Eye on the Street
Decatur Metro | March 22, 2012 | 3:35 pm
Old DFB Parking Lot, Decatur GA
Old DFB Parking Lot, Decatur GA
Mr. Boh
nelliebelle1197
FM Fats
Decatur Metro
Kelly
Cuba Libre
Cuba Libre
chris
Chris Billingsley
anniefannie
AMB
LAM
Steve
Steve
Macarolina
Are those donation bins something of a scam? Isn’t one better off taking unwanted stuff to Goodwill, Salvation Army, or St. Vincent dePaul?
Huh?
Well, Betterworld Books, for instance, is a for-profit corporation that donates a percentage of its profits to literacy organizations. Not exactly a scam, but I think a donation to a 501c corporation like Goodwill or Salvation Army allows a tax deduction for you and your donation has more of a bang for your buck as far as funds actually getting into the hands of the needy.
Gotcha. I was actually more intrigued by the CSD one. Anyone have any info on that?
I’ve wondered about that too. Is CSD collecting clothes and shoes for its own use–e.g. to give to needy students or their families? (I assume that Central Office is adequately clothed
). Or is CSD collecting for a specific charity, e.g. like when students have collected for a cancer nonprofit or Haiti relief or Hurricane Katrina rebuilding? And why is the CSD color scheme the same as BetterWorld Books? Is there a link?
Donate books in good condition to the library. Some will make their way into the library collection and others will be sold by the Friends of the Library to make money to benefit the library with programs, equipment, and more books. And you can get a tax donation receiptl
http://www.mlive.com/business/west-michigan/index.ssf/2010/10/goodwill_warns_fake_donation_b.html
I’ll have to look closely at the bin later to see what organization it belongs to. My instinct is that it’s a for-profit organization that sells used clothing and pays a stipend of some kind to CSD for logo use. Those bins have disturbed me since they went in there.
The clothing bin belongs to a for-profit company called USAgain.
That’s interesting. Thanks for checking.
Wow, just 12 minutes elapsed between when you said you’d check and when you posted the info. Did you run right out there? Are you Superman? More importantly, if donations go to a for-profit company called USAgain, why is CSD’s name and logo on there? Does a proportion of the proceeds (whatever they are–sale of the books?) go to CSD? I don’t think I have a problem with that but the link could be a bit more transparent.
I’m asking.
I wonder now what happens to books that are donated to the library. Do they go to Betterworld Books? Alison, are you reading?
Books donated to the library are first evaluated for addition to the the library collection. What the library can’t use is then donated to the Friends of the Library which then sells them at a booksale. Profits (100 % BTW, not the little sliver of the the net profits that Better World offers to its partners) are then used to fund programming, purchase new materials for the collections or various other needs that the library may have. I believe it was the Friends of the Dunwoody library that helped kickstart the collection of audiobooks that could be downloaded.
The BWB collection bins that have been popping up all over DeKalb have been a concern to DCPL’s many dedicated Friends of the Library groups. Like Friend of the Library” says, 100% of the proceeds from things sold at Friends book sales goes back to the branch and/or system for programs and materials. The Decatur Friends fund the Musical Bookings concert series, Vacation Reading club for kids in the summer and are also donating upwards of $5000 a year to help buy books. Friends donations are more important than ever since County funding for materials has decreased dramatically in recent years.
Extremely helpful information. Being among the last readers of hard copy books on this planet, our family accumulates a lot of paperback books, many of which are kept to the detriment of our sagging floors but many of which I try to donate or lend or otherwise recycle. What are the easiest ways to donate to the Library? The advantage of donation bins is that you can toss from the old, pollen-covered minivan without parking, dislodging grumbling occupants, etc. And I have to say, the times that I have handed over donations to the staff at the inside library checkout and return counters, I have had the sense that I was annoying them and they certainly didn’t seem grateful for the donation. They even seem perplexed as to where to put the books and I saw them put on a random shelf for further determination. My first choice of donation of books would be the schools and then the Library but I have to admit that I have so much going on that I will be influenced by ease of donation. I have sometimes driven around with bags of books or clothes for donation in the back of the miniV for so long that I couldn’t stand it any longer and just dumped them in the first location that I next hit, whether that be church, Salvation Army, Goodwill, or a bin that looked vaguely “green”.
CSD can not take them. The need to be a library bind on them. I donate to the library all the time, always receiving a smile and thank you.
You’re right that CSD cannot take the books directly but sometimes they have book drives of some sort, maybe through DEF? But occasional book drives don’t address our constant need for book recycling. I really wish the Library had an outside bin since I just don’t go inside as much as I used to because of work and bigger kids who can go there on their own. But I’ll bet they can’t because people would get confused and try to return books in the donation bin and vice versa.
