Nothing’s more disheartening for a charity representative than wading through a mound of promising donations only to find it’s mostly not usable. While there are plenty of good souls who offer up valuable pieces, trash pops up enough that it warrants addressing.
While you may convince yourself of an item’s usefulness, it’s possible it doesn’t fit a charity’s giving criteria or that you simply have too low a standard. To learn more about why you shouldn’t donate your trash to charity, read these three quick reasons.
Charities Pay To Dispose of It
First of all, the trash you give needs to go somewhere once charities realize it’s useless. While throwing away a bag or two only consumes a few minutes of staff time, large donations complicate matters. At the least, it takes up space in their dumpster and becomes inconvenient. At worst, though, charities pay upward of $1,000 a year to jettison furniture and other big items.
While you think you’re doing good by giving away those old shoes or mattresses, it’s possible you’re actually hindering them from doing more good. To avoid this as you scope out potential charity partners, one of several questions to ask them should be: What do you need?
Doing So Isn’t in the Spirit of Giving
Another reason why you shouldn’t donate your trash to charity is that doing so means you don’t realize the goodness of sacrificial giving. In any relationship, you don’t want only what others can afford to give you. You feel valuable when someone gives up something of value for you (or gives it to you).
As the person doing the giving, you can make this kind of impression on your recipients by making sacrifices. Perhaps you can even buy things new to donate. When you donate old stuff, though, you aren’t considering the real people behind the charity’s outward façade and how they feel about sifting through your trash. Your gift is really only a convenience for you, and you miss out on the satisfaction of making an actual difference.
It May Keep You From Other Charity Work
Our final consideration is that giving your trash to a charity may stop up your desire to do other charitable activities. If you convince yourself you did something good by dropping off some beat-up stuffed animals, you may imagine you hit some quota. That means giving trash not only hurts charities, but it also persuades you from engaging in legitimate opportunities to serve in the near future.