Cash gift to small charity shop

Laz123

Maybe save up your coins for another few years and they may take it to save a starving child in Africa.

SevenOfNine

Laz123 said:

Maybe save up your coins for another few years and they may take it to save a starving child in Africa.

According to Rashford, we've got starving children in UK!

NBLondon

1. Go to a supermarket.
2. Buy tinned food to the value of the accumulated cash.
3. Use self-service till and tip in all of the cash.
4. Give food to nearest food bank (supermarket may even have a box you can leave it in).

Murphybear

I found a charity that refused “free money” a few days ago.

as I was leaving a supermarket I noticed someone with a Guide Dogs stall.  I got £1 from my purse and offered it him.  He said he couldn’t take cash as he wanted people to sponsor 2 guide dogs.  I explained that I was a pensioner and didn’t have any more spare money every month as I had 3 charities that I support that have helped either myself, family or a close friend.  

I asked him why he didn’t have a collecting box as well, he couldn’t really explain but it was clear to me that people were far more likely to give a one off donation than a regular outgoing.

Don’t get me wrong, I think Guide Dogs do a brilliant job but so do the other charities I support. 

Murphybear

sheramber said:

 Although you had bagged they would have to count it out to check it.  Not ideal in the present circumstances.

Maybe their sales were paid by contactless.

When I worked for the Post Office years ago we didn’t count all the coins, we weighed them.  Much quicker, just as accurate as we had very good scales and we didn’t handle the coins. 

SevenOfNine

Murphybear said:

sheramber said:

 Although you had bagged they would have to count it out to check it.  Not ideal in the present circumstances.

Maybe their sales were paid by contactless.

When I worked for the Post Office years ago we didn’t count all the coins, we weighed them.  Much quicker, just as accurate as we had very good scales and we didn’t handle the coins. 

I've saved coppers for years for my grandsons, bagging them up as I went along & taking them to Halifax for their savings A/Cs when I'd got £20 worth, cashier always weighed them, never been recounted there. 

Something suitable will come along as lockdown roadmap opens more fully I expect.

Thanks for suggestions & views everyone.

Laz123

SevenOfNine said:

Laz123 said:

Maybe save up your coins for another few years and they may take it to save a starving child in Africa.

According to Rashford, we've got starving children in UK!

According to another charity there's about 800 million worldwide going to bed hungry. So all the more reason for us all to dig deeper into our pockets.

sheramber

Murphybear said:

sheramber said:

 Although you had bagged they would have to count it out to check it.  Not ideal in the present circumstances.

Maybe their sales were paid by contactless.

When I worked for the Post Office years ago we didn’t count all the coins, we weighed them.  Much quicker, just as accurate as we had very good scales and we didn’t handle the coins. 

It is not likely a charity shop would have scales to weigh coins.

How could they agree the amount of a donation if they did not count   it?

Manxman_in_exile

I'm not surprised they didn't want it.  I'm not saying they are right not to want it, just that I'm not surprised.

We used to accumulate a lot of small change but we tried to avoid doing that after the last time I tried to get rid of it and it was just too much hassle.

Having said that - I can't remember the last time (at least several years ago) I used cash to pay for anything.

Manxman_in_exile

rach_k said:

...I don't like how people see charity shops as an easy way to get rid of stuff they can't be bothered dealing with themselves...  

I know what you mean.  I'm not in the least bit a charitable person (I firmly believe it starts at home) but even I fell a bit troubled by the "ethics" of donating to charity shops.

We (or at least my wife does) give away a lot of old clothes to charity shops - but we always make sure the clothes are clean and in sufficiently good condition that we would be happy to buy them ourselves.  Anything that is not in such good enough condition but which is still "wearable" we put in one of the clothes banks in any one of several supermarkets.  It feels like we are doing the right thing, but it also seems to me that we are sometimes supporting a kind of poverty apartheid where we are distinguishing between poor people who are good enough or not good enough to deserve a particular standard of charity.  It makes me feel a bit uncomfortable really.

I also watched a programme on TV a few months ago about where these clothes (or literally rags in some cases) end up.  I don't know if it made me feel better or feel worse.  Yes - good quality stuff can be sold, but even rags can be shipped(!) to Africa where whole livlihoods are based on them.  It was both surprising and troubling at the same time. 

(NB - none of the foregoing is a criticism of the OP!  I applaud their attempt to do the right thing by trying to donate cash to charity.)

sheramber said:

This morning I got yet another plastic bag from a charity for  collection of  unwanted clothes- generally get one a week .

On that bag it states' our drivers are not authorised to collect cash'.

I expect the same could apply to volunteers in a charity shop.

 

I must say we always ignore those plastic bags.  We tell ourselves we are unsure where this "charity" ends up so don't want to contribute.  Are they genuine or a scam?  Whether that is a rational view or not, I don't know.

I quite like the suggestion above to use the spare cash to buy food to put in a foodbank box at your supermarket.  I'll remember that.