[Chat] Planet Aid and financial info (was Clothes donation)

[Private Person]

Dear All,

Yeah, Planet Aid has been under a lot if suspicion over the years, perhaps 
merely for the "black box" (yellow box?) nature of dropping clothes in and 
not knowing what happens next.  Though I don't really know if the suspicion 
is warranted, they are a multi-million dollar organization, and -- I'm no 
economist -- it seems that the dollars that go overseas are a 
disproportionately small percentage of the dollars that move through the 
organization.

For example, from their 2004 tax return:
Gross receipts: $18,222,381.
Gross sales of inventory: $9,968,728.
Less cost of goods sold: $9,689,682.   [that looks odd to me, for donated 
clothes?]
Grants & Allocations: $1,789,076.   [what they give away?]

This may well be overly suspicious of me, but it seems kind of strange that 
on the website, they don't give the locations of their resale shops.

One thing is for sure -- there's a lot of fuel burned in shipping things 
around and another $1.8 million in salaries to manage all that, whereas if 
you donate to a local organization, you can avoid these environmental and 
financial costs.  My personal rule of thumb is to give *stuff* locally and 
give cash to organizations that do good work far away.

You can look at the tax forms for non-profits at guidestar.org.

Peace,
Dorrie




>From: "D. Williams" <dwilliamsjhu02 at hotmail.com>
>Reply-To: The Charles Village Chat List <Chat at charlesvillage.info>
>To: Chat at charlesvillage.info
>Subject: Re: [Chat] Clothes donation
>Date: Sun, 10 Dec 2006 02:24:34 +0000
>
>
>
>The yellow boxes are Planet Aid their website is below, I don't think it is 
>a bad thing!
>
>http://www.planetaid.org/
>
>This doesn't seem like a bad organization to me, proceeds of sales from 
>used clothing to Africa and Asia.  I know that there was some discussiion 
>about this being a "shady" enterprise.  I'm not so sure about it.  After 
>looking at the 2005 Report, it appears that only 7% of the proceeds go to 
>administration?  Am I wrong?
>
>PS.  This IS VERY DIFFERENT than Planet Earth clothing, which is an extreme 
>sport enterprise!
>
>
>
>
>
>From:  Greg Alexander <ugagrad93 at yahoo.com>
>Reply-To:  The Charles Village Chat List <Chat at charlesvillage.info>
>To:  Discussion at charlesvillage.info, chat at charlesvillage.info
>Subject:  [Chat] Clothes donation
>Date:  Wed, 6 Dec 2006 08:05:24 -0800 (PST)
> >FYI: For others looking to donate anything, Purple Heart does not service 
>CV any more.  AMVETS
> >does.  I had to call several numbers to find the right one, so I thought 
>I'd share:  410-522-2221
> >
> >Greg Alexander
> >Freelance Writer/Editor
> >Editor, Mason-Dixon Arrive
> >2629 Guilford Avenue
> >Baltimore, MD
>21218
> >410-243-3387
> >ugagrad93 at yahoo.com
> >www.gregoryjalexander.com
> >
> >
> >
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