How Can I Help?
You might now be thinking 'what can I do to help, now the campaign week has ended?'. Well, there are lots of things which you can do:
- Donate direct! You can find out where your nearest charity shops are using the Find A Shop locator, on the top right of the screen.
- Get other people to donate. Your friends, family and work colleagues will all have unwanted clothes and other items they don’t use which could be donated to a charity shop. You could even organise a 'dress down' day at work in return for donations of clothing for a charity of your choice.
- Talk about the campaign. You can tell the internet, friends, family and press that you have donated or seen the posters. You can use Twitter, Facebook, and your own mouth to shout about us.
- Put up the campaign posters; ask local businesses, your library or school to do so too. Pdfs of the two posters can be downloaded here: Poster A (bag-holding photo) and Poster B (thumbs up graphic).
When?
The launch week of the Choose Charity Shops campaign was Monday 14th May to Saturday 19th May 2012. However, charity shops need donations all year round, so we’d love you to make a habit of donating regularly. One of the objectives of the campaign is to get people donating more regularly to charity shops, so don’t forget about us after this week!
Why 'across the counter'?
The number one concern we hear of, from charity shops, is that they are not getting enough donations from members of the public to sustain their shops. There are a number of reasons for this:
- People are throwing away clothing and other items rather than donating them.
- Bogus collectors are increasingly stealing charity bags from house to house collections, meaning some donations aren’t reaching the shops at all.
- People are storing up unwanted clothing and other items in their homes, rather than donating them.
- More and more commercial companies are now collecting second-hand clothing and selling it abroad for profit.
- People are also buying in charity shops more frequently as a result of the economic downturn; this stock is not always being replenished as quickly as it is being snapped up.
There are lots of pressures on charity shop stock at the moment, and the simplest way to ensure you get the most out of your unwanted clothing is to take items directly into your local shop. That way, you know 100% of any profits made will go to a good cause, and you might also find a bargain at the same time!
Thankyou for your support!