Thrifting with Purpose

Like most things in life, we are given a numerous amount of options to bring our unwanted items, and to shop secondhand.

Consignment shops, online boutiques, auction houses, estate sales, thrift stores…

Is one place better than the rest?

For this post, we learn more about donating to thrift stores and the differences of non-profit and for-profit shops.

We'll discusses secondhand stores responsibilities to the public, and begin the journey of deciding for ourselves where the best place for our items will be.

Grab some snacks, get comfy, and learn what I found about our favorite thrift shops like Goodwill, Savers and Value Village. As well as those tiny shops you never heard of, but wish you'd had!

For-Profit

One of my favorite thrift stores for the past decade has been Savers. It is nicely organized, easy to shop, and has the largest selection of items than most other shops I’ve been to.

Savers, Value Village, Unique Thrift, are all owned by TVI Inc. These thrift giants have become the one-stop-shop/ big box store of the thrifting world.

“Savers does more than $1.2 billion in business annually. For years it has been the single largest player in for-profit thrift stores” (NBC News)

The question is:

How much of this revenue gets donated to the charities Savers proudly partners with?

The answer:

“Sometimes Savers’ charity partners have received less than 5 percent of sales revenue on goods donated on their behalf. Overall, it appears that between 8 percent and 17 percent of the firm’s revenue ends up with charities” (NBC News)

You see, because TVI Inc stores are for-profit, they are allowed to have such drastic unbalanced donations and require very little transparency.

“It may be legal, but it’s not right.” InvestigateWest

And whether or not you find it unethical for TVI stores to donate the bare minimum, for some, these tiny donation are heavily relied on.

“I can’t say enough good about our relationship with Savers,” said Lori Konya, CEO of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Northern New Jersey and its donation-gathering subsidiary Clothes For Kids’ Sake. “A lot of government funding has dried up for nonprofits and I’m not even sure we’d be in business without Savers.” (NBC News)

Yet, other partner charities find themselves better off without TVI partnerships, and have ended relations.

For-profit thrift stores are businesses and ran as businesses.

So, perhaps for-profit thrift shops are not the best place for your donations.

However, it might be your favorite final spot to check when thrifting for something particular you haven’t been finding, before shopping those fast-retail shops.

Because, even if these stores don’t donate as much to charity as they may want us to believe, some charities do still rely on that donation.

Also, when these thrift store giants close, it eliminates convenient options for us to shop secondhand, as well as hundreds of jobs.

Five TVI thrift stores closed in Chicago

last year that employed about 170 full-time workers

(Chicago Tribune)

Understanding a bit more on the way for-profit thrift stores operate,

let us now learn of non-profit thrift shops and the transparency required of them.

Non-Profit

Knowing little to nothing about non-profits, I had to start with the basics.

What does being a non-profit thrift shop mean?

“Non-profit" means these organizations cannot have any profits at the end of the fiscal year. With the exception of endowments and savings, all of the money that comes in must also go out. (legal zoom)

Goodwill is a hybrid non-profit.

Goodwill CEO, Jim Gibbons, coined Goodwill stores as “hybrid organizations” integrating business practices with social missions.

In a sense, Goodwill operates similar to for-profit thrift shops. Yet, whereas for-profit stores can donate random percentages of revenue to partner charities, Goodwill is required to spend at least 65 percent of total expenses on program activities

Many sources educate us that charity spending shouldn’t be the only thing to consider before donating our items.

“It's far more useful to focus on true indicators of a nonprofit's performance: transparency, governance, leadership, and results” (America’s Charities)

Let us then investigate these areas of Goodwill thrift stores.

Goodwill's Transparency

Goodwill Industries International website offers a pdf of their board members, and their 2017 annual report offers a breakdown of generated revenue and revenue spent on programs. The website seems as transparent as one would hope for.

However, some Goodwill stores financial information isn't disclosed. Once we start looking directly at regional operations, we'll notice information available on sites may change.

We discuss later about the different communities that operate different stores and how one Goodwill doesn’t represent all.

Goodwill's Governance & Leadership

Goodwill board members are known to have direct ties with the companies doing business with Goodwill.

For example, Goodwill pays Hanesbrand $1.2 million for overstocked items. (WLOS)

Chris Fox is a VP at HanesBrands, serving on the board of directors at Goodwill Industries of Northwest North Carolina.

Richard Tepe, Director of Finance at Target Corporation, is also a member of Goodwill/Easter Seals Board of Directors. (Goodwill)

These are aspects of the "hybrid non-profit" thrift shops to consider.

Goodwill's Results

Goodwill claims the money its thrift stores make go towards community programs like job training, placement services, and classes for people who have disabilities or are otherwise challenged in finding traditional employment, such as ex-offenders.

