What is it with charitable organizations these days?

Poststructural Pub
1

For years I have donated outgrown or unused clothing to one of two agencies: Goodwill or The Salvation Army. Always in the past I’ve just called and scheduled a pickup, left my stuff neatly folded in bags in my driveway on the scheduled day, and that was the end of it.

I’ve been doing my spring cleaning, so I called The Salvation Army to pick up some clothing, only to be told “I’m sorry…we don’t do pickups in your area.” I got the same thing from Goodwill. In desperation, I called a local aid agency (hoping that, if nothing else, I could find something close enough to DRIVE my donation to), but they’re only taking food, and are only open on certain days of the week. I called my church (which has a clothes closet), but they really only have need for men’s clothing, and most of what I have is women’s and children’s stuff. I called the local family shelter, but they don’t have a place to store stuff, so they really can’t take donations.

There is a Goodwill dropoff a few towns away, but I’ve seen those places, and they’re rarely serviced. Stuff left there will likely be damaged by rain, and anything halfway decent stolen, before it makes it to Goodwill.

So now I have several bags of perfectly serviceable clothing that will likely end up in the dump because I have no place to store it and no charitable agency seems to want it. Is that pathetic, or what?

I was brought up to give to others, and I believe strongly in that, but what in the hell do you do when none of the aid agencies out there seems willing or able to deal with a donation? Heck, three years ago we donated a CAR to Salvation Army, and let me tell you, they had no trouble making it out here to pick THAT up! I swear, I’m tempted to drag the lot of it downtown, toss it out to the “career homeless” on Pacific and say “take what you want and throw away what you don’t.”

Grrrr…can you tell I’m peeved?

Redwolf

2

We’ve got a couple organizations that call us on a regular basis to see if we have stuff they can pick up–The Purple Heart is one of those. We are also very near a manned Salvation Army store where I can drop stuff off, which is what I usually do. There is also a large yellow Planet Aid bin at a gas-station I often go to, so there’s another option. I guess it just depends on the area.

3

Odd. Don’t know about Goodwill, but I wonder if the little item below could possibly factor into the Salvation Army’s new complacency:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4006823/
That’s billion with a B, y’all.

Goodwill had an attended drop-off station in my local city for a while; I used to drop stuff off there often until – someone burned it down. (at night; no one there, thank goodness). Unbelievable.

4

I’ll probably look like I am trying to be controversial, but here goes.


Do people need more clothes? I mean years ago clothing was expensive and people use to mend clothing and hand it down to others in the family. Now even modest income people go through a wardrobe without it hurting them economically. Now I know that some people may need such things, but would these places have the resources to find the so few people that need these clothes? (I still mend my own clothing, so I am not trying to say that this is everyone, and not trying to be a snob. This is only what I personally perceive.)

I know part of the mission of places like goodwill is to provide jobs sorting and selling used merchandise, and I knew people that worked at these centers and were provided work because of their mission. A lot of the clothing that they processed went over seas in bails, but it still seemed that there was a never-ending supply of clothing and moor work then they could do the way it is.

Food deteriorates and is not saved in the same way clothing so their will be a continued need, yet it seems that we throw away as much as we consume and have known people that lived off of bakery throw outs for months.

Looking at theft and pawning of things like televisions, it seems that there is a saturation of those to, no one wants them or will buy/sell/steel them because there are so many of them. My last TV was given to me by someone that had bought something bigger/better.

We buy without consuming and saturate the market. That is my thought.




(I thought this thread was going to be about the heads of these places get paid way to much for a “charity”. Glad I was mistaken.)

5

Do people need more clothes?

Well, sometimes they do! :wink: If you are homeless or have escaped from a dangerous home situation, you often have only the clothes you’re wearing. It’s not a question of having MORE clothes, but of having a change of clothes, or–in the case of many hospitalized homeless veterans–of having something to wear at all when they are discharged.

