To be annoyed the charity shop would not accept my donation

[Bearbehind]

I've had a bit of a clear out and had some stuff to take the the charity shop.

I checked on line it was open today then took the stuff into town.

You can't park right outside so I carried the stuff, in the snow, to the shop only to see a sign which said they no longer open on Sundays.

Oh well, I thought but, all the lights were on and I could see at least 3 people inside so I knocked the door and someone opened it.

He said they were shut and I explained I didn't want to come in, just drop these donations off.

He outright refused to accept them, because they were shut, and I'd have to go to another branch of theirs that was open today or come back tomorrow.

AIBU to think that if someone has made the effort to bring a donation to a charity shop and if there's are people there, they should accept them.

I'll be buggered if I'm taking stuff to them again.

I work for a charity and we are going to trial a 'Good will' model' shortly, it will be interesting to see how it works out.

Back to the original question, for the first time ever I had to turn away a donation last week - we had been overwhelmed with a donation the previous day (a transit van unloaded their entire contents into our very small shop - if I had been there I would have politely refused it but the volunteers were too polite to say anything). It was 90% rubbish - and big items such as rusty basket ball hoops, broken suitcases etc etc. I had to call my DH in to take most of it to the tip - it was a genuine H & S risk as the volunteers couldn't move around there was so much stuff - that then meant I had to turn away possible good donations until we had cleared the space .

It will be interesting to see if a Goodwill type operation can work - it would have to adapt to UK shopping habits and to bear in mind that the trend in the Uk is away from big warehouse style out of town outlets.

That report linked to by math has had holes punched in it since its publication. Plenty of critical reviews of it online. I find it odd that there are objections to charity shops getting tax relief in donations and lower rents etc. This is entirely in keeping with tax relief on cash donations, exemptions to VAT and so on, for charities.

Local authorities can and should and do refuse permission for shops to be placed where they can undermine and not enhance other business. It’s a skilled balancing act. I know of several locations where the presence of shops helps the high street survive.

The charity shop sector has room to develop and change, and it’s far better organised and managed than just 10 years ago. I don’t think it will ever be the same as the SA or Goodwill in the US.

In my experience as a volunteer the post-Christmas time isn't great. I've seen lots of Baylis and Harding gift sets..

Oh dear - I was given one for Christmas too that I was planning to donate as I never use that sort of stuff. Should I not bother then?

No Elphame - hand it in! That sort of thing is very easy to store.

Totally agree with K2.

People - don't overthink this stuff :) Shops will normally be delighted at stuff they can sell, and if that shop doesn't need it at present, they can circulate to other shops or they can store it until the right time. We have occasional promos for example where specific things come out.

So Goodwill in the US is actually its own charity and raises money for its own shops to provide facilities for the community within the same premises? Whereas in the UK charity shops are usually completely separate from the premises that provide the services to those in need.

I am not so sure current volunteers in shops would be to keen on moving from shops where they sell stuff to facilities that actually provide the charity to homeless people (for example). So much about that model just sounds like it wouldn't work in the UK.

My mum works in one and she gets bloody awful things donated - skiddy undies, broken china, ripped books...

Not quite - Goodwill's mission is to eliminate barriers to employment for people with various barriers. They provide training in the shops themselves, a reference, interview preparation, mentoring, and access to job listings for people who have barriers to employment, including long term unemployed, people with some form of disability, SN or LD, felons, and others. They promote within the organisation, provide managerial training, and more support than employees in a normal retail environment might find. The computer room is part of each shop. Anyone can come and register and use it.

There is far more, however. Services include many similar to what is provided by CAB offices in the UK, and more - financial counseling and coaching, foreclosure advice, support in approaching banks or credit unions and starting a savings or current account.

Also - financial literacy education, tax preparation, help managing personal finances, support in dealing with loan sharks/payday loans, screening for eligibility for welfare, financial aid for education, transportation access. , emergency housing referrals and clothing assistance, back to school clothing assistance.

Then there are training programmes apart from the hands-on retail experience - child care, ESL, literacy, courses leading to high school diplomas for dropouts, after-school programmes for children, entrepreneurship classes, support for those trying to get a business idea off the ground including approaching financial institutions, Microsoft Office suite training, everyday life skills coaching.

There are also outreach programmes for at risk youth .

Goodwill acts as a clearinghouse for some programmes, and partners with many community institutions and LA bodies. They are basically a social service agency that provides practical assistance.

Providing a table and chairs at the front of the shop is just a courtesy, though homeless people can of course use the computers if they are looking for a job. Shoppers can sit there too. In my local Goodwill there are usually some donated colouring books and crayons out on the table for children to keep busy at.

www.irishtimes.com/business/personal-finance/how-much-money-do-charity-shops-actually-make-1.2988229
An example from Ireland on profitability and otherwise of various charities. Some do far better than others. This mirrors the findings of Gina Miller's foundation. I don't think charities need to look even as far as the US to find better practices or models. Clearly some UK/Irish charities are doing ok, though Goodwill still stands out as one with a very good profit margin.

www.theguardian.com/business/2016/oct/25/britains-high-streets-under-strain-as-15-shops-close-every-day
UK shopping trend - the headline speaks for itself but the article is interesting anyway.

www.theguardian.com/business/2012/mar/20/high-street-shops-close-deloitte
Another article featuring the assertion that there are too many shops.

www2.deloitte.com/uk/en/pages/consumer-business/articles/retail-trends-2017.html
The overall trend is away from brick and mortar shopping.

Yawn yawn, Goodwill is amazing and we're all doing it wrong in the UK and should learn from the bigger, better and cleverer Americans,
even though the Goodwill thing has totally different aims and ways of operating in a very different retail environment.

Again - charities in the UK aren't daft. Stores in the chain I work for know exactly what their costs are and what their nett annual contribution is. We have a massive poster in the back store breaking it all down. Stores not doing well enough are closed. Some stores take in a lot less than we do but have very low costs. All the big charities produce annual reports, returns to the charity commission, lots of numbers if you want to see just how much they are spending and where.

Lots of charity retailers in the UK do similar to the 'Goodwill' model, if not precisely the same. We work with Job Centres to provide employment experience (most charity retailers will not get involved with 'mandatory' work placements - only offering opportunities to people who want to get involved), we liaise with other charities/organisations for people with disabilities to give them retail experience, we work with 'Community Payback' schemes, many volunteers can get NVQ training; the charity retailer I work with has a new programme to offer refugees/economic migrants work experience etc etc.

k2p2k2tog

Some charities are able to hand over a whole 9p per £ to their cause. This contrasts painfully with the figure for Goodwill, which is about 83 cents per $ iirc.

It is possible to know a lot about how one particular shop is doing but to miss the big picture.
www.spectator.co.uk/2016/01/how-to-judge-a-charity-the-five-questions-no-one-asked-kids-company/ This is a particularly egregious example of a poorly run charity that wasted millions (and nobody took any notice for twenty years despite annual reports, etc).

its illegal to fly tip but I agree they could have taken the donations in

Zombie thread sky2s

Often see bags just left outside charity shops. You could do that next time.

ZOMBIE ZOMBIE ZOMBIE THREAD

I don’t think they can take anything when they’re closed- probably down to insurance reasons. I mean, who knows what was in the bags?

They’d have to at least go through them, they were closed.

Oh I didn’t even realise it was a zombie thread 🙈