Aibu to not want to donate money but instead donate things?

[12yearsinazkaban]

Just thinking about how food banks get food donations. People are actually putting food into a box.
Charity shops get donations of items.
But the school fund for example, asks for monetary donations.
HOWEVER they just had a party and one class teacher asked for food rather than £2 for the party food. We were chatting and she said she gets more 'donations' for food rather than money.
it reminded me of my children's old nursery) and they asked for seasonal items to be donated for activities (conkers collected for free, but also Easter chick's and stickers for crafts, mini pumpkins for Halloween activities, Xmas bits and bobs for Xmas crafts etc) and they always got loads of donations. Whereas their school now always ask for 1 or 2 pounds and sometimes the activity is cancelled due to lack of donations.

I think it goes further too where people find it easier to buy a homeless person food rather than give them money

I'm just wondering if people find it easier to donate items rather than money? I think the feeling of giving something is more powerful than giving money. i wouldn't ever donate money,I just don't have it spare, however while I'm shopping I do have space in my shopping trolley for bits and bobs asked for. I don't know why it feels different but handing over a bag of party food or craft items feels more helpful, more tangible, rather than sending in a pound.

Does any one else feel this way? I know it seems stupid but if a food bank or the school ask for money it feels sort of cheeky, but asking for donations of xyz seems different somehow.
perhaps its related to the 'you don't ask for money for a wedding or birthday' thing people do.

It’s alarming how little people seem to think about what they are donating to schools. We get bags and bags of donations of baby books and adult books. Too often, even if they’re age appropriate, the donations are scribbled on, ripped, chewed, dated, faded or otherwise unsuitable.
Sometimes the donations are absolute treasure though - when pristine copies of recently published popular books appear, it’s like a beautiful miracle.

You say you like to donate your 'old things' to charity OP ... do you consider what you are donating ... I manage a charity shop and you would be amazed at the absolute rubbish we get donated (along with some very nice donations of course). Less than about 25% of what is donated is actually saleable and the shop and volunteers are left with the problem of sorting through soiled clothing, broken toys, dog eared paperbacks etc etc. and trying to recycle responsibly.

Similar to food bank donations .. not all food banks want yet more tins of beans, pasta or sanitary products (disclaimer - some FBs might want these items but you do need to check with your own local FB)

It depends if you think the giving is about your feelings or about the benefit to the person receiving it.

This is so absolutely right.

Oh yes, @Mooda is absolutely spot on. I give £10 a month to my local FoodBank because it’s what the food bank finds most useful. That way, they can also spend it on their bin collection or some other essential that they need to operate within the law.

Those baskets for collecting donations in the supermarket just make more profit for the supermarket.

Also giving goods distracts us from the awfulness of food banks existing by making us feel good. Food banks shouldn't need to exist and everyone who supports their local food banks should write to their MP to tell them so. People on benefits got a 3.5% rise this year when inflation is running at a 40 year high.

I'd rather things be donated and used than thrown away or hoarded.

balalake but how can you be sure things you are donating are actually used, as I said earlier, I receive lots of donations in my charity shop .. people like to think they are doing a good thing by donating but if the items cannot be sold then I just have the task of throwing them out ...someone said to me last week 'these clothes have moth holes in but I've washed them and sprayed them with moth killer- I am sure you can find a use for them' . I refused to accept them and she got quite stroppy and said 'but I've carried them all the way into town'!!!

I think the mindset is “I don’t want to feel guilty about waste and landfill, so I will pass that problem on to someone else”.

I find it easier to donate money as then don't have to run around collecting things.

lol I've never given to a food bank my post was originally written because of my child's school asking for food donations rather than money and it's got a lot more parents giving. it was supposed to be about how people prefer to donate xyz money or things. I only mentioned food banks because they are a place where it is common to give physical items.

I don't think I'd ever give to a food bank because I can't afford it and even if I could why the fuck should we be feeding people who work aswell! instead of them being paid a fair wage and/ or benefits. I think its letting the government off the hook. in fact I don't give to any charity, not one. But I will bung a quid in the box for a manky cake at my kids school if they moan about it enough. And I begrudge that.

With Ukraine, the reason we needed to donate stuff and not money is because they could just go and buy clothes, could they? What use is money when you're freezing cold all the shops are empty? People weren't driving truckloads of clothes to Ukraine because no one told them how money works.

Shops in countries adjoining Ukraine are open. Many of them sell clothes, possibly cheaper than in the UK. With cash, relief organisations on the spot could get what they needed within a few hours, without the added time and expense of transporting everything across Europe, and then finding it might not be what was wanted by the time it got there.

As someone who runs a charity we always put money to better use than "things". We can get more bang for our buck with cash. So if you donate 4 cans of beans we'd probably get 5 cans for the cash equivalent.

What you're describing is about the giver getting what they need rather than thinking about what the receiver needs. I understand your point that it's more tangible though.

See, I agree in a way. But on the flip side, most people go to the shop, most people have stopped using cash. If those big boxes for foodbanks in the supermarket had a little sign saying 'we don't need beans or pasta but we do need uth milk and baby food jars please' and then someone changed it if they got too many donations of the same thing? to stop the confusion

our school had maybe £100 worth of food donations or craft donations or whatever else they asked for, but for monetary donations they receive fewer, maybe £50. I just thought it was so interesting that people gave actually things over money. I don't know if it's because giving 70p would look cheap but putting 2 tins of 35p beans in the box isn't cheap, or embarrassing. So if you can afford to put one tin of beans in even.

I know that in the party thing for the class people were spending on average less that 1 pound for an item to bring. There was a list to check off and everyone contributed. Some did extra. so what was asked for was given and them some. However when people were asked for money (please god bare in mind I am talking about a low income area, a school for mostly deprived children) hardly anyone contributed. Especially when they were asked for £2 or £3 which Is loads! Especially if you have multiple children (generally people have 3/4 but some have 8 and even 9!) so giving things can be done easily.

obviously when I give to charity shops though I shit in bags and call it gold.
I think charity shops should do the same thing, ask for things.

I mostly donate children's clothing, not shit. and I put all the unwearable bits and bobs in for rags.

Perhaps the difference In charitable habits comes down to income? imagine going to set up a monthly payment of 70p to the local food bank. you wouldn't bother.

But people in deprived areas tend to be deprived and people in affluent areas tend to be affluent so the people in the deprived area ends up with nothing being donated because they are all in the same boat? but the rich people up the road have their boxes filled and their school fund is regularly donated to and so the school dies better their children do better while ours have to say good bye to our TA and get told off for using too much glue. But if they asked for coloured paper and gluesticks I stead of setting up a time consuming fund raising scheme they could have saved the faff and had a bring a glue stick or pack of white board pens to school day. if the habits of people tend to be that way. I know what i mean