The dirty side of Goodwill
- Thread starter Finklejag
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Owen Lucas
$100 Site Donor 2023
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I want nothing to do with them and will not donate a penny. Their annoying bell ringing was tolerable until their woke anti-racism guide bashing white ppl.
From the guide:
"White culture has challenges it needs to overcome, including denial of racism and defensiveness about race."
"White Americans need to stop trying to be ‘colorblind.’"
"The desire is that Salvationists achieve the following: Lament, repent and apologize for biases or racist ideologies held and actions committed."
Greed will makes its way into all of these establishments, maybe not as much into re-tails, but hey if I was processing donations, and saw a rare Nintendo game or Picasso come through, I'd be the 1st to buy it. Who cares about a $15hr job lol.
I get several letters a week seeking charitable donations. I think that once you 'donate' your name goes out to others seeking money.
We have donated to St. Judes Children Hospital, the Leukemia Society, American Cancer Society etc....but lately we've given almost entirely to Tunnel to Towers. It's sad that civilians have to take care of the families of military personnel who died in the LOD while our government gives so much away to other countries. IMO, charity begins at home.
We have donated to St. Judes Children Hospital, the Leukemia Society, American Cancer Society etc....but lately we've given almost entirely to Tunnel to Towers. It's sad that civilians have to take care of the families of military personnel who died in the LOD while our government gives so much away to other countries. IMO, charity begins at home.
Owen Lucas
$100 Site Donor 2023
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They are the real deal. Only charity I have personally vetted to be legit, likely more as well.
I have a friend who donated to one unscrupulous charity.
Not long after they received a barrage of donation letters and continue to do so.
Name and address info is likely monetized and sold in a database to other charities. SCUM.
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I don't donate to anything. It's almost all a scam in some way. I have dropped off used (or new) clothes that were in good condition but didn't fit me. It's just convenient. I don't care what they do with it.
I occasionally shop at Goodwill just to see if there is anything good. But 90% of the name brand good condition items go to their online store. Their strategy is to trickle just a few good things to each store to keep people coming in but most of the stuff in the store is garbage.
I occasionally shop at Goodwill just to see if there is anything good. But 90% of the name brand good condition items go to their online store. Their strategy is to trickle just a few good things to each store to keep people coming in but most of the stuff in the store is garbage.
Elkins45
Site Donor 2026
Special Olympics is the reason we disconnected our landline phone. I donated to them a couple of times and soon after our phone was ringing off the hook with charity solicitations. They apparently sold our contact info. After both our parents died the solicitors were the only people calling.
Well, that was both fascinating, and disappointing.
My wife and I have donates hundreds of items to Goodwill (and Children's Hospital of the Kings Daughters, local to Tidewater).
Mostly first quality clothes, Brooks Brothers, Ralph Lauren, etc. in good repair.
Old T-shirts, etc. get turned into shop rags at our house.
The lifecycle, and the mission, of Goodwill are very different than we had imagined. We will have to reconsider how we donate used goods.
On the cash side, we have about 15 charities to which we give. ChildFund and St. Jude among them. Helping kids and their families overcome childhood diseases, or helping kids who weren't lucky enough to be born here, are both worthy causes.
My wife and I have donates hundreds of items to Goodwill (and Children's Hospital of the Kings Daughters, local to Tidewater).
Mostly first quality clothes, Brooks Brothers, Ralph Lauren, etc. in good repair.
Old T-shirts, etc. get turned into shop rags at our house.
The lifecycle, and the mission, of Goodwill are very different than we had imagined. We will have to reconsider how we donate used goods.
On the cash side, we have about 15 charities to which we give. ChildFund and St. Jude among them. Helping kids and their families overcome childhood diseases, or helping kids who weren't lucky enough to be born here, are both worthy causes.
GoodWill is a hard no for us. We used to donate stuff all the time. Now we use local women's shelters, Salvation Army, etc. Probably 15 years ago, roughly, the CEO of GoodWill was building an 8 million dollar house for himself and his family. Charity my Aunt Gertrude....
I didn’t know that about The Salvation Army. 
I donated to the Wounded Warrior Project until I read about what they were doing with the money.
I now donate to my local Veterans assistance center. I just dropped off 4 packages of new socks a few days ago.
I donated to the Wounded Warrior Project until I read about what they were doing with the money.
I now donate to my local Veterans assistance center. I just dropped off 4 packages of new socks a few days ago.
Tom NJ
$100 Site Donor 2026
I stopped donating to national charities years ago but still get tons of mail solicitations. We now give money, time, and goods only to local non-profits such as our food bank, humane society, volunteer fire dept., volunteer first aid dept., local non-profit thrift store, arts center, etc.
4wd
$50 site donor 2026
We only have a 2nd Time Around - drop off - they sort - sell for pennies on the dollar … Hourly workers can grab name brand jeans that someone “Budded” 
out of 
out of 
I try to be a big supporter of animal charities, shelters etc., but outfits like ASPCA spend most of the money on their executive team, or so I've read. I'm not donating money to help poor defenseless animals just to have it end up making somebody's boat payment.
