charities?, page-15

Hi nutsm,
It sure is frustrating when some thing like that happens, however there is another side. I am part of a Charity that takes stuff and we are grateful for it, however we cannot take furniture because we have no place to put it, and we do not take electricals because of OHS, a crying shame. Just today I had to buy a brand new microwave for someone because we could not keep second hand ovens. In our town another church charity does take furniture and we buy from them when needed.

The down side is that people dump stuff beside bins and outside our centres. Vast quantities of that stuff are just plain rubbish. As a consequence of the dumping it costs our charity in NSW something of the order of $1.4 million a year to dispose of it. When disasters occur there are mountains of that kind of stuff delivered to charities, all on the understanding of the donors that they are doing good. In fact they are not but you cannot reject them. The consequences for the charities taking this stuff is great cost to them. The charities dread the disasters because of the kindness of people. That is why they request money not goods when they occur. They can respond quickly with money but goods are costly to move!

Happy Christmas, and do not give up on charities, well at least the big ones.

With regard to your experience, I wonder if they were volunteers or workers, being paid so their perspective would markedly different.