The two donation bins near my church showed me something about charity I hadn't considered

I live near a church in Cleveland that has two different donation bins on its property. One is run by a national chain that resells clothes for profit, and the other is a local shelter that gives things directly to families in need. I dropped off a bag of winter coats at both last December to compare. The local shelter had a volunteer there who thanked me by name and showed me exactly where the coats would go. The other bin was just a metal box with a logo. After seeing the direct impact, I only use the shelter bin now. Has anyone else noticed big differences between local and corporate charity drop-offs?

3 comments

3 Comments

lindag331mo ago

Chain bins also sometimes get raided by thieves at night, unlike the shelter.

daniel1401mo ago

I did something similar a few years back with a box of old toys and books. I took half to a local church rummage sale that funds their youth programs and the other half to a big national charity drop box at a shopping center. The church took me right into their storage room and showed me the shelves where everything would go for families to pick through for free. The national box just sat there in the parking lot, and I never knew if those things really helped anyone or just got sold off. It really changed how I think about giving. Now I always try to find a place where I can see the people behind the donation.

amy_anderson1mo ago

Oh, you've hit on something I've thought about a lot. Last fall I cleaned out my attic and had a bunch of old blankets and pillows. The big chain store had one of those metal bins by their parking lot, but I drove twenty minutes extra to a women's shelter that takes things directly. A lady there told me they'd be used that same week for a family that lost everything in a house fire. She actually pointed to a stack and said "that one's going to a little girl who's scared of the dark." You just don't get that from a logo on a box. Makes you realize how much of that corporate stuff probably ends up in a warehouse being sold for scrap.