the details though, and want to get this clear before setting up my business.

the charity commision has told me that i can't set up a charity with the sole purpose of rasiing money for other charities, so setting up a charity is out of the question. 

the option i'm left with is setting up a non-profit organisation that, hopefully, is eligable to tax and other relief.

i suppose what im after in posting this conversation is:

1. clarification that this is possible
2. clarification that there isnt a better way of acheiving this end.
3. clarification that a non-profit organisation can except donations and sell them.
4. clarification of what type of non-profit organisation would be best to set up in this situation(im getting a little confused by all the different types of non-profit organisations there are)
5. clarification of which relief i will be eligable for.

thanks for reading,

paul