Volunteer or Scrounger?

me too. I lost/left a waterproof jacket in the park where I'd taken grandchildren. a few weeks later I found it in a charity shop and was happy to pay and get it back. well done to the finder too.

dogsmother

Doodldog, probably unclear why it’s that much of an issue. If you are done with something then you are done with it. Do not begrudge people who get something extra out of a voluntary role.
It’s actually better than sitting around at the back of my wardrobe or cupboard.
I wouldn’t be too quick to judge maybe.

So people should have no say where their donations go because they are done with them? No, I disagree. I choose the charity shop I use based on my personal preference, for instance. I choose whether to sell on eBay, what to donate, what to put on Freecycle and what to take to the tip. It’s not a case of ‘oh, let’s let someone with time to volunteer have another new coat for £1’ instead of it selling for £10 and the money going to charity.

If you read my posts you would know that my own mother volunteered until recently, and ‘her’ shop had a policy of allowing volunteers to take what they wanted before the items were priced or put out. Another volunteer would price them, knowing that their friend was planning to buy them. The policy was not explicitly stated, but custom and practice was to price much lower for colleagues, who then got a further discount. The staff knew no different, were open about it to friends and family, and saw no harm in what they were doing. I am not suggesting that it was dishonest, as it was made clear in their induction that this was the system. What troubles me is that the donors had no idea that Gladys had 20 coats in her cloakroom, that all new shoes in size 6 were to be left for Betty’s perusal before being displayed, or that there was a book in the staff room saying that Elspeth was looking for an evening dress in a size 14, preferably beaded, and that Beryl’s granddaughter was expecting again, so please put all new baby items on the table until she’s in on Thursday. All of that is fictional but based on fact.

Do you think that if there were a notice to this effect on the shop door, people might have taken their donations elsewhere? Don’t you believe that they should have had the right to choose whether to donate in those circumstances, or take things to the shop along the road where the policies were akin to those in BlueBelle’s one?

Oh, and I wonder at the ‘psychology’ that objects to full disclosure and suggests that those in support of it are ‘jealous’ . I’m not a psychologist, but what I see there is just a different moral compass. I am not jealous or taking the moral high ground - I just believe in informed consent for the donors. If Gladys wants an evening dress and one come in in her size, she should absolutely get first dibs. But it should be properly priced as though a member of the public were buying it.

Doodledog, I actually do agree on a fair price properly set, but after that so what if Gladys has 20 of the coats? Sorry but I really couldn’t get in a tizz about something I had discarded.

Fair enough. Our opinions differ - it happens on discussion forums.

I'm not remotely in a tizzy though - there are a lot of assumptions going on. We were just discussing different attitudes to pricing when accusations of jealousy etc started flying.

Re Gladys and the coats (G is real, but called something else) the whole point of the shop is to raise money for the charity, and there are people in the town who could do with a new coat but can't afford a new one. G taking all the coats in her size is preventing those people from being warm in winter, and cutting the profits to the charity. To me it's about fairness, not jealousy.

I volunteered for Age Concern in the past and their rules state that volunteers cannot even purchase any articles from the shop until they have been made available to the public for at least one week. I thought this an excellent idea.

NannaJeni

I volunteered for Age Concern in the past and their rules state that volunteers cannot even purchase any articles from the shop until they have been made available to the public for at least one week. I thought this an excellent idea.

So do I, NannaJeni. It does suggest that there has been a problem there, too, doesn't it.

If volunteers are taking stock it is stealing and they should be reported.

When i volunteered we used to get 25% off which is reasonable. However there’s always someone who lets the side down and that was apparent when i managed a small charity shop and 1 particular volunteer would just turn up when they wanted and stay long enough to buy something. Got wise to that. It’s difficult to sometimes retain enough volunteers which is why i think some charities allow it. However at the end of the day the idea is to raise money for the charity….

I personally don’t think you should be allowed to do that. I give my stuff to my hospital who sell it to buy toys etc for the children wards and you receive a letter saying who much your goods sell for I sold over £300 it actually made me think. I can’t be bothered with selling online then ppl saying didn’t receive it etc and find same ppl selling your stuff on as I had one do. But I did get my money back after I had to repay them for their false claims

This does not surprise me one bit. I have never worked in a charity shop but I have friends who do and who also work in food banks and the amount of stealing that does on from both volunteers and the paid staff shocks me and them. The managers seem the worse!
The problem is what do the honest volunteers do? In their case they can’t tell the managers as they are in on it and is it really their responsibility to go higher than that?

I am yet to find a well run charity. The food bank that my friend works at is shocking. Useless manager who is line managed by a vicar who has no management experience and never says anything to her. It makes my blood boil the stories I hear.

It would make a great ITV drama but no one would believe it!