If you can’t get to the library, use a Salvation Army or Goodwill bin. Friends of Disabled Adults and Children (FODAC) in Stone Mountain is a great place for donating furniture, and they’ll pick up. I avoid the Kidney Foundation because I understand that not much of the proceeds actually gets to the charity. I never use the bins because I itemize deductions and I sacrifice the convenience for a receipt.
I am really disappointed in the CSD and the DEF for allowing their logos to be used by Betterworld and USAgain, especially now that I understand that the book bin is directly detrimental to the local library.
Alison, have you communicated with the City about this?
Unrelated but (FODAC) also takes wheelchairs, walkers and things of that nature and restores them for those in need. We had a couple of wheelchairs a while back and wanted to make sure and donate them to a place that could really use them, and not just sit and collect dust somewhere. After a little research, this was the place we wound up choosing.
The library does have an outside bin. Unless you have to have a receipt, or you’re donating six cartons of books, drop them in the book drop–just as easy as the Better World bins, with all the profits going to the Friends of the Library. I’ve never had any troubles donating books and I have no idea if the shelf they put them on was random or not. I just supposed they know what they’re doing.
As usual, I am learning valuable info on DM, albeit sometimes stuff I should know already. Where is that outside bin for the library located? In the back parking deck? By the return drop-off? On the front lawn? Thanks.
Drive through book return is located between the library and the Decatur Rec center site. It’s in a little pull out right next to the library’s courtyard.
I know where the book return is but I was wondering about the book donation bin. Is it there too?
Sorry, just realized that the idea is that the regular book drop for returns is the same place to drop donations. Will do.
Any word yet about why CSD is on the USagain bin?
CSD informed me over the weekend that they had not given permission to USagain to use their logo and on Friday afternoon Dr. Edwards made the decision to have them removed from these clothing drop bins.
Good info, thanks. So CSD didn’t give their permission to use logo–USagain just did it on their own? Weird. USagain wasn’t/isn’t giving CSD or a CSD school any proceeds? What about the bin that is supposedly at Winnona Park (according to a post here, not my own observation.)
I also contacted CSD on Friday about this and just heard back. Email response was that these collection boxes are a method of passive fundraising for the schools with a percentage of the proceeds collected from selling the used clothing and shoes goes directly to each school in the form of a check (this had been approved by the superintendent this past Dec.). The use of the logo on the bins was not approved and CSD will be contacting USAgain to have the bins removed from the CSD school grounds. Response also reinterated that these bins nothing to do with the other green bins (Better World Books), which is a for-profit company donating a portion of its proceeds to the Decatur Education Foundation.
Passive fundraising is always a good thing and CSD schools and DEF are excellent recipients. A side of me is a bit worried about both companies, USagain and Better World Books given some of the info about them out on the Web. But another side of me says that it’s all the better to get some good out of something that’s apparently legal if a bit deceptive. While we’re at it with passive fundraising, send in those Boxtops for Education (but not in these bins!) and use Publix Partner cards and earn for our schools!
My concern about BetterWorld Books is that the bins hurt the library. I bet the library gets much more bang for the buck from used book donation than the DEF gets from Betterworld.
If they were not given permission to use the logo, then how did they acquire the logo template?
This is worrying me: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0%2C9171%2C461839%2C00.html
Interesting. Thanks for posting that link.
I met Poul Jorgensen in the late 90′s when he was looking for startup financing. He came into a bank in Tucker where I was working at the time. I didn’t like the business model then, but I noticed the distinctive red and white bins (they looked a bit like London phone booths) he featured in his business plan popping up in small business parking lots around the area some time later and figured he must have found some capital. I didn’t connect him with the green bins. While USAgain may not be deceiving anyone, it’s pretty damned close.
I think it would behoove any COD related agency to disassociate itself from a for-profit organization like this. Perhaps the money’s too good.
Yowzah.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tvind
Yeah, it’s Wikipedia, but still…
Who knew that the lines between educational innovation, cults, and fraud could be so thin?!!!
I am Clark Kent. The tall bin was a convenient place to ditch the business suit and change into my Superman duds.
Yep, USAgain has one at WPES and only added the schools logo after it had been there a while. It feels scammy to me, but if the schools actually get some of the proceeds maybe it isn’t so bad. Although when you google USAgain there are articles and “investigations” that point to profits going to some sketchy Danish organization.
http://www.kirotv.com/news/news/millions-clothing-donations-diverted-charity/nFgRJ/
I don’t understand why anyone would donate to a for-profit. And I bet that 9 out of 10 people who dump books and clothing into those bins think they are donating to a charity. And I also bet the folks at Fidelity Bank don’t even realize that they are providing space rent free to a business.
Betterworld is a pretty good company. I have a good friend that works for them. It is for profit, but they’re no a scam and do really good work.
Some info on what they’re about.
http://www.betterworldbooks.com/info.aspx
Books donated to the DeKalb library system are sold by the volunteer Friends of the Library and 100% of the proceeds go to the library last I knew. The only complaint I ever heard was that some of the donations that could have been put into the system were sold instead.