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I just did a closet cleaning. While I don't have a lot of winter coats to donate, I do have a lot (10+) of gently used collared polo shirts that may be of use to someone in need.
(before someone says "EBay!" they are mainly Old Navy and lower-end stuff that will be more trouble than it's worth selling online)
I'd like to donate somewhere local, rather than shoving it into a mystery bin or something. Does anyone have any ideas?
In Middlesex County, there is a Goodwill Donation Center on Rt 18, in East Brunswick.
They will be happy to accept your clothing, and upon request, will provide a receipt for the donation. That receipt can be very helpful when itemizing your deductions on your Federal 1040!
I appreciate the link but can you now explain to me how a charity for kids with Trisomy needs shirts?
I was thinking Red Cross or a homeless shelter.
EDIT: This is exactly what I DON'T want to do. I want them to go directly to people who need it, not a cash generator.
Quote:
Donate to the FRA Clothing Drive
Clothing is reused by others and items are resold to raise money for services we provide. Please consider saving your better items for FRA.
I appreciate the link but can you now explain to me how a charity for kids with Trisomy needs shirts?
I was thinking Red Cross or a homeless shelter.
EDIT: This is exactly what I DON'T want to do. I want them to go directly to people who need it, not a cash generator.
One of the "dirty little secrets" of organizations that collect old clothing is that many of them simply sell your clothing by the pound as bulk rags for reprocessing into other materials. Thus, if you envision that a homeless person or some other needy individual will be provided with your old clothing, you are...unfortunately wrong in many cases.
Another of these hard-to-determine facts is that many of these so-called charities give little if any of the money from their rag reprocessing business to those who are needy. There have been several articles in the media over the years about clothing collection boxes that appear to be run by charities, but upon investigation, these "charities" are nothing of the kind.
As a result, I prefer to give directly to organizations that operate thrift stores and that run shelters and/or rehabilitation programs for the destitute, such as The Salvation Army, Goodwill Industries, and The Rescue Mission of Trenton. Unfortunately, The Salvation Army tends to be overly "picky" with furniture items, so I only give clothing to them. With furniture, I prefer to donate to The Rescue Mission of Trenton. I give most of my donations to Goodwill Industries, but these three organizations are all legitimate--which cannot be said for all of the organizations that go door-to-door for pickups and/or operate collection boxes.
And, one more reason to avoid those collections boxes is that you cannot obtain a receipt for your charitable donation. While I give VERY generously of both cash and material objects to charities each year, I am also careful to obtain receipts so that I can deduct reasonable amounts for each donation on my Federal 1040 form. If you don't know how much to deduct for each item, the back of the donation receipt from The Salvation Army provides the "acceptable" amounts for most classes of donated goods. There are also websites with this information, and you can locate them with a simple Google search.
Be selective with your donations.
Don't just dump your unwanted clothing into collection boxes, as you may only be providing raw material for a rag reprocessing business that gives no money to charity!
Last edited by Retriever; 12-05-2011 at 07:39 AM..
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