To have a grumble about overly prescriptive Christmas donation collections

[Lochroy]

I probably am and it's just a grumble, but we're feeling the pinch at home, yet I'd still like to be able to help if we can, plus the DC are asking about one of the because it's via school.

Both via school and work we've been given lists of what's needed. One is for a children's charity but the stuff needs to be new. Good quality second hand isn't accepted. The other wants a shoebox full. To fill it with items from the list will be beyond what I can afford.

I think I'm going to have to disappoint the DC and we'll just donate cash to a charity which wants it.

AIBU to think the scale of the appeal asks is too much?

Samaritans purse use christmas shoeboxes to try and convert children to christianity, they add christian literature to the boxes people donate.
Not to mention they are a horrible charity who are homophobic at their core. I wouldnt touch them with a barge pole

My children’s school have done the shoe box appeal but have done one box per form so the costs were not on us to fill a whole shoe box. It is quite a list of what you can’t put in. Nothing edible or any liquids which pushes the costs up when you try and do a whole box yourself. I gave my 2 £5 each to get some things from Poundland to donate.

@curlywurlymum

That's lovely to hear you were appreciative. It's easy to be dismissive of these ventures from our comfortable middle class existence. I did them with my dc at primary and they chose the items carefully based on the advice (include school supplies like pencils and sharpener) and a few nice things like hair clips, a ball and puzzles.

It's lovely that you and your dc want to help others. But school should not be pressuring families into participating. How about you give your dc a budget and they could make their own Christmas box or bag for donation to your local food bank or womens shelter?

I don't really agree - 95% of what I own is secondhand and most of it is much better quality than new things on sale within a reasonable budget. If good quality secondhand isn't good enough for a charity, the charity can sod off as far as I'm concerned. The need can't be that great if they don't want secondhand or else they'd make do with it like many of us have to,

@curlywurlymum there are different shoebox schemes.
Samaritans Purse is well known to be avoided but other charity ones exist.
I always think people shouldn't outright refuse to donate one - just ask which charity is distributing them and make a decision based on that
I glad you enjoyed your box 🙂

Our school do shoeboxes for Teams4U which seems to be the people who originally set up Samaritan’s purse so I assume are similarly awful. Does anyone happen to know?

@Sethera as I said above the problem with saying they will accept secondhand is a vast majority of what is donated will be unsuitable crap.
Just read anything about charity shop donations - huge amounts are not suitable to be sold.
There are plenty of other charities available to donate secondhand things.

If the need was that great they'd be prepared to sort through donations. Entirely their choice, but no charity that fussy will ever get my support.

@OneOfLittleConsequence I googled teams4you and it seems they donate to East European countries and aren't affiliated with any religious or political groups. So they sound ok 🙂

@Sethera ok if that's your view.
But when you say "they" should sort the donations - who exactly is the "they"?
My daughters primary did a collection for one of these schemes. It meant a massive pile of donations piled up in the hall. Who exactly was meant to sort them? The headteacher? A TA?

Volunteers - I'd happily give my time to do that.

@Sethera unfortunately many charities simply don't have enough volunteers. They just don't.

I think items need to be new because people can't be trusted not to put a load of tatty old junk in otherwise.

I get they don't want just junk because everyone deserves nice things sometimes. However, I did see gaming consoles and headphones on a Xmas charity box at my work and thought, They'd be lucky! But maybe someone might be feeling very generous and, if you don't ask, you don't get. Fortunately, there are some cheaper items on the list too.

The places I have volunteered at had a new for children rule so they could guarantee they knew the age range for the item and that it was up to current safety regs. It stops a dolly for 18+ months being given to a baby of 12+ months. Then with things like wooden toys the presence of the new packaging means the paint is safe.

I don’t know 100% but this Wales Online article seems to think they are acceptable compared to Samaritan’s Purse.

https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/operation-christmas-child-shoebox-appeal-17184994

I think having a list for guidance is good, but it surely can't benefit the charity to be so prescriptive, as it will turn many people off who will then donate nothing as opposed to something that was within their budget (which is surely the purpose of charity?!)

I'm really surprised after years of bad publicity that any schools promote samariton purse without clearly stating what it's about.
The letter we got did not say, " your box will be filled with promotional leaflets and used to promote evangelical Christians etc".
At least people would have a conscious choice then.

Not all. Our church dropped operation Christmas child because that is run by Samaritan’s purse - google them. Very evangelical, homophobic etc. we also had concerns about the Christian proselytising using gifts to children in Muslim countries/regions.

We do them with the rotary club - no problem with those.

That's fine. Someone else will knowingly choose to have 2nd hand used lego and you can use the money to buy new

Presumably that poster liked their gift and just ignored the leaflet.

I get why the charities say new only. They don’t have the resources to sort through and dispose of all the crap people will send. And if you’re in a shit situation then I get that it’s nicer to receive something new rather than a hand me down.

The shoeboxes… yeah as above depends who it is.

But anyway, you shouldn’t feel pressured. It’s an expensive time of year. There’s also more charity happening now. To be honest I don’t donate at this time of year, I do at other times when charities are struggling more.

They do this to equalise the content, some will be better than others.

I know someone who received a shoe box as a child in a war torn country. She was very pleased to get it.

Did you post about this years ago?
I remember in the usual rant against Samaritans Purse the most wonderful post by someone talking about how they received a box in Eastern Europe as a child and loved every item and kept it as they were homeless and moved until it fell apart. They urged people to make shoe boxes- it was very moving and made me make many many boxes over the years.

They do receive at least some of the Samaritans Purse boxes in tact as we have received photos and thank-you cards in the past.