Clothing donations to Red Cross vs Vietnam Vets vs other organizations>? archived

sac, I got that same post card and intend to give some stuff to the Red Cross. I don't know what the details or technicalities are, but I do now that I have seen the Red Cross out there helping people whenever their needed: 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina come immediately to mind. Can't say the same about Vietnam Vets.

I thought I had heard that Red Cross shreds all of their clothes, but I could be wrong. I still use them as they are most convenient for me. The Red Cross chapter in Millburn has clothes bins behind the building, and if you want a tax receipt you can go inside and get one if they are open.

Holy Trinity in West Orange is a thrift store. the people i see shopping in there look like they really can use the clothes. The money goes towards programs the church sponsers like a soup kitchen which is very active. the people coming to the soup kitchen shop at the thrift stroe too. I think it's a good way to assure your clothes are not put in a big bail and sold for rags.
Some of the biggest charities (goodwill, etc), get pennies for the pound and it's easier for them than dealing with the clothes.
there is also a church on South orange ave. and Ridgewood that gives clothes to homeless women and children.

I used to manage a thrift shop for our church. Organizations that collect clothing but don't have a shop or distribution center usually sell their donations to a jobber by the pound. (It can be cost prohibitive to actually sell/distribute the donations) The jobber then sorts through everything and resells the wares. There is a whole sort of food chain on where the clothes end up, some at high end places, most overseas in depressed countries, some (the worst of the worst) are sold as rags. Some people might find this distasteful, but at the end of the day it is very eco-friendly, almost no waste or landfill, everyone on the chain benefits.

You would have to contact the organization to find out where the donations actually end up.

I would argue a little bit with "everybody on the chain benefits".

I've read quite a few articles about how these second-hand clothes are hurting local manufacturers in Africa. The second hand clothes can be sold for prices the manufacturers can't meet, and many a fledgling business is lost. Of course it's good news that people who can't afford new clothes get what they need, but some economist types are arguing that the cost: benefit ratio is bad for poor countries on the "macro" level. Jobs lost when businesses fail, etc. etc.

I'm not an economist, so I won't try to examine this further, but I do tend to try to find charities where the clothes are given away to the poor at no cost.

FYI: I just had a notice from our Clinton School PTA that they set up a PTA account at the 2nd-hand clothes store on Irvington Ave (don't remember the name). We can donate children's clothing and/or maternity clothing to be credited to the Clinton PTA account, and any family from Clinton who needs clothing free can get it charged against the Clinton account. Not sure how well it will work, but it's a worthy idea and I'm glad we have such great parents at our school.

Can non-Clinton families donate to that also? That sounds like a great idea. (And less likely to negatively impact the folks in Africa, I think.)

MATB - I had the same reaction. But, if Red Cross only gets a small fraction compared to a larger one for the Vets, I might not weigh it the same way. I think I value the work of the Red Cross above that of the Vets, but not enough to want to feed some administrative service at a much higher level. (Actually, I don't know anything about that Vietnam Vets organization other than their very active efforts to do clothing collections, so perhaps it would be good if anyone knows more to share the info????)

The Vets get only 24 cents of ever dollar from the clothes collection - the rest went to the company doing the collection. I found this out on Give.org a few years back.

Before giving to any charity pls check it out give.org.
Remember - your are not giving to the Red Cross - you are giving to a company that gives something to the Red Cross. If the ratio is less than 65% of the proceeds going to the charity itself - you're better off just giving to the charity directly.

In the case of the Vets - 76% of the funds raise got to the company that raised them. Not fair IMHO.

I suspect that this Red Cross deal on the postcard may well be similar, given the fine print comments as mentioned in the first post. I think I like the one mjh posted if us non-Clinton folks are able to participate also.

Could someone connected with Clinton School research the question of non-Clinton participation and post back. If the donation has to come from a Clinton family to count, would someone be willing to organize a drop off point/date/time where others of us could bring garments which could then be donated directly by a Clinton family?

Perhaps a box in the school office would do?

i know for a fact that if you walk into Other MOthers that they have several charitable ways you can donate. i think there are several institutions (like Clinton) that send people in need over to Other Mothers for clothes. So you don't have to go to Clinton School to donate there.

I've heard of Other Mothers, but don't know where it is. Can you post an address or directions?

461 Irvington Avenue

http://othermothersnj.com/

I haven't gotten around to dragging my bucketloads of hand me downs over there yet, but I find that the clothes I buy my daughter there are really high quality for really low prices, so I'd rather the credit go to a local school or other organization who can use it than to me.