Do you know where your donations are really going?

[ruby59]

I am in a heated discussion with some people on ebay, and thought I would get your opinions.

I get many calls from different thrifts - Goodwill, Salvation Army, Big Sisters, various churches, etc looking for donations. I guess I got on a list when I donated everything in my mom's apartment after she had a stroke and had to go to a nursing home. Over the years, I have donated outgrown clothes, coats, baby items from when my children were younger, furniture, etc.

I have just read several posts on ebay that apparently your donated items are not always being given to people in need. They are put up for sale at rediculously low prices, where they are bought up by ebay resellers. Many have ebay businesses going where they buy up all the items that are donated and resell them for a good profit. People are posting from different parts of the country that it is like a free-for-all when Goodwill puts out their donated items. They know when the items will be put out and work it like a flea market or yard sale. They come on to brag about the great profits they will make and they see nothing wrong with it. In fact a few see something wrong with me and one said that "after I let my items go, they should be of no concern to me, and that if I am just looking for the warm and fuzzys, I should just put them in a dumpster."

Makes me rethink about future donations to some of these places.

 

[amc80]

I thought most donations to these types of places went up for sale, so no surprise there. I know with goodwill they do double duty- go up for sale and then special needs people work in the stores, so you're helping provide jobs as well.

 

[sonnyjane]

I thought most donations to these types of places went up for sale, so no surprise there. I know with goodwill they do double duty- go up for sale and then special needs people work in the stores, so you're helping provide jobs as well.

Yeah, I've always known that the items I donated were being sold. Heck any time I have a themed party to attend, the Salvation Army store or Goodwill is the first place my friends and I go to look for costumes.

 

[justginger]

It never occurred to me that anyone thought donated items went anywhere other than on the shelf -- where else would they get all of the items that are for sale in the Goodwill, Good Sammie's, St. Vinnie's stores? Those are all donated items. The stores are staffed by special needs or down-on-their-luck individuals, and the organizations still profit from all of the things they sell. They just price low to give low income shoppers the ability to buy what they need, and to have a very high turnover - it's not uncommon for them to be receiving more donated items than they can stock in their stores at any given time. Their business model requires low prices and high turnover, which does leave a lot of room for proactive buyers to make a decent profit. So long as they are not actually 'one-upping' genuinely low income families for items to flip, I don't mind people profiting on their thrift shop purchases.

 

[ruby59]

It never occurred to me that anyone thought donated items went anywhere other than on the shelf -- where else would they get all of the items that are for sale in the Goodwill, Good Sammie's, St. Vinnie's stores? Those are all donated items. The stores are staffed by special needs or down-on-their-luck individuals, and the organizations still profit from all of the things they sell. They just price low to give low income shoppers the ability to buy what they need, and to have a very high turnover - it's not uncommon for them to be receiving more donated items than they can stock in their stores at any given time. Their business model requires low prices and high turnover, which does leave a lot of room for proactive buyers to make a decent profit. So long as they are not actually 'one-upping' genuinely low income families for items to flip, I don't mind people profiting on their thrift shop purchases.

But that is the point I was trying to make. Ebay resellers are using thrifts as a way to sell on ebay. These are able bodied people who use Goodwill and other thrifts like yard sales. They are buying up all the items so there is nothing left for those who really need them.

 

[Circe]

I don't see anything wrong with the practice. I think the "cheap stuff for poor people" element is actually kind of a fringe benefit: the real goal is to raise money to be able to fulfill the primary goal of the charity. The one I donate to most often is a NY charity called Housing Works dedicated to fighting AIDs. They have cheap goods for sale day-in, day-out, but they make a point if promoting the good stuff in the windows for online auctions, they have themed sales - camera equipment, turquoise jewelry, whatever - geared to draw in people who might not normally go thrifting.

I think it's genius. So long as the hospices get the most money, awesome, I applaud the entrepreneurial spirit. If they could sell them for more, they would, but it's a high-volume business model. The stuff is free to them, so they just need to keep it moving to make money. If there's a secondary market ... nature of the beast, right? People do it with Target lines and hard-to- find perfumes!

