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Donation funds, Old T-Shirts and Theft

Monday 03rd of January 2011 03:45:06 AM

The British Heart Foundation (BHF) had a good idea. They would put medium sized white donation bags on people’s doorsteps to encourage donations. The resident would fill the bag with old clothes like worn out t-shirts, toys and books. The filled bag would be left on the doorstep and the BHF would pick it up the next day.

Most people don’t know that a ton of rags is worth £650 to the charity and even more to the rag merchant who buys the old clothes. It’s a great way for charities like BHF to raise much needed funds. But lately the BHF has noticed that the donation bag return has dropped from 20 percent to 3 percent. The reason is thieves are stealing the bags. No one knows for sure who is taking the filled bags before BHF can pick them up, but it has to be for the money. The thieves start collecting the bags early in the morning so no one sees whoever is taking them. The problem has been the worst in Preston.

Recycling your old tees is a good habit to develop because they can be put to good use by charities. But with rag prices so high, the donation bags have become a target of thieves. This has cut the BHF revenue by £2,000 each week and that’s a lot of money. Charities have seen their cash donations drop during the recession and the donation bags played an important role in replacing that lost revenue. With thieves stealing so much, it is discouraging for the BHF. A spokesman for BHF said, “As the doorstep collections are our main source of stock, it is really damaging the profit of all the shops, particularly Preston.” In fact, it is estimated the thefts are costing the BHF as much as £3 million each year on a national basis.

© Image by Robert Proksa, www.sxc.hu/

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