It appears that there are a number of people who find themselves clueless when it comes to being aware of the procedure on how to donate furniture to goodwill. These people miss valuable opportunities to donate, particularly if they happen to stumble upon an institution in the process of searching for the right charitable institution to channel their donations with.
As fate would have it, the reason goodwill has not been recognized by other donors, especially those that are new in donating their goods, is that goodwill is the only institution that has been omitted in the list of possible charitable institutions among others. The reason for this is that goodwill has opted not to be included on this list, as they have their own website wherein donor can contact them.
Therefore, if there is ever a time in which you wish to specifically channel your furniture donations to goodwill, you have the ability to simply search for their company name, and you will be directed to their website.
Things to consider in donating furniture to goodwill
Your donation is generally for any person in their recipient list and most of them are truly in need of these things. So, when you are looking to give a donation, be certain that it can readily be beneficial to the person receiving it and will not cause any problem in their lives. Goodwill, on the other hand, tends to be strict when it comes to enforcing their procedure of donating. Therefore, when you wish to make a donation to goodwill, be sure to make sure everything is in order and have the items to wish to donate properly prepared prior to the schedule of the donation. The following are matters you should consider prior to making your donation to goodwill.
- Is your furniture potentially useful to others? When you want to donate your furniture through goodwill, you must ask yourself first this question. As you will be doing so in order to assist other families in need, it only makes sense to make sure you are only giving them things that could be of use to them.
- Is goodwill going to pick up your furniture for you? This question appeared to boggle the minds of most people. It could be quite a hassle to have to haul heavy furniture on your own. Typically, when you donate clothes and food though goodwill, they will refer you to your local collection center. However, in cases wherein you explain to then that it could potentially be a hassle for your to transport heavy furniture to their collection center, they will readily refer you to their donating furniture to goodwill pickup program, which could be more to your liking and convenience.
- Will someone be able to assist in hauling heavy furniture? This too could be answered when you get to refer it to the goodwill staff. It may depend on the availability of their workers at the particular time you request. If they don’t happen to be too busy, there will certainly be someone who is able to help you in the process of hauling your heavy furniture from your house to their collection center near you. However, in the aftermath of hurricane Sandy, they are often busy and will not be able to space someone to assist you, as most of their personnel are busy assisting the victims and giving out the basic commodities such as food and clothing.
Knowing some steps in donating
If you are certain you wish to channel your donation through goodwill, then you would do well to give the following steps a try so that you will be guided properly. Goodwill can often be quite strict on some matters pertaining to the donation of furniture.
- Decide what furniture you have that you no longer feel as if you have a use for and wish to donate to Goodwill. If you have plenty of furniture to donate, be certain they are still useful and in good condition. If they aren’t, your best option is to repair it or throw it away. Be certain to keep in mind that Goodwill will not accept donations that cannot be of use to a person in need. So, you should first place all of your furniture in one place and separate them into groups of things that need to be repaired and polished from the things that are useless.
- You may either opt to repair these things on your own or allow someone else to refurbish them in your stead. After your furniture is repaired, you can repaint it yourself and maybe even have a good time doing it; repainting can be the easiest part of this task. You can still make some minor repairs that can be fixed with a few hits of your hammer to straighten some crooked legs or lose nails and screws.
- Once you have completed the necessary steps in regard to making your furniture presentable, you can begin contacting Goodwill. However, based on their website, they often prefer their donors to simply drop their donation off at their nearest donation center. Though, if you are looking to donate furniture, then you need to negotiate it well with them first. If the goodwill donate furniture pick up is willing to pick up your donation from your home, then this is a great option for you to seize. Typically, they have schedules on some area, so you should expect to wait for them to come around your area in order to pick up your furniture.
- There are some cases in which you will be the one to go to their center and give your furniture to them, and if this is the case, be certain not to leave your furniture outside their centers unattended. You should wait for the one in charge in their center to speak with you before you leave. This is due to the fact that most donors would necessarily want to get their expected donation receipts, which can be useful when filing for income taxes.
- As soon as someone can entertain you regarding your goodwill furniture pickup, make sure that your donation has been well accounted for and know is it can be of help to families in need. There are some instances, however, in which a multitude of people have been donating similar goods and the charitable organization will sell them to other countries in bulk and the proceeds gained from this transaction would be used to benefit families who would rather ask for other goods. This is why you need to ask if your furniture will be readily shipped to your recipient or sold in exchange for money to purchase the recipient something they need even more.