 

[ruby59]

The below is a response from someone who actually worked at Goodwill. So yes you do have poor and challenged people working there. But you also have the managers. And the part in bold bothers me.



Not a reply to anyone inparticular.......................
I spent a summer "volunteering" (by court order) at a local Goodwill store. What i saw in the trenches amazed me. It was not a rich neighborhood but there were some very nice million dollar house developements in the county.

First of all they did employ some special needs people but their main and only job was to sort clothes and put price tags on the clothing that was to be sold. Evereything that was not able to be sold was put in a compactor and sold to a salvage company by the pound. Then it was sold overseas to third world countries (ever wonder how on those discovery channel shows you would see some ethiopian wearing a Baltimore Orioles tee shirt?) or companies that made "recycled rags".

The rest of us in the back accepted the donations, sorted and cherry picked. As a "volunteer" i was the bottom of the pile and if something trickeled down that none of the regular employees wanted i would get a crack at it but it was normally junk that ended up in the dumpster.

We were told that ANYTHING donated after hours was to go directly into the dumpster. We would come in every morning to some bags of stuff that people had dropped off after hours since that was the only time they had available and it almsot always went right to the dumpster. Those things i was allowed to go through as time allowed but it was almost always clothes and nothing i (at 18 years old) was interested in.

People routinely brought in their garbage to donate. Electronics they knew did not work would be dropped off so they could get their little tax write off form on the 200 pound television we had to lug into the wearhouse and the toss into the dumpster when we found out it didn't work. Pre fab furniture that was cracked or falling apart.

Stuff that was absolutely disgusting, we got a box full of used dominatrix gear one time. Another time we got a box load of ninja gear with nunchucks and throwing stars and other various unsaleable items. We got high end sports equipment that we were not allowed to put on the floor if it could be used as a weapon. A young man cleaning out his fathers house dropped off a box of brand new Case pocket knives that had been collected for years. We couldn't sell them so an employee paid 5 bucks for a box that probably had 100 or more knives worth 50-100 dollars each.

Most high end donations never made it to the sales floor with the people in the back having first dibs on all incoming donations. An elderly gentleman brought in about 30 large boxes stuffed full of sports cards from the 40's-60's that went right into the managers SUV. I saw a guy take a donation from a woman in her 80's (minimum) maybe older that she thought was just costume jewelery. Turned out almsot every piece was 18K gold and a few platinum rings. There had to be 5-10 grand or more in jewelery in there and the guy said nothing to the woman even though he knew what was in the box.

That was the final straw for me and i reported to my probation officer what was going on there and within a few days the entire crew from the back was gone and some had been brought up on charges.

I have never looked at a "Goodwill" store the same again. Wheni do donate clothing my kids have grown out of or any house hold items that can still be used i take them to the church down the street and they give the stuff away to people in real need. I am not rich and i am forunate enough to live in a decent house but i know that about 6 miles down the road there are houses with people living there that have dirt floors and little to no money. Thats where most of the stuff i donate ends up and i am glad those people get something they need and can use.

 

[smitcompton]

Hi Ruby,

I have volunteered at St Vincent DePaul and its exactly as this woman described Goodwill. The only difference is the St Vincent always had cheap goods and was located in a poorer neighborhood and their mission was to serve the poor. They felt that people had more dignity if they could purchase the items themselves and not get them for free. Getting things for free isn't always the best thing. . We all shoppd there occasionally.

But a new wrinkle showed up last week. There is a new thrift store that opened last yr near the main shopping center. It is a for profit enterprise. They have a large donation box at the entrance which says. Leave your donated good here and we will pay "some charity" for your donations. It could have been goodwill, but you can donate in a for profit store and they get money from the charity.
I wonder how that works. It was my first time there, but I will ask if I go back. I get books there.

In closing, people are better off paying for the things they want. Free is always the right thing.


Annette

 

[sonnyjane]

But that is the point I was trying to make. Ebay resellers are using thrifts as a way to sell on ebay. These are able bodied people who use Goodwill and other thrifts like yard sales. They are buying up all the items so there is nothing left for those who really need them.

