The Postcard Ploy
If you periodically get postcards in the mail offering to pick up donations of clothing and household furnishings in support of specific charities, donor beware. Apparently, all the goods collected go directly to a for-profit thrift shop and, based on information provided by the State Attorney General's office and the publicly available 501c3 forms, the charities receive a tiny percentage of the net proceeds.
DonateOakland.org addressed three of those charitable solicitations in 2015 in a series of blogs.
If you want to make sure that your donations stay in Oakland where they're available for purchase or distribution to low-income individuals and where the profits from their sale support much needed services, please avoid the POSTCARD PLOY.
DonateOakland.org addressed three of those charitable solicitations in 2015 in a series of blogs.
- VIETNAM VETERANS OF AMERICA
- UNITED CANCER RESEARCH SOCIETY
- DAV - CALIFORNIA REHABILITATION FOUNDATION
If you want to make sure that your donations stay in Oakland where they're available for purchase or distribution to low-income individuals and where the profits from their sale support much needed services, please avoid the POSTCARD PLOY.
We've Bin Had
The first unattended donation bins arrived in Oakland circa 2006 and by 2015, there were in excess of one hundred and fifty. In February 2016, an ordinance approved by the Oakland City Council went into affect implementing an application process with appropriate fees. At this time, no permits have been issued and, to our knowledge, no bins are currently placed within the city limits. If you do see a bin and it lacks an official stamp from the City of Oakland, please report it to the Code Enforcement Office.
EDITOR'S NOTE: In November 2015, Recycle for Change filed a lawsuit to stop implementation of the new city regulations. Information about the lawsuit and the process that led to the passage of the city ordinance is available on THIS LINK.
As a historical reference and as a resource for communities elsewhere, DonateOakland.org is preserving the following information about the various entities that operated bins here in Oakland.
RECYCLE FOR CHANGE (aka Campus California) has been the subject of numerous investigative reports documenting their ties to an international cult called "Tvind" or the "Teachers Group" beginning with the KCBS broadcast of Anna Werner's “Behind the Green Boxes" in 2006. That was followed in 2011 by this comprehensive article by Matt Smith in SF Weekly.
RFC is based in Richmond and they have approximately 1,000 bins statewide - the majority of which are in the Bay Area. In 2014, they reported $3.6 million in income from the sale of clothing - much of which was donated by Oakland residents who accepted at face value the non profit status granted by the IRS which isn't practicing due diligence. They pay no taxes. Their claims that they have no connection to an international conglomerate called "The Teachers Group" are fraudulent. Claims that they support an Oakland non-profit called "Helping Hands. Together We Thrive" at 8551 Thermal Street appear to be equally questionable as the only IRS form available online reports zero contributions and the Thermal Street address is a single-family residence.
Additional information about RFC and their origins as Campus California are posted on THIS LINK.
The first unattended donation bins arrived in Oakland circa 2006 and by 2015, there were in excess of one hundred and fifty. In February 2016, an ordinance approved by the Oakland City Council went into affect implementing an application process with appropriate fees. At this time, no permits have been issued and, to our knowledge, no bins are currently placed within the city limits. If you do see a bin and it lacks an official stamp from the City of Oakland, please report it to the Code Enforcement Office.
EDITOR'S NOTE: In November 2015, Recycle for Change filed a lawsuit to stop implementation of the new city regulations. Information about the lawsuit and the process that led to the passage of the city ordinance is available on THIS LINK.
As a historical reference and as a resource for communities elsewhere, DonateOakland.org is preserving the following information about the various entities that operated bins here in Oakland.
RECYCLE FOR CHANGE (aka Campus California) has been the subject of numerous investigative reports documenting their ties to an international cult called "Tvind" or the "Teachers Group" beginning with the KCBS broadcast of Anna Werner's “Behind the Green Boxes" in 2006. That was followed in 2011 by this comprehensive article by Matt Smith in SF Weekly.
RFC is based in Richmond and they have approximately 1,000 bins statewide - the majority of which are in the Bay Area. In 2014, they reported $3.6 million in income from the sale of clothing - much of which was donated by Oakland residents who accepted at face value the non profit status granted by the IRS which isn't practicing due diligence. They pay no taxes. Their claims that they have no connection to an international conglomerate called "The Teachers Group" are fraudulent. Claims that they support an Oakland non-profit called "Helping Hands. Together We Thrive" at 8551 Thermal Street appear to be equally questionable as the only IRS form available online reports zero contributions and the Thermal Street address is a single-family residence.
Additional information about RFC and their origins as Campus California are posted on THIS LINK.
DISCOVER BOOKS made a big splash in 2011 with a well-orchestrated event at Brookfield Elementary School where Safeway announced plans to place 150 of the big blue bins labeled "Books for Charity" in stores throughout the Bay Area. Those plans were hastily dissolved when it was disclosed that the bin operator (Thrift Recycling Management) had grossed $27 million the previous year.
In this March 9, 2012 article by Derek Moore in the Santa Rosa Press Democrat, company sources are quoted as saying that they had "donated 6 million books, or about half the total number brought in". In a press release a year earlier, TRM claimed that they had distributed 3.7 million free books; sold 15 million since 2004 and they were selling as paper pulp 24 million books each year. The bins are now labeled Discover Books but, as of late last year, they were not registered to do business in Oakland nor were they paying taxes.
REUSE CLOTHES AND SHOES is a highly secretive company based in Chicago. Their bins claim that they are an "Oakland-based Company" but they are not! In fact, they are not registered to do business here - nor have they responded to city requests for a list of bins currently located here. How unscrupulous are they? In neighboring San Pablo, they plopped a bin down on private property without authorization from the property owner who subsequently called them and threatened to sell the bin for scrap. They removed the steel bin - but replaced it with a plastic one.
7TH GENERATION RECYCLING & GREEN EDUCATION FOUNDATION are based in San Jose and are apparently, one and the same organization since Charlene Nijmeh is listed as Director of both. In addition, the bin operator is listed as Pacific Baler. As of last year, none of these were registered in Oakland - nor were they paying taxes.
USAGAIN has over 14,000 bins in nineteen states. Although they deny any connection to the Teachers Group, in this 2009 TV News Report, Matthias Wallender, USAgain's CEO, admits that he is a member. In addition, several sources (including the March 24th article in the Tribune) note that a majority interest in the corporation is held by Fairbanks, Cooper & Lyle - a Teachers Group affiliate with a tax haven in the Carribean.
in 2013, their San Francisco Division collected 4 million pounds of clothes and shoes in the Bay Area where they have 500 boxes. Of those about 50 are in Oakland. Since they wholesale everything they collect, they pay no sales taxes and their Oakland business taxes are negligible and like all the other operations, the goods as well as the profits, go elsewhere.
One of the most common objections to the unattended collection bins is their propensity to attract graffiti and illegal dumping. In addition, there are a host of severe environmental consequences that are spelled out on THIS LINK.
