Charity Bag Collections

[Coldicote]

Once again numerous charity collection bags are coming through the letter box asking for donations of clothing, shoes etc. According to seaches on the internet there are 180,000 registered charities in the UK. I have frequently supported charities, but would like to know more about how they raise money from these collectons and what do they actually spend it on. How do you feel about charity collections, and should they be more informative about what they actually do?

[boxtops]

Depending on which charity it is, they will either root through the things in the bags, and if stuff is good enough, sell it in their charity shops - then anything not suitable goes for rags, for which they get so much a kilo dry weight.

Other charities may just weigh the bags and sell the whole lot on, so I've never supported these bags - I take what I want to get rid of to specific charity shops. I also collect ragged stuff and take that in separately.

[B00]

Oh I love it when those bags come through my door- free bin bags for my rubbish bin :-)

[redman41]

Might be worth considering these, or similar

http://www.clothes-xchange.co.uk/

[boxtops]

I turn them inside out and use them as binliners too, B00!

What they do with the money is up to them - some of the funds inevitably go to paying the fuel for the vehicles going round picking up all these bags.

[Baldric]

We have a little sticker above our letterbox that reads,
'Charity Rubbish Bags will be Binned'
we rarely get one nowadays.

[ubasses]

Living a bit out in the sticks, we never get more than a 2 or 3 a year. I use the ones from the Salvation Army Trading Co. They sort the donations, anything very good or of value goes straight into the Charity Shop. Perfectly serviceable clothes get sent abroad some for sale and some to disaster areas. The remainder get sent to a local recycling plant for textiles. Around 70% of any profit is then gift aided to the charity. They also use empty lorries that have delivered goods to this country to transport the overseas stuff.

[mikey4444]

I never use these plastic bags, as I don't really trust them. I can have 5 delivered in one week ! They make good poo-poo bags for when its time for us to go Walkies though, and you can store duvets in them during the summer !

But I do give unwanted clothes to local charity shops. My favourite, if I can call it that, is the local Dogs Trust.

[Prudie]

Yep they make great rubbish bags. I've never actually known anyone come and try to collect them.

[Coldicote]

Thanks for your replies - hardly surprising! I would still like to know more about how money raised is actually spent on helping those who need help. What sort of help?

[Tilly2]

Mikey............They make good poo-poo bags for when its time for us to go Walkies though.

What do you take for walkies, an elephant?

[smurfchops]

I read that these items don't go to charity, Eastern Europeans distribute the plastic bags then send all the goodies home. They are great size bin bags I agree, or I
fill them and take them to my local High St charity shop.

[Maydup]

Coldicote - all of these charities are very different. Try googling one or two and you can easily find out how they help people or animals. Salvation Army sell the clothes in their shops and use the money to feed people, clothe people, trace people, and support people into work. Save the Children support orphanages, provide play equipment, protect children from harm and abuse. The list is endless.

[Maydup]

But like some others here, i prefer to use the bags to take my used items to the local charity shop of my choice. Or if I have no items to give away this time, i use them as bin bags too!

[Mamyalynne]

Coldicote, if the bag has a Charity Name it should also have their Registration Number - then if you wish you can try to follow that up to see what exactly they do. As others have said, some are genuine and some are a bit shady, shall we say.

[pixie373]

I have tried them a few times, but the bags never get picked up when they say, so I'd take them into a shop.

[DSJ]

We are inundated with these bags & have quite a varied collection of them. After watching a TV programme about them, I no longer fill them to put outside for collection. The programme warned that some bags are picked up by criminals before the legitimate collectors arrive & some bags are actually made & collected by criminals and don't go to legitimate charities at all.

I now take all my donations directly to my local Red Cross Charity Show to make sure that nobody else benefits.

[boxtops]

coldicote, I think you could direct your question to any sort of fund-raising by these charities, if you want to know what they do with any money they raise. Each of them has a different purpose, so each will use it for different purposes to help their target groups. Those purposes should be shown on each of their websites.

[Coldicote]

Many thanks for your replies and interest. I'll be doing a bit of homework on the internet to find out more.

[mrs.chappie]

I too use the bags as bin liners.