I can promise you that they aren't "buying up all the items so there is nothing left for those who really need them." What they are likely doing is buying some of the name brand items (after the employees poach them, apparently lol) and selling those. There isn't any demand on eBay for a $5 plain Hanes t-shirt, but a few weeks ago I donated a $200 BCBG dress - stuff like that may have a market on eBay. The organization makes the same amount of money off of items no matter who buys them. What they charge for those items is their decision based on what they feel they can realistically make.

More so a problem than eBay vendors is the employees that take things home without stocking the shelves, unless there is a policy for that particular organization that employees get "dibs".

 

[VRBeauty]

The below is a response from someone who actually worked at Goodwill. So yes you do have poor and challenged people working there. But you also have the managers. And the part in bold bothers me.

Most high end donations never made it to the sales floor with the people in the back having first dibs on all incoming donations. An elderly gentleman brought in about 30 large boxes stuffed full of sports cards from the 40's-60's that went right into the managers SUV. I saw a guy take a donation from a woman in her 80's (minimum) maybe older that she thought was just costume jewelery. Turned out almsot every piece was 18K gold and a few platinum rings. There had to be 5-10 grand or more in jewelery in there and the guy said nothing to the woman even though he knew what was in the box.

That was the final straw for me and i reported to my probation officer what was going on there and within a few days the entire crew from the back was gone and some had been brought up on charges.

To me the part of the story highlighted above is equally telling.

The charities are there to make money for the charities so they can fulfill their primary mission. That said, I keep in mind how the charities spend that money to and my choice is usually to give my cast-offs to charities whose primary mission I know something about. I don't have a problem with used clothing being sold to a consolidator and bundled for use as rag or sold overseas - I have old clothing that I can't imagine anyone here wanting to wear, but I hate to have stuff that might be useable somewhere to into a landfill.

I don't know how Goodwill puts its money to use and I don't care for how my local Goodwill sells things - things get dumped in huge bins or tables for people to paw through, and much of it gets sold, literally, by the pound. They're also very aggressive in soliciting donations: the now have "donation centers" in every strip mall, or so it seems, which is probably siphoning donations away from other charities. So when I have the time and energy to sort through my donations, the least desireable stuff goes to Goodwill.

If you want your used things to go directly to someone in need without a middleman, consider waiting for a disaster relief drive and giving it then, or giving it to a local church or food closet (many also have a clothing or component). In my area there are also several groups that support women in crisis. They offer clothing, either for free or at a greatly reduced cost, to women who are getting back on their feet and re-entering the workforce. But they also get way more than they can use, so they also have a thrift store.

 

[erinl]

When I donate goods, I do quite a bit of research before i redistribute them. I have sorted through my family house which was packed full of everything, including 3000 books, so I have a lot of experience. The books went to a local literacy foundation--they have a really nice shop where some of the better books go, then they sell them online and in their warehouse and most funds go to local literacy endeavors.

I have had to resign myself to the fact that I cannot completely control what is actually happening to my items. I did contact a local religious charity for specific items, where it seemed I had more info about who was getting my stuff. This seemed more practical for pieces of furniture that needed to be put back together-- I had a girls teen bedroom set that was dismantled and I gave the pieces to the person collecting it and they were happy to get it-- were i to drop this off at salvation army it would have been junked. However, if one of the employees opted to take any of my stuff home, that is beyond my control.

I sent kids bikes to a local bike-specific charity because I thought they would be used more effectively than at goodwill--this organization keeps certain bikes and rehabs those for sale locally-- the man actually sent me pictures of my late mom's bike after rehab and that was truly wonderful to see. Some items like kids dirt bikes were shipped in big containers. Our bikes were pretty old and my sister and I had been daredevils on them, 25 years ago, so the thought of a kid somewhere in the world flying around on our bikes makes me so happy. But some of these bikes were used over there to make water pumps and other nontraditional items which is awesome as well. The way this man thanked me and carefully strapped the bikes to his car, I truly dont think they were dumped, and I got a tax write off to boot!

I also had two sets of Encyclopaedia Britannicas (I had worked there) and Books for Asia seemed interested in taking these for libraries in very poor areas of Asia, while nowhere here would touch them with a ten foot pole. They also love certain kinds of textbooks and serials that local charities would have no use for.