Veterans’ aid agencies often take donations of serviceable clothing for homeless veterans.

VA hospitals usually accept donations of clothing, both men’s and women’s, for veteran patients. They probably would not be able to pick it up, though.

In my area, the abused women’s shelter is always happy to have good women’s and children’s clothing, shoes, toiletries, and things like hair dryers. The homeless shelter here will take literally anything by way of clothing. They’ll even take old bath towels, and they’re thrilled to get them.

6

My area’s been hit hard by many factory closings; the big Goodwill store in town, which sells mostly clothing, usually has plenty of cars in the parking lot.

I like Peggy’s suggestion about donating clothing to the V.A. Good idea.

7

The big charitable institution here is Deseret Industries - run by the LDS Church. They send tons of clothing overseas - I don’t think there could ever be enough. I don’t give good used clothing to them intending it to be used by people here in the U.S. as much as I do assuming it will go overseas.

A note, though: Some years ago a friend at work asked us all if we could donate good used clothing to a refugee family they were trying to help. I took in a box of some of the things I no longer wore, but were still in very good condition. He came back the next day and asked if it would be all right if his wife kept some of those things for herself. They were struggling and she had liked some of the clothing. You never know who could use the help.

Susan

8

In my small city we have several second-hand stores, including Goodwill, that will accept used clothing. I do have to drive there to make my donation of whatever I have to part with.

With regard to who shops in these stores, the answer is that many people trying to live on jobs in the service industry simply cannot afford to buy clothes for their family at the shopping mall. Whenever I go to the Goodwill store, there are always numerous cars in the parking lot. And on Wednesday, senior citizen day, the parking lot will be crowded.

For myself, I like to purchase used clothing. I can make my limited dollars go a long way, and if you are a saavy shopper, you can find some great buys. For years all of the clothes that I wore to my job at the bank were clothes that I had purchase second hand. People would often compliment me about an item of clothing that I was wearing, such as an expensive looking sport jacket. I would go ahead and tell them that I bought it at the Rescue Mission store for $2. Then we both had a laugh.

9

It is a sign of the times, of the abundance in certain communities. It is also a business decision, it might not be worth it to send a truck out for $50 (or whatever amount) worth of stuff. In my town, the charities are extremely picky about furniture. Only practically brand new furniture will be accepted. If it looks out of style or has a stain or flaw, they don’t want it. Again it is a business decision.

I buy a lot of stuff at Goodwill, Salvation Army and similar stores so I know the merchandise well. Some stuff goes begging. I am extremely picky about what I will buy. There are certain items that get snatched up the day they come in, but that is the exception. Goodwill and Salvation Army have edged up their prices, and retail clothing prices have edged down, so that the bargains are not so great anymore unless the item is a high-end name brand.

  • Bill
10

We have a place here called the “Rescue Mission” that usually takes clothing. But lately, it seems they’ve had a huge glut of it, and they just won’t accept any more. They have more than they know what to do with and the vast majority of it ends up in the dump anyway. It’s a shame. They also will not pick up if it’s clothing for the same reason. But apparently they will if it’s furniture or a TV or something like that.

11

When I was moving, I had some NICE stuff that I just didn’t feel like moving. This was in fall 2000. I drove to the local Goodwill and was turned away, with a car full of electronics and other stuff. I did find a Salvation Army that would take it.

12

Although they haven’t called me in a while, so I don’t know if they are still doing it, Easter Seals used to come by my place on a fairly regular basis and do pick ups of clothes and other household items.

In defense of shelters, I work at a homeless shelter once a week, and it gets WAY more clothes than it can manage. Not that people don’t need them - when donations come in, they are definitely gone through and needed clothes are very appreciated. But it’s a small shelter, and there are only so many families there with only so many people in so many sizes, and so lots of the stuff can’t be used. So the shelter manager ends up making runs to Goodwill every few months to get rid of the the excess. If people call ahead and say they want to bring out clothes, they are politely turned down - but many people don’t call ahead, and the shelter doesn’t turn away those donations.

