Donating old toys to Charities

Littlemiss-lotsofdebt

Having worked for a large children's charity for a number of years, I have dealt with many calls from members of the public wishing to generously donate their children's old toys to us. However, due to health & safety regulations it often costs the charity more money (in terms of staff time having to check for loose threads/parts/batteries etc) than actually buying them brand new.

From experience, the children I have worked with are crying out for:

* Bath Sets and Toiletries
* Chocolate and sweets
* Time - volunteer at your nearest charity
* Colouring/art/craft sets

I hope this helps. xx

MrT_5

Lots of toys are quite valuable and you should get someone who knows ebay and stick them on there. Barbie, Sindy and loads of stuff that appears on tv (teletubbies etc) are very sought after.

One question: why does it cost you money for your staff to check things? I thought they were all volunteers? I dislike the main charity shops and will not donate due to the high salaries some of their people are on. No offence meant to the genuine volunteers but most charities are being run as big businesses these days.

juno

There was an advert if the paper for a manager at our local charity shop. Guess the salary.


£6000 a year, full time.

MrT_5

juno wrote:

There was an advert if the paper for a manager at our local charity shop. Guess the salary.


£6000 a year, full time.

Is that minimum wage or less? Sorry I am hopeless with figures but I wasn't talking about the workers in the shops but those that run the charities. I was involved with one once and our local area raised over 600,000 pounds in less than six years but we kept getting letters demanding that we do more. In the end we told them to stuff it and set up our own to do research. Their loss!

Savvy_Sue

Littlemiss-lotsofdebt wrote:

Having worked for a large children's charity for a number of years, I have dealt with many calls from members of the public wishing to generously donate their children's old toys to us. However, due to health & safety regulations it often costs the charity more money (in terms of staff time having to check for loose threads/parts/batteries etc) than actually buying them brand new.

Plus, there is the aspect of 'valuing' your clients, and wanting them to show them that they matter. I work for a women's charity, and while we are happy to 'recycle' clothes in good condition we draw the line at underwear!

MrT wrote:

Lots of toys are quite valuable and you should get someone who knows ebay and stick them on there. Barbie, Sindy and loads of stuff that appears on tv (teletubbies etc) are very sought after.

That is a great idea if you have someone who has the time and knowledge (of what these toys are worth) to do this. But in the meantime, any quantity of these things will have to be stored somewhere! Plus, charities can be quite tied about what they do with gifts: selling 'gifts in kind' is not always acceptable to them.

MrT wrote:

One question: why does it cost you money for your staff to check things? I thought they were all volunteers? I dislike the main charity shops and will not donate due to the high salaries some of their people are on. No offence meant to the genuine volunteers but most charities are being run as big businesses these days.

Sometimes I feel I am repeating myself, but here goes my mini-rant. I am a paid administrator for a small charity, and because I am paid, the charity gets my services, and my family gets to eat. If it wasn't a paid job, I'd have to do something else. We are not run like a big business, but we are run in a business-like way. In other words, I try to make sure that we get good value for money for utilities, services and goods we need. Our treasurer believes that we should have reliable computers, and a comfortable and safe working environment. That sometimes requires spending money on things like good office chairs!

Some charities can be run exclusively by volunteers, and charities are usually started by volunteers, but there often comes a time when the AIMS of the charity can BEST be met by paying someone to do a particular job. Our charity relies on a team of 70+ volunteers, including two wonderful people who help out a lot in the office. But a lot of these volunteers have day jobs, so we have STAFF, available during the day, who make phone calls for our clients, accompany our clients to appointments, visit our clients when they're in crisis, drop everything and be there for them. They have particular qualifications and expertise, they are professionals and respected as such by the statutory agencies.

Even if a charity operates entirely with volunteers, unless your charity includes the aim of raising money by selling stuff on Ebay, you have to balance the time spent doing this against the time needed to meet the AIMS of your charity. Because very few charities have an unlimited pool of time available from their volunteers - in fact if you know of one, let me know what their secret is.

I've been a volunteer, I helped set up two out of school clubs, and it was like running a small business without any financial reward. I don't begrudge the time I gave to getting them going, but again, we didn't rely on volunteers to look after the children, we PAID good staff to do it, and used volunteers (often me!) to 'plug the gaps' in emergencies. If I'd known how hard it was going to be to set the first one up, I'm not sure I would have done it: I couldn't spend nearly as much time with my children as I would have liked.

Volunteers are wonderful, but there's often a place for paid staff too. Rant over.

Savvy_Sue

MrT wrote:

I was involved with one once and our local area raised over 600,000 pounds in less than six years but we kept getting letters demanding that we do more. In the end we told them to stuff it and set up our own to do research. Their loss!

I think your experience might have been unfortunate. Or maybe I just don't have links to charities like that! We do personally support several charities, and although they all make their needs known from time to time, I don't feel that these are 'demands'.

But then I haven't been part of a fundraising group for a larger charity. Maybe I should try that ... on second thoughts!

juno

I don't know what it works out as, but it is not very good for a manager! Managers for normal shops are on twice that, or probably more.

MrT_5

Savvy_Sue wrote:

I think your experience might have been unfortunate. Or maybe I just don't have links to charities like that! We do personally support several charities, and although they all make their needs known from time to time, I don't feel that these are 'demands'.

But then I haven't been part of a fundraising group for a larger charity. Maybe I should try that ... on second thoughts!

I don't think unfortunate really. The main charities appear to have executives who are on fantastic salaries these days. Many will say they need them and to a point I agree. The problem arises when they start treating volunteers as paid workers and that is when I stop volunteering. It has happened to me on three occasions now. An old army saying is one volunteer is worth three pressed men. Actually it could be navy but as I was in the army I am nicking it! Charity shops are getting to be really stupid and are not making the money they should be simply because they are asking far too much cash for items they have been given for nothing. I can go into local charity shops and see something that is dearer than a new item in my local store. Books are a prime example of this. Better to make 50 pence than have a book sitting on the shelf for months priced at 2 quid.

My charity that left the main organisation sponsored a research scientist. Through that, children in the world can now be vaccinated against one form of meningitis thanks to us. Hopefully we can eradicate the other strains soon.

Littlemiss-lotsofdebt

MrT wrote:

One question: why does it cost you money for your staff to check things? I thought they were all volunteers? I dislike the main charity shops and will not donate due to the high salaries some of their people are on. No offence meant to the genuine volunteers but most charities are being run as big businesses these days.

The charity I work for has both charity shops and projects out in the community, and as an administrator, I deal with calls from members of the public wishing to donate toys to our 'children's homes' of which we no longer have. By accepting donated pre-used toys, staff in our projects then have to spend time ensuring it is safe for the children using the projects to be in possession of. Time which they could spend working with the children rather than checking for loose threads etc.

I may be biased, but we have volunteers within our shops who are extremely well thought of and offered the same training and development opportunities as our paid staff. I'm sorry you've had a bad experience Mr T, but please don't let this put you off giving your support.

code-a-holic

I have 2 charity shops i visit often. They have both said toys are their biggest sellers- i go to them to look for toys and kids clothes, they are always so happy when i donate used toys. I only donate ones of a condition i would buy myself, but there have been some there in awful condition and often with out batteries so have no idea if it works or not. Have not seen any evidence of the toys been checked by staff-should they be by law?

Littlemiss-lotsofdebt

I think you'll find that all toys are checked before they are allowed to be re-sold onto the public. We have very strict guidelines and I'd like to think other charities also do.