donations

Mike Mozart

Someone Donated An Urn Filled With Ashes To A Salvation Army

Bargain-hunters and rarity collectors love going to Salvation Army shops because there’s a decent chance that someone has unwittingly donated a valuable dress, pair of boots, books, toys, or record collection. What they don’t expect to find are the cremated remains of another human being. [More]

FEMA

Aid For Residents Of Puerto Rico Remains Unloaded At Docks

As residents of Puerto Rico continue to deal with the aftermath of Hurricane Maria, much of the needed aid sent to the island has yet to make it into their hands. Instead, cargo container after cargo container — holding things like meals, first aid materials, and other items — remain at port because the system in place to move the goods has been equally devastated by the storm.  [More]

FEMA

How To Donate To Disaster Relief Operations In Puerto Rico

Millions of Americans in Puerto Rico are without power, water, or homes in the wake of Hurricane Maria. Some of us who want to help with the effort to provide for these victims and to rebuild their lives may be overwhelmed by trying to figure out the best way to do so, and how to not get taken in by scams. [More]

frankieleon

Goodwill Returns $97,000 To Couple Who Accidentally Donated It

Do you bother to ask for a receipt when you donate your old stuff to Goodwill? If not, you might start after reading what happened to a couple after they donated some clothes. [More]

(epicharmus)

Former Bank Of America VP Accused Of Making $2.7M In Bogus Donations

A former Bank of America executive, along with her husband and another person, have been accused of bank fraud for their alleged involvement in an embezzlement scheme that involved making millions of dollars of fake donations in the bank’s name. [More]

Alan Rappa

Goodwill Has A Use For That Pile Of Amazon Boxes In Your Garage

If you’ve been shopping online a lot this holiday season or just in general, you probably have a lot of cardboard boxes in your house that you don’t need. You could break them down and recycle them, or you could fill them with crap around the house that you don’t need and make someone else recycle them. [More]

Adam Fagen

Patagonia Will Donate All Black Friday Sales To Charity

Outdoor outfitter REI is staying closed on Black Friday and encouraging customers and employees alike to spend the day enjoying the outdoors. Well, Patagonia, a company that has its own outdoorsy retail stores in addition to supplying REI, decided to do something different to work against commercialization of a shopping holiday: the company plans to donate all of its Black Friday sales to environmental charities. [More]

Apple Pay Will Now Let Users Donate To Charitable Organizations

Apple Pay Will Now Let Users Donate To Charitable Organizations

As we head into the holidays, giving to charitable organizations might be something you’re thinking about. You’ll have another option for how you can do that, with Apple announcing today that Apple Pay now supports donations to non-profits. [More]

Americans Give More Than $1B To Charity Every Day

Americans Give More Than $1B To Charity Every Day

Usually, the stories we come across that deal with large amounts of money often detail the exchange of millions or billions of dollars between huge companies in mega-mergers and pricy business deals. But there are others shelling out cash every day, and they’re giving it to charitable organizations to the record-breaking tune of $1 billion per day. [More]

Bill Binns

Starbucks Announces Plans To Donate All Edible Unsold Food

In the last few years, Starbucks has significantly expanded its repertoire of breakfast and lunch foods other than pastries. What it hasn’t been able to do is figure out a consistent way to donate all of those salads and sandwiches so that they don’t go to waste. Founder and CEO Howard Schultz announced today in an interview that this is going to change. [More]

(Dan Domme)

If You’ve Received The Gift Of New Gadgets, Recycle The Old Ones Or Pass Them On

Many of you are now enjoying new gadgets, whether it’s from a winter holiday present or post-holiday clearance sale self-gifting. If your new item replaced an old one, don’t throw the old one in a drawer: consider recycling it or passing it on to an organization that re-uses technology. Yep, there really is someone out there interested in your old game console and conference swag flash drives. [More]

California Car Donation Charities Misrepresented Charitable Programs, Misdirected Donations

California Car Donation Charities Misrepresented Charitable Programs, Misdirected Donations

From time to time you may hear of a charity that accepts the donation of older, used vehicles that owners simply no longer have use for, promising to donate the profit of the future sale to a charitable program. While it might seem like a fairly straightforward operation, the state of California claims two such groups weren’t keeping their promises, instead using the funds to pay for their own expenses.  [More]

(Salvation Army)

Anonymous Donors Leave $500,000 Check In Minnesota Salvation Army Kettle

Anonymous donors in Minnesota’s Twin Cities were certainly in the giving mood over the weekend, slipping a $500,000 check into a Salvation Army kettle. Unsurprisingly, it’s snagged the record for the area’s biggest kettle donation to date. [More]

(tjean314)

Kentucky City Allowing Motorists To Pay Parking Tickets With Canned Food For A Month

Residents of Lexington, KY now have another option along with searching through their couch cushions to come up with payment for parking tickets: the city will allow motorists to pay for their citations with canned goods throughout the month of November. [More]

This is not one of the boxes in question, though it is a clothing drop box. (JeepersMedia)

Group Must Pay $700K Penalty For Allegedly Profiting From ‘Charity’ Donation Bins

How do you turn a charitable donation into a scam? Take the donated item and sell it for a profit, instead of giving it to the needy. New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said his office has reached a settlement with a for-profit company accused of doing just that, by way of more than 1,100 clothing donation bins scattered throughout the New York City area. [More]

Minnesota AG Lori Swanson says her office has received a number of complaints from people who donated to Wheels for Wishes believing that a large portion of their donation would benefit the Make-A-Wish Foundation. According to Swanson's report, only about 20% of that money went to the foundation, while millions went to for-profit companies owned by the Wheels for Wishes' founders.

Report: “Wheels For Wishes” Charity Misled Donors About Make-A-Wish Donations

Car Donation Foundation, more popularly known as “Wheels for Wishes,” is the nation’s largest auto donation charity. Every year, it takes in millions of dollars from donated cars for the supposed purpose of benefiting local chapters of the Make-A-Wish Foundation. But Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson says the charity has been misleading donors about its connections to Make-A-Wish and about how much money that organization was getting from the donated vehicles. [More]

Surprise, Surprise: Comments In Favor Of Comcast/TWC Merger Come From Groups Comcast Has Donated To

Surprise, Surprise: Comments In Favor Of Comcast/TWC Merger Come From Groups Comcast Has Donated To

Large companies do a lot of philanthropic and community giving. Comcast is not alone on that front: volunteerism, grants, donations, and employee matching are common, perhaps even standard, at many of America’s biggest businesses. But where Comcast differs is that they, very publicly, turn their valuable giving into an unpaid army of on-demand lobbyists whenever they have a company to buy. Like Time Warner Cable. [More]

(Adam Fagen)

Please Do Not Donate Your Cremated Loved Ones To Goodwill

After someone dies, it’s normal to box up all of their stuff and take it to the nearest thrift store. However, it’s probably a good idea to give some of that stuff a cursory check first. Not just because you might be inadvertently giving away some serious valuables, but because the earthly remains of your relatives have a poor resale value at Goodwill. [More]