Another place to think of with clothes is local nursing homes. In many cases, residents don’t have family who provide them with enough decent clothes to wear - they either can’t (there may be no family) or don’t (for whatever reason). Many nursing homes welcome donations of clothes for their less fortunate residents. But they may only want certain types of clothes - slip-on elastic waist pants and loose fitting shirts, for example. Or may be looking for certain sizes. But it doesn’t hurt to try there.

13

I think the combination of Walmart and chinese slave labour has done in the thrift-shop business.

14

You can add IKEA to the list. A lot of used furniture used to end up with college kids or young people furnishing their first place. Now most young people would prefer IKEA or similar stuff at a bit more money to used items with a dated look.

Even with the influx of cheap clothes, cheap electronics, cheap furniture, thrift stores still do a LOT of business. I heard a rumor that one local thrift store manager makes a six-figure salary. It is a big store with probably 20+ people on staff. If I had to guess, I would estimate annual sales at $5 million per year for that store. Even with all that, I think most customer/donors would be upset if the rumor about the manager’s salary turned out to be fact.

  • Bill
15

A few years ago when my mother died I had the same problem. If anything, it was worse. Naturally, since I live in another state and have my own things, a lot of very good stuff was available and I had no inclination to hold a garage sale. Right from the outset, the Salvation Army started talking to me not only as though they were doing me the favour but as though I were a freeloader. I got told curtly exactly what they didn’t want even before I’d offered it. The Smith Family were just the same.

Gee, I didn’t want a medal. All I wanted was politeness and the basic casual thanks you get for picking up a pen someone has dropped.

Finally I placed most things with St. Vincent de Paul. They had that old fashioned amateurishness I like about charitable opportunity shops. They were a complete shambles and I ended up driving most stuff to them although they did pick up the washing machine. They were friendly at all times, even when saying no to something. The odd thing was that stuff that nobody wanted was snapped up by my removalist who collects for charity.

16

Probably not, but some people need clothes. Homeless, etc., for instance. Many homeless are simply out of work folks who are forced from their homes because of financial difficulties. It’s very hard for those folks to go on job interviews without decent clothes. Here in Hartford, there is an organization that accepts men’s used suits. They are given to those men going on job interviews. I’m sure there are similar things for women here, also.

More clothes, no, but decent clothes, yes.

All the Best, Tom

17

When we have something that someone could use but that the Goodwill can’t take (say like an old gas barbecue that still works) we put it out on the curb with a sign saying “Free to a good home”. If part of something is broken we just write down what is wrong. The things disappear really fast.

18

Yes, that can work well for furniture, etc. Not so well with clothes, depending upon the weather.

Tom

19

Yes, this is a good suggestion for high traffic areas. I put small stuff out at the local bus stop. However, there is still some stuff that sits for a long time and can become an eyesore. Recently someone else put out a cheap drum, and a surfboard. The drum went quickly, the surfboard sat for days because it wasn’t the latest model and had three tape patches on it. Again, it is a sign of the times and the abundance that Americans enjoy in some neighborhoods.

As for interview clothes, I believe all the suits and such that I currently own are from Thrift stores. I am very picky and go to the stores all the time, so I own some amazingly high-end stuff. In general it is difficult to find something that fits, looks good, and is in a modern style, even at a big store. There are a few donors that give the latest and greatest as they buy new sets of clothes every year, but many of the suits for sale would not make a good impression.

I guess you could throw any old thing on for many job interviews that homeless people might go on. However, I’d almost say that these men might be better off going in with a nice shirt and tie, sans jacket, if their jacket looks dated or doesn’t fit right. Alterations will cost more than a suit costs in a thrift store.

  • Bill
20

I haven’t bought new dress pants in some time. I need some but I can get them from the local thrift stores for $1.00. I’ve gotten some great buys.