Donation Guidelines for Donors

We aimed to find out how to communicate donation guidelines to donors; we found that including the guidelines on an official website allows transparency. Having clear guidelines allows for donors to understand what is expected of them and their donations.

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This shows that having set guidelines or a program allows for an easier process when taking in donations. According to students and professors from the International Journal of Advanced Research in Science, Communication and Technology (IJARSCT), "By combining technology, transparency, and user-friendliness, it empowers donors, supports beneficiaries, and enhances the overall charitable ecosystem" (Jade, 2023, p.62), creating a technology platform could possibly be a beneficial solution. Jade et al. explain how a technology system that maintains donation data will allow for there to be a clear understanding for both the donor and recipient of the donations.

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Promoting information to donors on donation guidelines can prevent confusion when the donor comes to donate and allows for transparency. Information to provide donors can appear as such:

1.     Determine if clothes should be kept or donated.

2.     Inspect the quality of clothes and if they are appropriate to donate.

3.     Clean clothing before donating.

4.     Organize clothes by categories.

5.     Find a donation site.

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These steps allow for the smoother process and avoid conflicts or confusions. Having specific donation guidelines, on an online source, allows for donors to know their expectations ahead of time. It is important to communicate with donors to avoid confusion later or avoid questions that can be answered ahead of time. Purdue CCO Career Closet provides their donation guidelines on their website to provide clear guidelines. They find much success in this strategy.

 

Purdue CCO Career Closet provides strict guidelines for donors to bring in clean clothing. Purdue will not allow clothes that have not been cleaned if they can tell by looking at the donations. Purdue usually does not have an issue with unclean donations coming through because of their clear guidelines. Having these guidelines has provided them with a quicker system because they do not have to worry about clothing. Indiana State University does not have this guideline, instead an alumni will come and pick up donations and clean the clothes for the university. This works for the university because they do not clarify with the donors strict guidelines and ensures that the clothes are being clean.

 

Project B Green provides this information to donors because this allows donors to successfully donate clothes. Additionally, providing more data is essential and can allow donors to understand what donation sites expect when they are receiving donations. "Setting clear rules on what donors can and can’t give is an effective strategy to control the quantity and quality of your store’s donations. By putting some responsibility on your donors, you ensure your staff receives suitable, high-quality items, streamlining the sorting process" (ThriftCart). This shows that having information regarding donation guidelines will create a simpler process and set clear boundaries between the donor and recipient.

 

Accepting Donations 

We wanted to explore what other groups who accept donations do after receiving donations; we found similarities between Hire Attire’s goals and the strategies thrift stores use. Expanding our searches beyond college closets to thrift stores helped us find relevant data because of the similarities between thrift stores and clothing closets. 

 

Sorting Strategies

We found that creating a sorting process allows for a productive system. Implementing a software system that contains the inventory data is a vital first step for managing inventory, which is ideal for thrift stores because the data is in one area and maintained online.

 

Thrift stores receive hefty amounts of donations and create store-specific guidelines for accepting donations. Rain (2024) writes, "When donations come in, whether at your store or collection points, ensure each item is accounted for and categorized.” Keeping this data can allow for simpler processing and it ensures that the data is accounted for.

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These strategies may be consistent across multiple locations or vary based on clientele in a particular location. Thriftcart gives advice on accepting donations and best practices in industry trends. It is important to have steps to follow and use when accepting donations:

1.     Develop a sorting process for donated clothes.

2.     Place donated clothes in a category.

3.     Have a software system to maintain inventory data.

4.     Review inventory regularly.

5.     Price items that benefit the store.

6.     Move inventory around.

7.     Create a conventional store layout.

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These strategies can allow for an easier process when donations come in. With set steps, confusion can be avoided, especially if the practices are implemented effectively.

 

Figure 1: This question provided information on how other universities accept donations. Each university receives donations in some manner, but they differ in how. We allowed for the universities to select multiple choice options because a majority would accept donations by drop off and leave, but some others would have additional options. This allowed us to see common practices among universities, but additional strategies that we did not think of. 

 

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The results show that donors typically drop off donations and leave. Majority of the universities accept all the donations brought in and if they do not want these clothes, they then donate the unwanted clothes to another location. 

 

Clothing Process

We wanted to know what to do with unwanted clothing. We found that Indiana State University’s professional clothing closet called Career Clothing Closet gives their unwanted clothes to their theatre program. This allows for there to be positive interactions with the donors. As well as the theatre department benefits from the donations.

 

With a large abundance of clothing coming in, those clothes may not fit the closet’s criteria and need to be recycled. Indiana State University has found that a partnership with their program allows for the clothes to still have a purpose, but also support their own department. Other universities give unwanted clothing to nonprofits or local community organizations. This allows the clothes to still go to an area of need and support other services. This can be provided by connecting with local community organizations and university departments to develop community relationships and support. 

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We wanted to know ways to track donations, we found that tagging the donated clothes allows some form of tracking technique. Finding that Indiana State University uses this practice allows for an idea of productivity, but not the ideal form of tracking.

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At the beginning of a school term, tagging the donated clothes with a white tag and then the next term with a blue tag. This gives an idea of what clothes have come from in between the two years and shows a direct correlation between the numbers of donations from year to year. However, this has issues with the idea of the amount of clothing that leaves the closet per term. This will not keep an accurate number of donations. Instead, marking them on an online source or paper log would be more accurate. There would be an accurate number of donations from term to term and we would not have to worry about the items no longer being in inventory.

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The research our team found was having set guidelines for donors will allow there to be clarity when donations are being brought to the Hire Attire. These guidelines can be integrated on the Hire Attire page on the official Office of Student Employment website. Then once clothes are brought into Hire Attire, having a sorting process will help determine what clothes are to be kept or donated to another location. If clothes are not to the Hire Attire standards, then find a local community center or university department to donate them to. Student workers can implement these donation practices to accomplish a smoother donation process and system.

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