Junk Donations An Unnecessary Expense For Salvation Army
There's Black Friday and Cyber Monday but today's National Day of Giving or #GivingTuesday has struck a chord.
It was started in 2012 as a way to move past the focus on post-Thanksgiving buying. Last year more 700,000 people participated in 70 countries raising more than $116 million.
"It's a fairly new trend and it's catching on every year. It's getting bigger and bigger" says Major Ivan Wild from the Salvation Army's Del Oro headquarters.
In Sacramento, the Salvation Army expected a big boost today. Last year's #givingtuesday brought in 25 thousand dollars to the organization.
This is also the time of year when there's an increase in items dropped off at local charities.
"Everybody will try to get their donation in to get that receipt for the taxes," says Debra, a Salvation Army production manager.
But she adds sometimes those items cost more than they're worth.
"When we get donations that are not re-sellable in our store so we can't sell them at our auctions and we have to throw it in the garbage which increases the cost for dumps."
The Salvation Army says the easiest things to donate are clothing or household items in workable condition.
While one person's trash is another person's treasure throwing away unusable items rather than donating them benefits charities and those in need even more.
The Salvation Army says it expects to bring in even more donations both online and in person this year as the National Day of Giving gains momentum.