A few days ago, must-read blog Good Intentions Are Not Enough asked nonprofits to e-mail in the worst in-kind donations they’ve received. In today’s post, the blog runs down the best (er, worst?) submissions. Here’s a horrifying taste:
Worst in-kind donation as a tax write-off: Skeleton shaped suckers leftover from Halloween sent to survivors of Hurricane Mitch
The most ridiculous in-kind donation: Knickers for Africa and bras for Haiti – recent requests were made for donations of both of these items recently by two different organizations
Read the full post here — but don’t laugh too hard at that last item I quoted. Why? Well, in addition to designing and implementing a service project that sustainably addresses an underserved population’s unmet health need, U.S. Schweitzer Fellows are required to complete an outreach project that does the same.
And earlier this spring, five 2008-09 Bay Area Fellows (Ifey Asiodu, Mary Ann Dakkak, Serena Huntington, Alexis Jannicelli, and Hugo Torres) conducted a successful outreach project that delivered, yes, bras and “knickers.”
Because women’s undergarments are rarely collected during clothing drives, and area shelters professed a need for them, these five Fellows (who dubbed their outreach “Project Bra”) collected undergarments and toiletries for homeless women in the Bay Area. In addition, they raised over $1,000 to buy even more. Gift bags containing the garments and toiletries were delivered to women’s shelters — and the response was overwhelmingly positive.
So asking for bra and underwear donations might provoke an initial giggle — but that tittering is worth it if the end result helps to meet a real need.
Beyond Boulders 
Thanks for the shout out for my post.
I’m happy to hear that the knickers and bras were well received in your project. A big factor in the success of that project was the fact that the goods were collected and distributed in a local area. In-kind donations that meet a specific need in a local area are great. Shipping in-kind donations overseas is a very different matter.
The cost of overseas shipping is often more than buying goods locally. In addition, buying the goods locally puts money into the economy helping a variety of people. Also, shipping goods overseas runs the risk of the donations being inappropriate for the local culture, climate, and religion. More often than not shipments of donated goods are not used because they are inappropriate or incorrect. You can well imagine that tiny Haiti women do not wear the same size bras as well-fed American women.
For more on shipping in-kind donations overseas please see a related post http://informationincontext.typepad.com/good_intentions_are_not_e/2009/05/5-questions-you-should-ask-before-donating-goods-overseas.html
Cheers, Saundra
Thanks for commenting, Saundra, and for that background information. Certainly Project Bra would have been counterproductive if the undergarments’ destination was the Schweitzer Hospital in Lambarene, Africa, as opposed to local homeless shelters. Great to read your earlier post as to why — thanks for sharing it with our readers!
Its so nice to see that there is still so much good in the world we live in. LuvYourGirls.com would like to do a fundraiser to obtain bras for your cause if you are still in need of them. Please contact us at LuvYourGirls@LuvYourGirls.com