Used clothing charities

Angie

I don't know if I have this posted in the right section. Please excuse me if it is not.

We regularly get notes through the door advising us of a used clothing collection for some charity or other. I've been told that some of these "charities" are bogus and I would be suspicious of any of them that operate only from a mobile number.

I would like to give the clothing to a charity that sends things directly to the country in need.

Is there any listing available of these genuine charities?

Thanks.

Miguel_Sanchez

Yeah that's a tried and tested scam alright. They give bags around, you fill them up with second hand clothes. They sort through them all and pick out the decent ones and flog them off as vintage stuff.

Of course some of them are real - but anything operating from a mobile number has to be viewed with suspicion.

If you want to be sure that the stuff actually goes to people who need it them why not head down to your local Vincent DePaul?

tbh

Hi Angie -

I know the labels you are talking about, but in fairness to them, most of them don't claim to be charity - that would be too open. If you look at the labels, they quote a "company" number, rather than a charity number - although it's pretty obvious they hope people will assume they are a charity. I think if you want to be sure, drop them off at a bricks and mortar shop, like oxfam or SVdP.

shane86

Its hard to believe that there are people desperate enough to defraud people out of the ****e people throw in those bags. I once robbed a bag when I was severely drunk walking home ( as you do ) the tat i woke up to in my room the next morning was awful.

Not condoning theft, but bags full of clothes and drunks are a worse combo than traffic cones and pissheads.

Your best bet would be going into the shops themselves really.

stovelid

Do we? :rolleyes:

shane86 wrote:

I once robbed a bag when I was severely drunk walking home ( as you do )

Karoma

Agreed. Just bring it to a shop. It has the benefits of: (a) you know where it's going, and (b) it'll make you reconsider filling the bag with useless crap because you have to carry it.

Why send to another country when there are plenty in need here?

Search. This has been discussed before. As pointed out previously: Most don't claim to be "charity" only second-hand, etc. and with subtle wording they can make you think they're charitable. They're not. They're underhanded bastards making quite a nice sum from the trade (They're not "desperate".)
A registered charity in Ireland will usually state that it is one and have a CHYxxx number (Registered with the Revenue Commissioner as a charity.)

Dinxminx

In Transition Year I had to do social work in a charity shop (think Barnardos or Oxfam or one of these shops) and the women who worked in the shop would sort through the bags and if there was really nice jewellery or a really nice toy or a CD they wanted they'd just put it in their handbag or set it aside for themselves. The junk they'd put out on the shelves was incredible considering the much nicer stuff that would never go on sale.

monkeyfudge

Most charities send the clothes up North to be sold and pulped down into fibres. So I really don't think it matters if you giving out nice clothes or not.

iguana

Angie wrote:

I would like to give the clothing to a charity that sends things directly to the country in need.

Not many charities actually send clothing abroad as this is really damaging for developing economies and causes more problems than it solves. Most sell the clothing here and use the money to fund projects according to their mission statements.

Dinxminx wrote:

In Transition Year I had to do social work in a charity shop (think Barnardos or Oxfam or one of these shops) and the women who worked in the shop would sort through the bags and if there was really nice jewellery or a really nice toy or a CD they wanted they'd just put it in their handbag or set it aside for themselves. The junk they'd put out on the shelves was incredible considering the much nicer stuff that would never go on sale.

Are you sure they were stealing? Most charity shops tend to put their best stuff aside for special events as they can acheive higher prices there. If you are sure they were stealing, did you inform your manager and if you aren't sure you shouldn't really be making damaging accusations about a charity.

Dinxminx

iguana wrote:

Are you sure they were stealing? Most charity shops tend to put their best stuff aside for special events as they can acheive higher prices there. If you are sure they were stealing, did you inform your manager and if you aren't sure you shouldn't really be making damaging accusations about a charity.

Yes I'm positive, they'd talk about who they were going to give the stuff to in a "ah my niece will love this, isn't it cute?" kind of way. They were all middle-aged and I was a 15 yr old who they ignored for the most part except for telling me which stuff to put on shelves. It was tedious and depressing.

God I hated that place.

cujimmy

iguana wrote:

Most charity shops tend to put their best stuff aside for special events as they can acheive higher prices there.

and thre real savvy charity shops sell the best stuff on ebay

iguana

cujimmy wrote:

and thre real savvy charity shops sell the best stuff on ebay

Actually best policy is to put it out in the shop for two weeks at it's valued price. You probably won't sell it but it shows off your standards to donors. That's the theory anyway.;)

Angie

Dinxminx wrote:

In Transition Year I had to do social work in a charity shop (think Barnardos or Oxfam or one of these shops) and the women who worked in the shop would sort through the bags and if there was really nice jewellery or a really nice toy or a CD they wanted they'd just put it in their handbag or set it aside for themselves. The junk they'd put out on the shelves was incredible considering the much nicer stuff that would never go on sale.

That's why I'd rather not leave clothes in to a charity shop. I was speaking to someone who had friends that work in these shops and she informed me that they go through everything when it comes in and keep the really good stuff for themselves.

I remember a while back giving clothes to a charity that was shipping it out foreign.

The clothes that I leave out for charity are left out because they no longer fit. Anything that is worn out is placed in the clothes recycling bin. If it's not good enough for me to wear it then I wouldn't expect anyone else to want it.