How not to do holiday giving: “charity tourism” and old socks cost non-profits time and money

(Photo: Lance Grandahl)

No one wants to seem ungrateful during the holiday season, especially charities reliant on public donations. But sometimes, one person’s trash is just that — trash. And during the holiday season, misguided donations can multiply.

Broken chairs, dirty linens, damaged clothing, old mattresses and unpaired running shoes won’t find a home at your local charity and dealing with them takes time and effort non-profits can little afford. But communicating that to the public is a delicate task, according to those in the sector.

“It’s a common thread that isn’t talked about because charities are generally very polite and they don’t want to offend anyone,” says Dan Kershaw, executive director of Furniture Bank. “But charities can’t be society’s dumping ground.”

If people want their donations to have impact, they should look at the issue through the lens of the charity they’re donating to,” he says, adding unusable donations are a financial and organizational burden to the entire thrift sector.

“Our furniture goes into small apartments in the Greater Toronto Area,” says Kershaw. “So if we get a soiled, stained 12-foot sofa, that’s of no use to the charity, we wouldn’t be able to pass it on.”

At Dressed for Success in Winnipeg, the Christmas holiday is usually followed by an uptick in donations as folks make way for newly acquired items. The charity provides women and non-binary individuals re-entering the workforce with professional attire, but people still sneak men’s clothing into the mix.

“Our biggest problem right now is actually volume,” says program coordinator, Eston Ferraton. “People are really donating a lot because they think that we will take everything … we get a lot of stuff that is completely unusable for us.”

It’s not that the items are junk, she adds, just not fit for purpose. Volunteers vet each garment and those that don’t make the cut — like jeans, legging or undergarments — are bagged so additional volunteers can transport unusable items to other charities. It takes time and resources to handle the overage, Ferraton says.

Al Hoeft, the Salvation Army’s divisional secretary for public relations and development, says if you couldn’t see yourself buying something, don’t put it in a donation bin.

“We’re always grateful for donations and we understand that the community has the very best intentions when they drop things off to us. But obviously some things are more useful than others and some things are more challenging,” he says. For example, Salvation Army Thrift Stores no longer accept mattresses.

Many standalone donation bins were “hammered” during the first pandemic lockdowns, as people purging unwanted items from their homes treated the bins as de facto dumpsters, Kershaw says. “This is a hunch, but I think everybody sees the word charity … and the assumption is, well, they’ll figure it out, they’ll know what to do with it.”

Josh Smee, executive director of Food First NL, says sometimes the thing that organizations need the most simply isn’t the warm and fuzzy option.

“The number one thing is cash,” he says. “By far, the most effective donation to emergency food programs is always cash. Having cash donations allows them to buy the supplies that they actually need.”

Donors can also amplify their impact by giving some of their time to advocacy work, such as emailing government representatives and urging them to address the root causes of poverty, Smee says.

But many individuals looking to donate their time over the winter holidays don’t envision themselves writing to their local member of parliament — they see themselves interacting with the “less fortunate.” 

Enter the seasonal volunteer.

Nathan Monk, a former Orthodox priest and author of Charity Means Love, spent two decades working at homeless shelters. He says holiday volunteerism is generally the by-product of people having time off of work, combined with a genuine desire to give back to the community.

“During the holidays we tend to talk a lot more about people who are going through different, individual struggles, and I think that what ends up happening as a result of that is that we think that the problem only exists during the holidays,” he says. “But poverty and homelessness are year-round issues.”

Training or supervising one-off, temporary volunteers also creates organizational burden for charities, which are forced to expend time and resources with no hope of a return on investment. Charities working with vulnerable populations often field requests from people who only want to volunteer on Thanksgiving or Christmas Day, something Monk refers to as “charity tourism.”

In some cases, volunteers also end up disclosing problematic motivations.

“In the past, we’ve had situations where people would come and volunteer and then they would look at their kids in front of clients and say things like, ‘Well, this is why you need to stay in school or otherwise you’ll end up like this person,’” he says. “And I think non-profits have a responsibility to respect and safeguard the dignity of these individuals. It’s not their responsibility to help teach you a lesson or provide cautionary tales for your children.”

Hoeft says he fields calls from people looking to volunteer at Christmas dinners every year. And while the organization does need additional people for its toy drives and donation kettles, finding a way to incorporate one-time volunteers is difficult.

“How do you find a safe way for them to be part of an event? It’s often a challenge for us to make sure that we’re appropriately assigning volunteers to places where they’re the right fit,” Hoeft says. If people want to donate their time in a meaningful way, they should think about the skills they have to offer and ask questions about what a charity needs, he adds.

“If people are looking to volunteer, I certainly encourage them to look for something that they might want to continue doing, not just a one-off,” he says. 

Monk, who experienced homelessness along with his family during his youth and later founded the Charity Institute, says he would invite those who asked to volunteer at Christmas dinners to attend an end-of-year orientation while running shelters and limited Christmas Day volunteers to those who’d been with the charity for at least six months.

“And these are difficult things to implement, I understand that, because we sort of created a culture around giving during this time of year,” he says. “But I think reframing that conversation and centering it on the clients and their own personal needs produces better results long-term.”

Even if some efforts are misguided, Hoeft says the community’s desire to give back over the holidays is remarkable.

“You know, we’d love to see this motivation 12 months of the year instead of just one, yes. But people come out of the woodwork wanting to help because they think this is the season when we as a community come together, we give back, we help out,” he says. “Every year I see it and it doesn’t just amaze me, it gladdens my heart — it gives me some hope.”

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