| Author | Thread |
|
|
09/01/2005 03:21:01 PM · #1 |
| Hey, I've been looking everyone for information on how to make an in-kind donation, FEMA said what it was, but not who would accept them. Red Cross refuses, Salvation Army refuses, and I don't know who will take stuff. My class is interested in doing a drive to collect bottled water, playing cards, coloring books, and the like, but we can't find a way to get it down South. Anyone know who to send the stuff to? |
|
|
|
09/01/2005 03:30:48 PM · #2 |
Is there anything here
that works for you? |
|
|
|
09/01/2005 03:35:02 PM · #3 |
| EXCELLENT link, karma, thanks for posting it! |
|
|
|
09/01/2005 03:36:07 PM · #4 |
a co-worker of mine is also looking for a place to send baby clothes. think that local organizations that are collecting items will be your best bet, the bigger and farther away something is the more handy cash is...
would be cool if ebay let you donate 'no bid' items. You can sell an item for relief though.
Here in Santa Cruz, even the local organizations are asking for money only since transportation costs cut in to the value of the donation. States that are a bit closer may be more inclined to take items, certainly cities that are just outside the devastated areas are going to need material goods.
if you can't give $$$, [i can't right now.] and can't find a local charity that will ship stuff....Donate locally anyways.
Message edited by author 2005-09-01 15:46:13.
|
|
|
|
09/01/2005 04:22:18 PM · #5 |
Our school district is blessed enough to have a Social Work and Counseling department, and I just visited with our lead LMSW...she has prepared a Needs Assessment that we are taking to the camp that is in our community. We are going to gather all the data we can in order to find out exactly what the people need in order to better serve them. I'll let you know how it goes...we're going out there tomorrow when they are being served lunch to meet with as many folks as we can.
|
|
|
|
09/01/2005 04:33:39 PM · #6 |
There are complications of trying to move goods.
This page: Best Waty to Help Victims of Hurricane Katrina helps to explain why.
It's wonderful to get children involved in an activity that contributes to charity! Perhaps you could:
-Hold a bottle drive and send the $ collected
-Have the kids collect up old toys and hold a tag sale
-Virtual Explorers Page is loaded with ideas for how kids can help and links to other sites. |
|
|
|
09/01/2005 08:56:11 PM · #7 |
| I tried the Red Cross and Salvation Army 2 days ago. The told me they will not take any clothing donations they just want money. They said if it was a matter of just cleaning out your closets you can drop off your clothes at one of our local branches. That isn't what I want to do. Maybe someone in my area will start a clothing drive. I know there are lots of people that need that kind of help right now. (Btw this was told to me by the AZ branch) |
|
|
|
09/01/2005 09:23:14 PM · #8 |
Originally posted by LKMote:
I tried the Red Cross and Salvation Army 2 days ago. The told me they will not take any clothing donations they just want money. They said if it was a matter of just cleaning out your closets you can drop off your clothes at one of our local branches. That isn't what I want to do. Maybe someone in my area will start a clothing drive. I know there are lots of people that need that kind of help right now. (Btw this was told to me by the AZ branch) |
That's what the Red Cross said here in Panama too. I won't give them money (after 9/11) but more than willing to donate items/time. I will however donate money to a different organization/person that I know for a fact is going for the event I'm sending money more. OUr Red Cross here didn't even want volunteers....but wanted money instead :/
|
|
|
|
09/01/2005 11:08:57 PM · #9 |
Originally posted by Joe_Cool:
Hey, I've been looking everyone for information on how to make an in-kind donation, FEMA said what it was, but not who would accept them. Red Cross refuses, Salvation Army refuses, and I don't know who will take stuff. My class is interested in doing a drive to collect bottled water, playing cards, coloring books, and the like, but we can't find a way to get it down South. Anyone know who to send the stuff to? |
Joe,
I think it's great that you and your class want to help. Times like this are a tremendous opportunity to teach the importance of helping others in times of need.
While in-kind donations can be a great way to donate to charity, it can also present problems in some situations. Unfortunately, Hurricane Katrina is one of those situations, for several reasons.
First and foremost is the transportation issue. The transportation infrastructure in the hardest hit areas is just about nonexistent right now. The airports are not operating, the roads are heavily damaged, and those that are passable are being heavily used by emergency and disaster management personnel. Fuel is anywhere from scarce to nonexistent for significant distances around the area. In short, it is a logistical nightmare just to get various small shipments of in-kind donations to the locations where relief is most needed in the first place. Cash donations allow aid agencies to purchase supplies in large quantities, allowing for large and organized shipments, and making more efficient use of whatever transportation infrastructure is left.
Even if getting the donations to the areas of need was not a problem, these donations would require shipment of the donations to a staging area. Volunteers would need to sort the donations and repackage them for distribution to various shelters and to the individuals in need. This sorting and packaging work would take these volunteers away from other relief duties. Cash donations allow the aid organizations to purchase product in quantity (and probably at better prices than you or I can get) and arrange for delivery of supplies directly to where they are needed.
Finally, there's the more subtle issue of fair distribution. Let's use your coloring book idea, for example. Let's say a donation of 500 coloring books arrives at the Astrodome in Houston, but 5,000 children are sheltered there. The aid agencies would be faced with either distributing coloring books to only 10% of the children sheltered there, or not distributing them at all. Neither is an attractive option.
This is not to say that in-kind donations are a bad thing. For example, they work extraordinarily well for food banks that distribute food to local feeding charities. Those food banks are typically not operating in disaster conditions and can dedicate resources to stage and sort donations in an orderly manner. They may also work well for smaller, more localized disasters such as tornadoes and more localized flooding, especially if the donation source is geographically close to the disaster. Unfortunately, they don't scale well do disasters of this size.
You could, of course, turn this into a teaching opportunity. It's great that your class want to help, and they will probably be receptive to the idea that it's important to understand the needs of the people who you are trying to help, and to offer that help in the best way possible, even if it's not the same as the way you might initially want to help. Sometimes, that best way is not the most obvious, and the way you might have initially wanted to help, might not help that much at all - or it might even do more harm then good.
In other words, it's a great opportunity for a real-life lesson on why it's important to listen and understand a problem before diving in to solve it.
My experience is that high-school students can be very resourceful when they're determined to help out in something like this. I'll bet if you and your classmates put your heads together on this you can come up with some creative solutions to help.
Good luck with whatever you decide to do.
-Terry
Message edited by author 2005-09-01 23:37:55.
|
|
|
|
09/02/2005 12:51:45 PM · #10 |
I posted some very useful links in
THIS thread. I figured it can't hurt to post it here, too. |
|
Home -
Challenges -
Community -
League -
Photos -
Cameras -
Lenses -
Learn -
Help -
Terms of Use -
Privacy -
Top ^
DPChallenge, and website content and design, Copyright © 2001-2025 Challenging Technologies, LLC.
All digital photo copyrights belong to the photographers and may not be used without permission.
Current Server Time: 06/18/2025 08:51:01 AM EDT.
