WHERE YOUR DONATIONS GO MATTERS

 WHERE YOUR DONATIONS GO MATTERS

I want to tell you something from my own experience.

In 2019, I did a HUGE purge.

After years of moving around, I finally went through my things and got rid of a tremendous amount of stuff.

I had really good things — clothing, household items, things that still had plenty of life left in them.

But I didn't have the time, energy or desire to photograph everything, list it, negotiate with people and sell it individually.

So I started looking for places to donate.

And I noticed something had changed.

Places like Value Village and Salvation Army were becoming harder and harder to donate to. They were increasingly selective about what they would take.

And I remember thinking:

Wait a minute. I'm trying to GIVE you good stuff.

That experience eventually led me to the Developmental Disabilities Association.

And there's an interesting history here.

For decades, DDA had a clothing and household-goods donation program connected with Value Village. The arrangement began in 1980 and generated revenue for programs supporting people with developmental disabilities.

Then in 2019, Value Village ended that arrangement. DDA subsequently closed its clothing donation business.

Today, the Developmental Disabilities Association is a local community organization providing more than 50 programs and services to children and adults with developmental disabilities and their families in Vancouver and Richmond.

And THIS is why I want us to start asking questions.

Where does your donation go?

Who benefits?

Are you helping a neighbour who needs clothing?

Are you supporting a local nonprofit?

Or are you simply supplying inventory to another retail business?

I'm not saying throw your good stuff in the garbage.

Quite the opposite.

KEEP IT CIRCULATING.

Trade it.

Repair it.

Give it directly to somebody who needs it.

Donate to organizations whose mission you actually want to support.

And before you put that bag of perfectly good clothing into a donation bin, find out who owns the bin and what happens to your donation.

I'm not interested in a world where everything has to become a retail transaction.

My mother made much of my clothing when I was growing up.

We repaired things.

We altered things.

We handed things down.

We used what we had.

And we didn't have closets overflowing with hundreds of pieces of clothing.

We have been trained to think we need more.

We don't.

We need less consumption, more reuse and stronger communities.

And if enough of us start saying:

“No. I'm not buying that.”

“No. I'm not donating that there.”

“No. I don't need another one.”

That's power.

So before your next purge, RETHINK WHERE YOUR STUFF GOES.

Because your donation is not worthless.

It has value.

Make sure that value goes somewhere you believe in. 🌲❤️

10 Reflective Questions

1. Where does my donation actually go after I hand it over?

2. Who benefits from the value of the things I give away?

3. Have I ever stopped to ask what happens to clothing placed in a donation bin?

4. Could I give something directly to someone who needs it instead?

5. What organizations in my community reflect the values I want to support?

6. When did giving things away become so disconnected from knowing where they end up?

7. How much of what we own could be repaired, reused, traded or passed along?

8. Are we creating more waste because replacing things has become easier than fixing them?

9. What would a truly community-based system of reuse look like?

10. Before my next purge, will I rethink not only what I get rid of, but where it goes?

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