Why oh Why is it so hard to make a Donation

[SassyAshley]

It seems like every year at Christmas I participate in some sort of donation program. Whether it be the shoe box donations (we did this as kids and always made a shoe box for someone our age) or various other programs. This year after picking up my donation for the toy drive box at work I still had some money left over and couldn't help but notice I have numerous extra coupons I will not be using by their expiry dates and no one has wanted to trade for. So I thought why not take these coupons and my extra money and see just what I could get combining the two. I have to say so far I have done pretty well. I have numerous items to packed up and donated. Well here comes the problem.

In the summer my Nanny passes away and I took on the task of cleaning out her kitchen. To my shock I found food everywhere in her kitchen, ever cupboard seem to have food in it. So I sorted all of the food and decided that most of it would be donated as either we had no use for it or I was already completely stocked up on that items so we would never use it before it expired. We ended up with 11 grocery bags to donate (WOW this was even after all of the items I threw out and the items we keep or I donated to someone I knew could use them). I packaged everything up nice and neat contacted our food bank (they are only open for 6 hours a week and a number of people in town had told me they do not accept donations during these hour, HUH so how do I make a donation???????????????). It took me 5 phone calls and 2 emails and 7 weeks (there would have been more call made but during this time my nanny passed away, this process started when she went in the hospital and we found out she would not be coming home). I could not believe how hard it was to make the donation, there were many a time as horrible as it sounds we discussed throwing out the food as we really had no where to keep these 11 bags (we had moved all of my Nanny's stuff into our house and were living in a sea of boxes not to mention random pieces of furniture placed anywhere they would fit). Finally after 7 weeks someone called us back and said for all of our trouble they would come by and pick up the donations. This was great but they still did not tell me how to make a donation in the future, I asked but he just keep talking about picking up the current donation.

So this time around I decided to look for another charity to donate too. We live in a small town so our options are limited. I deiced to try to donate to the local women's shelter again key word TRIED. I went on their web site only to find a very specific list what will and won't be accepted. Like many people when the Barilla Pasta was on sale at Sobey's I went in and picked up my boxes for $0.13, when I was there they only had linguine and penne, I cannot donate these as they only accept spagetti and sprials. I have tried contacting them with no response back asking if they would accept what I have that is not included on their donation lists.

Why oh why is it so hard to make a donation. These are really great causes and you see them reaching out in the papers for donations but when you try to donate it feels like it is impossible. I have now made another round of phone calls hopefully I hear something back before Christmas.

[Shwa Girl]

Sorry for your loss. If you are planning to take a drive to a larger city over the next few months, you may have an easier time donating.

I see you have 8 posts here. Welcome to Smart Canucks.

[MrsSunshine]

Ashley i know your heart is in the right place. (sorry to hear of your grandma (hugs). unfortunately most of the places we donate to food bank/shelters are kind of on a strict guideline as they have limited storage as well as alot of demands on them to try and make everyone happy. quite often the ppl receiving these items are not in the best of places to take stuff or not prepared for the items we offer.
sample/mini or generic brands/sizes are the best in these cases. maybe you could call a local church and see if they have any families on their christmas baskets lists that you could donate some goods too.

[PurpleBunny89]

Oh my gosh I was just thinking this exact same thing yesterday!!!!

In the spring I ordered 4 MP3 players to be donated to teens this christmas. Well it was time to find out where I could donate them. I found quite a large list of places taking donations on my town's website. Amazing right?! Which one to pick, which one to pick? So I make my way down the list calling each number, no one picks up, leave a message. Few days goes by, not a single one calls me back. I'm talking atleast 10 places I called and left messages saying I had NEW, UNUSED, UNWRAPPED gifts for TEENS. Call me back at such and such number to tell me where I can drop them off at please. So yesterday I try again, going down the list, calling everywhere, again no one picks up. Oi. Finally I reach a number I hadn't called before and wouldn't ya know it they are open Monday - Friday 8-4 and would LOVE my donation.

All I can say is donating really shouldn't be this hard. Its ridiculous.

I also sympathize with the womens shelter situation. It made me so enraged that I had LOADS of nice stuff to donate to them but every last item got refused because it wasn't brand new, never opened. Are you kidding me?! You only expect brand new stuff that no one has opened?! Who has the money to do that?! I think some bed sheets, towels, toys and cooking items are better then none. Sure, I would love fancy brand new stuff too but I can't afford that nevermind people who are living in a shelter. They also wouldn't take any samples/trial sized items either which confused me. What difference is Shampoo and toothpaste if it comes in a small or large tube/bottle?

So instead I donate to my mom and brother who are low income. They appreciate it a heck of a lot more.

I've also had very bad experiences with my local food bank and how rude people are there and the people who abuse it.

[Shwa Girl]

I also sympathize with the womens shelter situation. It made me so enraged that I had LOADS of nice stuff to donate to them but every last item got refused because it wasn't brand new, never opened. Are you kidding me?! You only expect brand new stuff that no one has opened?! Who has the money to do that?! I think some bed sheets, towels, toys and cooking items are better then none. Sure, I would love fancy brand new stuff too but I can't afford that nevermind people who are living in a shelter. They also wouldn't take any samples/trial sized items either which confused me. What difference is Shampoo and toothpaste if it comes in a small or large tube/bottle?

.

I think I know why they are shying away from used.
It has nothing to do with you and your donations, trust me.

Bed bugs, I bet.

[Abby5]

All the schools and firehalls take donations ..especially this time of year

[PurpleBunny89]

I think I know why they are shying away from used.
It has nothing to do with you and your donations, trust me.

Bed bugs, I bet.

Very good point but on used cooking pots and pans? What about hard plastic toys? Books? Am I just uneducated when it comes to bed bugs? What about office supplies, pens, staplers, files, folders, etc.? Won't take those either unless they are new.