Had a couple broken tvs and computers, rather than donate to Goodwill, who would have thrown them away for sure, I took them to a for profit place that rehabs and resells at very low prices to schools. Although I couldn't write them off I wasn't charged for taking them in and hopefully I kept them out of a landfill.

 

[minousbijoux]

When I donate goods, I do quite a bit of research before i redistribute them. I have sorted through my family house which was packed full of everything, including 3000 books, so I have a lot of experience. The books went to a local literacy foundation--they have a really nice shop where some of the better books go, then they sell them online and in their warehouse and most funds go to local literacy endeavors.

I have had to resign myself to the fact that I cannot completely control what is actually happening to my items. I did contact a local religious charity for specific items, where it seemed I had more info about who was getting my stuff. This seemed more practical for pieces of furniture that needed to be put back together-- I had a girls teen bedroom set that was dismantled and I gave the pieces to the person collecting it and they were happy to get it-- were i to drop this off at salvation army it would have been junked. However, if one of the employees opted to take any of my stuff home, that is beyond my control.

I sent kids bikes to a local bike-specific charity because I thought they would be used more effectively than at goodwill--this organization keeps certain bikes and rehabs those for sale locally-- the man actually sent me pictures of my late mom's bike after rehab and that was truly wonderful to see. Some items like kids dirt bikes were shipped in big containers. Our bikes were pretty old and my sister and I had been daredevils on them, 25 years ago, so the thought of a kid somewhere in the world flying around on our bikes makes me so happy. But some of these bikes were used over there to make water pumps and other nontraditional items which is awesome as well. The way this man thanked me and carefully strapped the bikes to his car, I truly dont think they were dumped, and I got a tax write off to boot!

I also had two sets of Encyclopaedia Britannicas (I had worked there) and Books for Asia seemed interested in taking these for libraries in very poor areas of Asia, while nowhere here would touch them with a ten foot pole. They also love certain kinds of textbooks and serials that local charities would have no use for.

Had a couple broken tvs and computers, rather than donate to Goodwill, who would have thrown them away for sure, I took them to a for profit place that rehabs and resells at very low prices to schools. Although I couldn't write them off I wasn't charged for taking them in and hopefully I kept them out of a landfill.

Erini: I totally applaud your efforts and thank you for your diligence. You set a good example, one we should all follow.

 

[erinl]

Thanks Minou!

I was just trying to describe how donating can be a little more effective. And I am no saint, I claim everything I donate!

I had an early experience were I brought in some dinnerware in boxes and didn't wrap each piece, as I thought my stuff would be taken out and shelved there, but I learned that at this particular location, donations were shipped to central facility, sorted, and redistributed. So I assume my stuff was thrown on a truck and most of it got broken, which seemed like such a waste.


I have also donated a bunch of stuff to Salvation Army. That seems to be a incredibly hard job, in which some donators have a very put upon attitude towards those taking in the donations. And some of the stuff people donate is truly disgusting--literally garbage. I can understand how people making most probably very low wages, treated as though they are being done a favor by those who donate, and working all day sifting through mildewy, unusable items might feel they deserve a little payback!

 

[kgizo]

I volunteered at a Goodwill sorting facility and it was a positive experience. The earlier point about turnover is valid. They aren't able to lease a large space and do complex pricing. A new item was a blue ($10) tag for 2 wks, then yellow ($5) for 2 wks, then red ($1) for the last 2 wks. They had a list of 10 popular, higher end brands and those items would get an orange tag ($15). A very efficient system given their goals and staffing constraints. Of course, it does allow ebayers to find a $100 item for $10 and flip it, but Goodwill can't staff to review and price every single item for max profit. At the end of the day they make $ and its easy for them to manage. Yes, some items don't make the floor (out of style, company branded, etc), and those are given to 3rd world orgs. Yes, the workers get first dibs. But, that's no different than any retail store where a sales clerk will hold an item back or hide it in the racks for themselves. That said, I don't think the ebayers should be so snide about their good luck at finding these items and reselling. It's poor taste to gloat about benefitting from others misfortune, and Goodwill exists for those less fortunate.