These employees work at Goodwill's retail thrift stores as dock workers, donation site attendants, donation sorters, pricers, and retail store associates.

Some Goodwill stores have been found abusing these labor privileges.

“A 2013 Watchdog report found that the married couple in charge of Goodwill Industries of Eastern North Carolina, Dennis and Linda McLain, received close to $800,000 annually while employing workers with disabilities were paid less than minimum wage” (Country living)

Currently, 44 Goodwill stores are taking advantage of the

Fair Labor Standards Act provision

This provision allows companies to employ certain individuals who might otherwise be excluded from the workforce, and pay them less than minimum wage.

Also, results show scholarships offered by Goodwill Industries don't stray too far from the charity.

"17 scholarships worth $23,000 were given to children of Goodwill Industries employees. Among the scholarships, $4,000 is split equally among four children of Goodwill's Vice Presidents"

(WLOS)

As it stands, every Goodwill store is different, it really depends on the independent owner of the store you shop at.

But, if you're uncomfortable donating to for-profit shops, be mindful that Goodwill is not much different, and CEO Jim Gibbons even proudly calls his stores "hybrid organizations."

Now, to learn about a typical non-profit charity thrift shop.

The Community Closet

The Community Closet is a non-profit thrift store in Milaca, MN and currently the only secondhand store in the small, central Minnesota town. This boutique sized shop is the store to Pearl Crisis Center.

Pearl Crisis Center is known as a safe and affirming place for victims/survivors of domestic and sexual violence to heal and grow to the benefit of a peaceful community

When making a donation or purchase at The Community Closet, you help the Pearl Crisis Center afford hygiene products, diapers, safe rooms for victims, and other things that government funding does not cover.

You see, state and federal funding is limited, and non-profits are told specifically what that funding is for.

Since government funding cannot cover all costs, The Community Closet operates to create extra revenue for the Center.

They hold personal care and diaper drives, in which customers can donate personal care items/diapers for coupons towards the thrift store.

They host a community fashion show every spring that offers community awareness on domestic and sexual violence, incorporating local community members and businesses.

They've also started a pilot project 3 years ago, allowing them to grant awards to community members helping the Pearl Crisis Center's mission:

Provide support to victims of domestic and sexual violence through direct services, prevention, and community awareness. (Pearl Crisis Center)

We have read the ways The Community Closet offers direct services and community awareness to the Pearl Crisis Center and their community in Minnesota.

Let us now lean the ways The Community Closet works on the prevention aspect of their mission.

The charity has a youth advocate whom speaks with 10th graders in the local high schools about "safe-dates."

They do hope to reach youth earlier, but there are obstacles concerning schools and parents.

While these hidden-gem thrift shops provide thrifters the biggest charitable return for their purchases and donations,

they are also the hardest to keep open.

They don’t have members of Target or Hanes on their board to connect them with never-been-worn overstock. Non-profit thrift stores, like The Community Closet, rely on our donations and purchases for the charity they work for.

They don't get the advertising and recognition that chain thrift stores giants do, and sometimes these stores go on unnoticed.

Unable to afford the employees that thrift store giants are able to, these non-profit shops rely heavily on volunteers. This can result in inconvenient hours for our donations and thrift shopping.

These inconvenient hours, however, should not keep us from putting in the effort towards making them our first thrift-shop stop.

Conclusion

Consignment shops, online boutiques, auction houses, estate sales, thrift stores…

Donating and shopping secondhand has many routes!

Learning more on for-profit TVI Inc. giants and the non-profit hybrid giant Goodwill, as well as non-profit shop The Community Closet, will make us more aware and mindful of our donations, and hopefully understand thrift stores a bit better.

For-profit thrift shops talk a big donation game, but the truth is, they are a business and operate as such.

With that, though, they can afford the employees to keep a clean, organized store that is relatively stalked with decent priced items. And the minimal donations TVI Inc stores do donate, still help charities that get limited government funding.

With non-profits, they each should be analyzed store-by-store because

they are not all created equally.

Some Goodwill stores will do better for their community than others. It is up to us to check their website for board member and revenue transparency.

Goodwill’s CEO, Jim Gibbons, describes his stores as “hybrid organizations.” So, if you’re uncomfortable donating or shopping at for-profit stores, be mindful that Goodwill is not too different.

Something to try doing is, research a focus that is meaningful for you.

Whether it be domestic violence, kids, veterans, addicts, convicts… you might find a thrift store/ donation center in your area that is directly affiliated with a charity you’re passionate about. These stores/centers will give you the biggest charitable return for your donation.

Thank you for learning about for-profit and non-profit thrift shops with me!

Continue learning on Thrift Ethics as I research other secondhand options and different material waste solutions as offered by you!

See you on the feed Thrifters.