I really hope that none of the thousands of kind volunteers who work in these shops read the vitriol and accusations in this post. It may be that there are charity shops where some take advantage of getting first pick, but the people on here are so judgmental. Bearing in mind, if these people had to be paid rather than volunteer it would cost those charities huge amounts of money - even at minimum wage, the average working day would be £80.
As someone who has relied on grants from charities, I am so grateful to these people who give up their precious time to work for free in these places. I appreciate how hard they work, they're often treated in the same way that paid retail staff would be (in that they're expected to work a certain number of hours per week minimum, have to pay parking / transport etc, have to do the dull parts of the job as well as the more fun, social stuff).
Much of the research around cancer diagnosis, treatment and care, Heart disease, Alzheimer's disease is funded by charity grants - the government funding is very low, so we have to thank these people hugely for the time they give that allows the research to save our loved ones.
Maybe those of you complaining should look at wheat you do to help?

Unfortunately it goes on in the best quarters. I have to agree that an awful lot of these volunteers scrounge and scavenge or just take what they want,It gets decent honest hardworking volunteers a bad name

That behaviour is disgraceful. Stealing from charity is the lowest of the low, and that’s what it is. My DH mistakenly took my beautiful Episode suit jacket to the charity shop in error with other things. I flew into town within the hour to say it was a mistake and could I buy it back to be told they didn’t have it. I’m sure somebody did.

I guess all Charities run their shops differently. I have an elderly Aunt who volunteered for Tenovus for thirty years. it gave her something to get up for in a morning, Years ago the shop had a complete refurbish and a new manager. The tales of some decent items going in the bin was quite upsetting. Everything had to be perfection! Clothes wise I give to charities that distribute them to the homeless etc, Clothes which are not so good go in bags to the firestation. As long as they are clean you can even put socks and underwear in the bags. They receive two hundred pound per ton. This money goes towards the rehabilitation of injured fire fighters.

I have a friend who until recently volunteered in the local Oxfam Charity shop. They have been applying for a manager for twenty eight thousand pounds a year. Add this to the overheads they need to raise a lot of money for the shop alone before any of those fund go to the charity?

Another friend volunteers in Claire House Hospice Charity shop, The amount of pilfering is unbelievable even young children!!

So sad that people have to work so hard to raise funds for the wonderful work that most of these charities carry out.

dogsmother

Doodledog, I actually do agree on a fair price properly set, but after that so what if Gladys has 20 of the coats? Sorry but I really couldn’t get in a tizz about something I had discarded.

Agreed so what if Gladys has 20 coats. Would anyone police Edna a non volunteer who actually has 30 coats who comes in and buys a 31st. Still same outcome, a coat not available to someone who might need it more.
I don't buy the assumption that every good quality donation will be bought by volunteers. Garments or footwear have to be your size, no point in getting the most expensive biggest brand items if they don't fit. I see things in charity shops that are big brand items, that were very expensive to buy and are hardly used, but I don't need one, think the expensive ornament is ugly and tacky, the high beans cosmetics are no good for my skin colour, that sort of thing.
I have seen people in charity shops though, not volunteers, going through the stuff, buying up things for their business or to otherwise sell on. I've heard what they are saying to their companion or the person on the end of the phone. Like Gladys they are paying what the shop are asking. Why demonise Gladys who is putting in her shifts for free?
I don't believe she already has 20 coats by the way, think how many wardrobes she would need to store all those. She probably does what I do and if for example she manages to find a black coat that fits her well she will donate the one that is a little bit tight, but she has kept asking it was useful for funerals etc.ive done that, and before anyone sucks their teeth I'm not a shop volunteer and the nicer black coat was actually an end of season reduction, so I got a bargain, a coat that fits me much better and (another) shop got a lovely coat that was just a bit tight across my back.
As long as a volunteer or member of the public pays the price for an item, I see no problem.

There are many thousands of volunteer workers who give their time freely for all kinds of causes who receive absolutely no remuneration in cash or kind. That is the whole ethos of voluntary work - spending unpaid time doing something to benefit others.

I agree with most of what you say, Doodledog, but do not agree that volunteer “Gladys” should get first dibs - as I explained in my post Sunday 22:52.

And, as I explained Saturday 22:40, charities are only selling goods on behalf of the donor. Strictly, charities have a legal obligation to offer the sale proceeds to the donor. If a volunteer takes goods for themselves they are technically stealing from the donor who has entrusted those goods to the charity to sell on their behalf.

I wonder if anyone remembers the Mary Portas series Queen of Charity Shops from fifteen years ago? It’s on You Tube.

She was tasked with overhauling one of Save the Children’s worst performing shops. It was in High Street, Orpington, Kent - a shop staffed by an army of very elderly women but with no manager and no leader. Everybody just pottered about very slowly doing their own thing. Many had been doing so for decades. It was more of a social hub than a retail business.

