‘Commercial groups to blame for fall in clothes donations’

A LEADING charity that maintains vital services for people with disabilities has partly blamed commercial operators for a 30% fall in clothes bank donations this year.

Enable Ireland is urging people to do a post-Christmas clear out and donate unwanted goods to its shops as a matter of urgency.

Clothes bank donations generate over 60% of stock donated to Enable Ireland.

A regional breakdown of textile donations to the charity this year shows that Louth and Westmeath had the lowest percentage decrease at 16%, while Clare had the highest at 50%.

Enable Ireland’s 2010 report shows that retail accounted for €1m of the €3.2m generated through retail and fundraising activities during the year.

While in store donations have increased slightly and house collections remained steady this year, such sources have not compensated for the fall in textile donations.

According to the not-for- profit organisation, a minimum of €170,000 is required each month from retail and fundraising activities just to maintain services.

Enable Ireland’s retail operations manager, Ann Kelly, said the organisation had almost doubled the number of clothes banks from 100 to 180 in recent years.

“The reason for the drop in bank donations is due to a number of reasons. There is more competition from other charities who have become involved in textile donation but there is also a lot of competition from commercial operators.

“There are a number of commercial operators paying charities to be featured on their banks and paying to be on sites, which we don’t do on principle because we are a charity,” she said.

A growing number of cash-for-clothes operators has also hurt donations.

“The recession is also to blame. People aren’t getting rid of their clothes as much as they used to.

“But we have also found that since the economic downturn, our shops are extremely busy because they have become popular places to shop in. So we need the stock to meet the demand.”

Enable Ireland says people can avoid having bogus collectors taking their donations by getting one of their drivers to call to their door to collect it instead of leaving it outside.

There are a number of tips on how to recognise a genuine charity on the organisations website at www.enableireland.ie.