It still doesn't explain the reasoning why they won't take samples/trial sized items.

[barginb]

Being able to donate should be a no brainer. Most churches could find a home I bet.

[RebeccaRYoung]

Many food banks don't take food donations, only cash. It's because of lack of storage space, and various hygienic laws that they have to follow.

[Darth Penguin]

Very good point but on used cooking pots and pans? What about hard plastic toys? Books? Am I just uneducated when it comes to bed bugs? What about office supplies, pens, staplers, files, folders, etc.? Won't take those either unless they are new.

It still doesn't explain the reasoning why they won't take samples/trial sized items.

The playgroup I used to go to with the lilPenguins had a donation of office supplies which contained dried out markers and leaking pens amongst other less than apprioate materials including some magazines of a dubious nature..

as for pans etc..I'm guessing it's for hygiene reasons as well. Older pans might leak toxic materials into food..

[SassyAshley]

Maybe my rant worked, the food bank phoned me back (within the same day) and would more than love my donation. Now the trick will be getting it to them as they accept donations Monday and Tuesday from 8 am to Noon. Kind of hard to make the donation when I work Monday to Friday 7 am to 4 pm. Hopefully I can get someone to drop it off for me or find a reason to have to run into town for work.

[SassyAshley]

Thank you Shwa Girl

I did think about taking it to a town a few towns over, actually my step mom even offered to take the food and drop it off at their food bank but we kind of wanted to keep in the our community. Especially since my Nanny did volunteer there for awhile a couple years ago. There has been a larger than normal need in our community as one of the local public housing complexes burned down last year.

Thank you for the welcome.

Sorry for your loss. If you are planning to take a drive to a larger city over the next few months, you may have an easier time donating.

I see you have 8 posts here. Welcome to Smart Canucks.

[SassyAshley]

Thank you MrsSunshine

I did think about contacting a church but the church we used to attend has closed down (lack of attendance) and it was from the years of going there I thought of the women's shelter as they always worked with them to donate gifts. My dad and Step mom used to attend a church here but no longer do. Actually the women's shelter only wants bonus size items, as I wanted to donate some regular shampoos and conditions but on there list it says bonus/large size only.

More so my frustration comes from the fact they do not even call you back. If they phoned me back and said thank you but not right now than I would start looking outside the community, since I do have family living in area but now the same community. I just really wanted to keep it in our community especially since it seems like every other week there is an article in paper about the food bank needing donations.

Ashley i know your heart is in the right place. (sorry to hear of your grandma (hugs). unfortunately most of the places we donate to food bank/shelters are kind of on a strict guideline as they have limited storage as well as alot of demands on them to try and make everyone happy. quite often the ppl receiving these items are not in the best of places to take stuff or not prepared for the items we offer.
sample/mini or generic brands/sizes are the best in these cases. maybe you could call a local church and see if they have any families on their christmas baskets lists that you could donate some goods too.

[SassyAshley]

PurpleBunny, I always donate all of our used items to the diabetic association. In our area they are great they come around and pick up all of our used clothing we just leave it on the front steps and they send their truck around and pick everything up. It goes to a great cause (I know many people who are diabetic) and we have always had amazing. We actually donated all of my Nanny's clothing and luggage to them in total we had either 13 or 15 garbage bags, we phoned them explained our donation and they had a truck out to us within 2 days. Someone told me they also take other used items but I have never really looked into much more. To be honest until recently we had a lot of up and downs financially so any extra money was saved for the downs and donations were only made about once a year and were always clothes to the diabetic association.

Oh my gosh I was just thinking this exact same thing yesterday!!!!

In the spring I ordered 4 MP3 players to be donated to teens this christmas. Well it was time to find out where I could donate them. I found quite a large list of places taking donations on my town's website. Amazing right?! Which one to pick, which one to pick? So I make my way down the list calling each number, no one picks up, leave a message. Few days goes by, not a single one calls me back. I'm talking atleast 10 places I called and left messages saying I had NEW, UNUSED, UNWRAPPED gifts for TEENS. Call me back at such and such number to tell me where I can drop them off at please. So yesterday I try again, going down the list, calling everywhere, again no one picks up. Oi. Finally I reach a number I hadn't called before and wouldn't ya know it they are open Monday - Friday 8-4 and would LOVE my donation.

All I can say is donating really shouldn't be this hard. Its ridiculous.

I also sympathize with the womens shelter situation. It made me so enraged that I had LOADS of nice stuff to donate to them but every last item got refused because it wasn't brand new, never opened. Are you kidding me?! You only expect brand new stuff that no one has opened?! Who has the money to do that?! I think some bed sheets, towels, toys and cooking items are better then none. Sure, I would love fancy brand new stuff too but I can't afford that nevermind people who are living in a shelter. They also wouldn't take any samples/trial sized items either which confused me. What difference is Shampoo and toothpaste if it comes in a small or large tube/bottle?

So instead I donate to my mom and brother who are low income. They appreciate it a heck of a lot more.

I've also had very bad experiences with my local food bank and how rude people are there and the people who abuse it.

[SassyAshley]

Our food bank does take food donations. But I do think at times these things go to far. I can see not accepting certain items from the general population but when they will not that these donations from grocery stores that makes me wonder. I have a co worker who used to own a farm and the local bakeries all gave them any fresh baked items at the end of the day. They asked why they were not donated to the food bank and they were told they will not take them. I cannot see why they cannot accept it from a grocery store that follows all health regulations. It is sad to see what is thrown out especially when you know how many people are in need here.

Many food banks don't take food donations, only cash. It's because of lack of storage space, and various hygienic laws that they have to follow.