There was a weak and ineffective area manager who was more concerned about not upsetting the volunteers than raising money for a vital cause.

The series did not touch on whether donations were taken by or sold to volunteers. Portas’s main challenges were the poor quality of donations and a very strong resistance from staff to any kind of change that would increase sales for the shop. So while the series doesn’t address the concerns about theft (and it is theft) it is a very interesting look at how some shops operate.

Yes I agree with many here. I have exp of work in many ‘charity shops’
Some give no staff discount. Some it’s agreed to take what you want giving a donation. Some have staff price. Mates pricing for mates.
I am looking for some silver jewellery to give as Christmas gifts. I thought this would help the charities and family members. We have 12 charity shops in our town and for 2 years none have has any silver jewellery. Now I think that’s odd! I know they use on line for selling the better donations. My family didnt really believe me so I now have them asking too. Still no silver jewellery. I’d not leave any money to the big charities. There’s something odd happening.

The charity shop I worked in was hit & miss with regards to how things would be priced up .
On the wall there was a printed guide on how much an item should be. So for example , a designer jumper £xx price , nice dept store ( m&s , John Lewis etc £xx , and then a scale down to low end shops , condition,& age also taken into a/c .
Then a new manager arrived who would put by items for family , friends and her staff favourites and not price as they should . I left .

Optomistic1

This does not surprise me one bit. I have never worked in a charity shop but I have friends who do and who also work in food banks and the amount of stealing that does on from both volunteers and the paid staff shocks me and them. The managers seem the worse!
The problem is what do the honest volunteers do? In their case they can’t tell the managers as they are in on it and is it really their responsibility to go higher than that?

I am yet to find a well run charity. The food bank that my friend works at is shocking. Useless manager who is line managed by a vicar who has no management experience and never says anything to her. It makes my blood boil the stories I hear.

It would make a great ITV drama but no one would believe it!

I have volunteered for a charity for nearly 35 years and also for a time did paid admin work, before and after me were people who had no link to the charity who did the job
It is a very well run charity with trustees who take their job very seriously. I volunteer for the hospital too and am shocked that you would assume from your experience of one charity that all are the same.
Of course you can report charities that are doing things wrongly, the charity commission or ISCR if you are in Scotland would be very interested to hear of anything that is true not just hearsay by someone who heard it from a friend of a friend

A charity can also pay reasonable expenses that a volunteer incurs if volunteering, that could include transport costs, or free parking in the hospital car park while volunteering, or a small amount for food volunteering the whole day. A well run charity treats it's volunteers well and tries to make volunteering accessible to all regardless of income. If someone doesn't want to claim expenses they don't have to buy it would actually be better if they are taxpayers to claim the expenses and made a gift aided donation to the charity for an equivalent amount

Optimistic I can assure you that no one steals from the foodbank at which I volunteer and I take exception to such accusations. Ours is well run, accounts are audited and food hygiene inspections undertaken. I've just finished my three hour shift and my recompense has been a cup of tea - oh and a chocolate from a fellow volunteer's birthday haul.

I used to take my stuff to a large national charity which had a very user friendly drop off point with parking and dedicated sorters.

However over the past couple of years I have had a massive downsize and clear out, and so donated vast amounts of really good stuff to them - must have been thousands of pounds worth. I am not deluding myself here, the volunteers were exclaiming over it all, and talking about previous donations at subsequent visits.

When I got my Gift Aid statement, it said that the goods I had donated had raised £16.29.

So they don't get my stuff any more.

Thank you Wonderbra for your comments with which I wholeheartedly agree.

The national cancer research charity to which I give several hours a week is professionally run with a strict code of conduct. It is a pleasure to work with an outstanding manager and alongside generous , committed and carefully trained volunteers. .
Although a discount is offered on staff purchases, this is usually declined by the majority of volunteers who not only give their time but are also gift aid donors. A record is also kept of volunteer purchases. Our shop is open 7 days a week with high weekly financial goals and dedicated, hardworking staff, both paid and volunteer.

If the scenario described by the OP and some others is correct in some shops, then this should be reported, as previously suggested.

Sadly, shoplifting from charity shops such as ours has increased significantly. Volunteers have to be on the look out for this as well. Not a pleasant task as I have discovered in recent times.

If this is true then I'll be avoiding ages UK shops, as it is unfair that volunteers are treated worse than any other member of the public. It could be seen as discriminatory too, not being able to buy things available to everyone else. Some people want to volunteer and may have the skills to volunteer in a shop but also want the same rights to buy from that shop as any other member of the public.
I've helped at jumble sales and the occasional car boot, form charity, it's not my forte but am happy to do It as an occasional mine off, but the idea of working in a shop is not for me