Owen Lucas
$100 Site Donor 2023
- Joined
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- 4,961
Much of donations are ultimately a scam as well:
"AirTags and Find My have revealed how items donated by Mexicans for earthquake relief in Turkey were instead resold in Mexico City markets."
https://appleinsider.com/articles/23/06/09/airtags-used-to-uncover-fraud-in-turkey-relief-donations
"Mexican journalist Pamela Cerdeira exposed government corruption in 2023 by tracking her donations, including a pack of toilet paper, using Apple AirTags. Instead of flying to Turkey for earthquake relief as officials claimed, the tracking data revealed that her donations never left Mexico City and were instead diverted to local markets."
"AirTags and Find My have revealed how items donated by Mexicans for earthquake relief in Turkey were instead resold in Mexico City markets."
https://appleinsider.com/articles/23/06/09/airtags-used-to-uncover-fraud-in-turkey-relief-donations
"Mexican journalist Pamela Cerdeira exposed government corruption in 2023 by tracking her donations, including a pack of toilet paper, using Apple AirTags. Instead of flying to Turkey for earthquake relief as officials claimed, the tracking data revealed that her donations never left Mexico City and were instead diverted to local markets."
- The Experiment: To test government transparency, journalist Pamela Cerdeira donated two items: a bag of rice and a pack of toilet paper, hiding an Apple AirTag inside each package.
- The Deviation: Using Apple's Find My app, Cerdeira watched the items immediately separate and remain inside Mexico City rather than heading to the military hangar.
- The Discovery:
- Toilet Paper: The AirTag led her directly to a public street market stall in the Tacuba neighborhood. She used the iPhone's Precision Finding feature and triggered the audio chime to prove it was her exact donation sitting on a retail shelf. The street vendor had no idea the stock came from a charity drive.
- Rice Bag: The second AirTag tracked the rice to a school warehouse operating a food program tied to a local politician.
Goodwill remains in business and viable . They are doing the important things right for a non-profit .
We used to donate kid's clothing, women's clothing, and 'household' stuff to the YWCA shelter (everything is in good, usable condition and it gets used for families when they get placed into new housing). At some point, they quit taking anything other than $$$ or new, unopened stuff.
Other shelters (St Vincent's, etc) changed to the same policy.... We first try and donate to a place that has a free store and works through shelters, social agencies, etc that arranges for families to come and "shop", for household goods, those go the humane society's thrift shop, and "work" clothes go to a "Clothes That Work" organization.My wife and I are quite careful about what causes we donate to.
Our local charity is operated entirely by volunteers, except the manager, and she is paid by the city, so we frequently donate food there. Our church has a welfare organization that is operated very efficiently, with a lot of donated labor, and 100% of donations are used to help people. What St. Jude's does is wonderful, and so we will donate to them from time to time. It is one of the very few national organizations that I donate to. Most of what I donate, including my time, is directly to local charity organizations.
While Red Cross may do good work, way too little of donations goes to help people. Same with Salvation Army. But few of them chap me off as much as those that claim to support local law enforcement, but very little makes it there. Some time ago, I was contacted for a "fundraiser" to buy ballistic vests for police dogs, and donated to it. They led me to believe that this was a local fundraiser. Later, I talked to a friend who was on the local PD, and asked him about it. He laughed at me, and told me that the PD got nothing. Never again.
Our local charity is operated entirely by volunteers, except the manager, and she is paid by the city, so we frequently donate food there. Our church has a welfare organization that is operated very efficiently, with a lot of donated labor, and 100% of donations are used to help people. What St. Jude's does is wonderful, and so we will donate to them from time to time. It is one of the very few national organizations that I donate to. Most of what I donate, including my time, is directly to local charity organizations.
While Red Cross may do good work, way too little of donations goes to help people. Same with Salvation Army. But few of them chap me off as much as those that claim to support local law enforcement, but very little makes it there. Some time ago, I was contacted for a "fundraiser" to buy ballistic vests for police dogs, and donated to it. They led me to believe that this was a local fundraiser. Later, I talked to a friend who was on the local PD, and asked him about it. He laughed at me, and told me that the PD got nothing. Never again.
Another charity that I've donated to after a disaster is 'Samaritan's Purse'. While I think a lot of so called 'religious' people are frauds (Joel Osteen comes to mind) I do think Franklin Graham is sincere. I say this because during the pandemic 'Samaritan's Purse' set up a huge tent hospital in Central Park, NYC which was very helpful. I donated after the flooding in western NC.
Two 'charities' that I won't donate to are 'Unicef' and the IFCJ. I read that the bigwigs in Unicef drive Rolls Royce's or some other luxury cars and Yael Eckstein, the CEO of the IFCJ, is paid $750K a year (and that was about 5 years ago...I'm sure it's more now).
Two 'charities' that I won't donate to are 'Unicef' and the IFCJ. I read that the bigwigs in Unicef drive Rolls Royce's or some other luxury cars and Yael Eckstein, the CEO of the IFCJ, is paid $750K a year (and that was about 5 years ago...I'm sure it's more now).
