Why can't charity shops accept donations left outside?

[Paintpalette]

I'm forever seeing SM posts and increasingly bigger signs in the windows of charity shops near me who absolutely CANNOT be expected to accept donated bags which have been left on the porch.

Can anyone tell me why they are so furious about this?

When I've taken bags in to drop off directly with staff, they haven't made me wait while they check through every item to see if it meets a standard and I'm sure there have always been the odd unsuitable things that must be disposed of.

For what it's worth, I haven't left anything there or had it rejected, but if it was more convenient to drop off, I would donate more. Ironically enough, it means I fill the plastic bags put through my letter box which are collected from outside on the doorstep, which is apparently safe enough for them!

Things get rained on, pissed on and shat on. No joke - not sure if it’s animal or human, but it does happen. Things also get stolen, the winds blows things across the street and often the people dumping things outside are the ones that are too embarrassed to take it to the shop “in person” because in some cases it’s unclean clothes that smell, a swipe of sideboards and May include rubbish, used sanitary wear, mouldy food, dead mice. It’s possible that the bags got mixed up, but likely a lazy house clearance.

sounds unlikely if you’ve not worked/volunteered in a charity shop, but the above has all happened to me.

if there is anything good in the bags and they have been soiled by rain, the shops are not in a position to be able to dry out the items (if they are brave enough to assume it’s rain and not fox/dog piss!!).

so what happens to majority of things left outside a shop if it has been rained on, is that it will go into the charity shop skip and disposed of at the cost of the charity.

so please please please, just put it in your own bin, or take it to the charity shop during opening hours! Alternatively, if the shop hours don’t work for you, stick it on Olio or a similar platform

These bins near me are never emptied by the charities and are a magnet for fly tipping.

Plus not knowing what crap is tossed inside these charity bins.

Gift aid? What is that?

During the first lockdown, people were dumping stuff outside charity shops and we at the time had no idea when these were reopening again. In Leicester we had the farce of the Leicester lockdown. Non essential shops reopened for 3 days then closed for a month

Think this was the start of charity shops asking for donations dumped outside.

Come on OP, you must know these aren't genuine donations, otherwise they'd just come when the shop is open.

It's fly tippers leaving their shite, that they're too embarrassed to take into the shop.

...And they're too lazy to dispose of it themselves.

And they have no respect, so they leave it on the street for others to clear up.

@happyhemsby Gift Aid is a tax thing. If you are a tax payer and donate goods and are registered for Gift Aid the charity can get extra money for when they sell your donations.
(I'm not sure how it actually works).
But it means when you donate you have to leave your gift aid details so your goods are registered as being from you.

Because lots of people just dump bags of crap and it costs money to have this disposed of. Even the decent stuff often gets ransacked, rained on or worse and can't be sold- it's basically a waste that costs them.

If you are a tax payer and donate stuff to charity, they can get an extra 20% from the govt. Also get letters or emails from charities you donate to saying your donations add up to £150 and got £30 back from gift aid

Thank you ☺️

A million reasons which pp have covered but thought would have been quite blatantly obvious? Anyone wanting to donate stuff outside of charity shop times there's clothing banks in nearly every supermarket car park you just post the stuff.

What everyone has said. It's dumping. People open the bags. It rains a lot. Sometimes seagulls come poking around, or a dog. Then you've a bag of unusable tat strewn around which somebody, usually an elderly volunteer, has to go and pick up.

It’s classed as fly tipping ……fly tipping is illegal….period

I have seen one charity shop that has a large steel contaner outside for donations out of hours. That seems a good idea but only if there is space for such a thing.

My local supermarket has a few similar containers in the car park and you can put donations for some charites in at any time.

It's different when it's in a public place.
Nobody is going to rip open a bag on your own doorstep, but on an out-of-hours high street, it's considered anonymous and fair game.
At one of the charity shops I pass regularly, the volunteers couldn't get to the door because of the crap that had piled up over the weekend.

They get stolen. I actually saw a woman rummaging through bags outside a charity shop in Bayswater (posh part of London if you don't know) once. She'd fished out a silk blouse and some other stuff. I was so angry at her, but what would it have done if I'd said anything? If you don't leave stuff outside, arseholes like her (she was well dressed loads of jewellery) can't steal it.

Some are so arsey with their ‘only 1 bag today ‘ etc signs it just puts you right off donating
I start work at 7 am and regularly leave a bag outside the charity shop
Not if it’s raining obviously
Regularly see my donations in the window so clearly not a problem

I volunteer in a charity shop. Sadly it's very common. Bags get dumped and broken open despite all the notices. Any unlocked wheelie bins get looted on a weekly basis.

Yeah, those arsey charity shop volunteers. How dare they politely request they are not over run with docations?

Not just dogs

I see charity shops sometimes say no to more donations. They only have limited room and staff.
I was in one once, and someone brought in a ton of DVDs. The volunteer refused them, as they had loads already. The person bringing them in caused a huge stink. They could just take them to the tip, or put in their bin (or in a box in their garden saying they are free). But they just wanted to offload their shite onto someone else.

I was in one once, and someone brought in a ton of DVDs. The volunteer refused them, as they had loads already.

Plus the volunteer knows that even at 2 for a pound, DVDs are incredibly hard to shift, in a world where nearly everyone has streaming services.

Most people wouldn't take them for free, what good are they without a DVD player

No one wants DVDs. Only useful to make bird scarers out of.