Anyone know anything about the Bag2school scheme. is it ethical?

[SmileysPeople]

having this debate on PTA at the momemt. I think if we are going to give clothes away it should be to charity not a for profit organisation. Our children are hardly needy, not at our school anyway. Others on our PTA disagree. We have a meeting on monday and I want views and info for this.
Anyone help? Any other schools have this debate?

BTW Bag2School one of those organisations where each child brings a bag to school full of old clothes, school gives them to the org they give school some money abd sell tham in Eastern Europe.

from the bag2school website

Who are we?

Bag2School was founded in 2001. It is a business not a charity. However 76% of our gross turnover in 2005 was paid to schools, 20% went on operating cost and 4% was profit.

SP - so schools get 76% B2S gets 4% , 20% on operating costs

that's in response to your earlier point "Difference is the other companies all money goes to business for profit (after donation to school)and cuts charity out of market."

SP - from looking at it, I don' think B2S is an exploitative scheme - a 4% profit margin is pretty low.

What I do object to is the bag that comes through the door puporting to be a charity collection, but in very small letters you find that it is actually a private company - I think these companies prey on people's goodwill and take all the profit for themselves.

I never give to them

Apparently Iota that % to schools has been questioned and ctriticised, their accounts didn't add up. have no evidence of this, but was just told it by some-one.

If they only make 4% propfit, 4% must be a hell of alot, as they are in it for the profit.

They do make it clear they are business, so are better than some schemes which pose as charities, but as v well known and respected charities say they are loosing money due to these schemes i still feel that it isn't something a school shouls support. there are other ways of maning money.

Bump
Any other views?

Individual donors of clothes (including yourself)are free to take their own decision on whether to give their clothes to the PTA scheme or a "proper" charity. The PTA scheme is just giving them another possible outlet for their unwanted clothes. So I'm not sure I understand the problem. You could just as well argue that a PTA cake sale is taking money that would otherwise be donated to charity.

No, if PTA cake sale was taking money away from charity shop which was saying it was loosing money as a direct result of our cake sale, then I think we'd have to consider it. (I know this is ridiculous and extreme, just following the thought from previous OP)
PTA suggestingf and supporting something an dpromoting something is not the same as total indivuadual choice. Any organisation has to consider it's ethical stance and policy and what it feels comfortable promoting.
If people want yto give to these schemes totally off their own backs, then we're just discussing personal choice. This is something else.

I've got the meeting tomorrow, so any other comments welcome and helpful.

I'm so suprised no-one agreed with me so far. It's one of those topics where I'm so sure I'm right I'd presumed everyone would agree, and then am suprised when they can't see how right I am. Guess that's what MN is good for.

Also at meeting tomorrow i know some of the same views as on here will be expressed, although lots of support on my side too.

why not charge parents a donation to take old clothes from them say 25p a kilo and then give to a chariety that is more ethical. that way spta makes money and charity benefits

Not a bad idea, but I could see lots of parents objecting to being charged for something they could do for free at the charity shop.
personally i still think, let the charities do this and schools find other ways to raise money. At least in affluent areas like this, where the PTA make loads of money and our kids are far from needy.

yes that would be better

I was Chairman of my sons' primary school pta - we always steered clear of them. We knew someone who had contacts with a school in Africa and shipped clothes out there instead, together with paper, pencils etc.

Really you agree? No one on here has agreed with me all day, which has really suprised me.

Why would everyone not accept that charities supporting v needy people should not have funds taken away by fund raising for leafy middle class schools. I can't understand why people don't agree, but they don't . glad some one finally sees it gothicsanta

Definitely agree - and the school backed me up on it.

Did you challenge the PTa on this then Fortyplus?

As I have a meeting tomorrow and have got together some info to back me up. I know many agree with me and Head will agree, but some members just focused on money for the school and will disagree. that's why I wanted my arguments secure.

Was beginning to think maybe I was over reacting as no one on Mn agredd today, but do know many in RL who agree.

What happened in your case FP?

Well I was Chairman so everything came to me - I just put forward the argument re: effectively taking money away from other charities and the rest of the committee was happy to agree that we should bin it.

Thanks fortyplus, I feel reinvigored (sp?) for my meeting tomorrow. I AM right!

I don't disagree with you, I just don't know if I could bring myself to get worked up about it.

say the PTA does it - some agree and donate, some do nothing (there are always some who do nothing), some disagree and do their own thing.

Surely the most you could do is make sure that it is clear in the newsletter that the organisation makes x% profit and the school gets x% and let people make up their own minds.