“You don’t necessarily know who is behind the scenes of those organizations so you don’t really know where those donations ultimately end up,” Goodwill spokeswoman Kim Bramlage said.
Two donation bins found at locations say they are collecting for Mercy and American Thrift. The Mercy boxes have small print that clearly states it is not a 501C3 organization, which means it is not registered as a charity.
American Thrift bins do not declare the status of the organization, but according to the Ohio Attorney General’s office, the company is registered as a for-profit in Dayton.
Officials reached on the phone at American Thrift would not comment for this story and Mercy would not return calls after several messages were left.
“A lot of times the donations aren’t being used locally. They are not helping folks in this community,” said Matt Arntz director of Retail for Goodwill Easter Seals Miami Valley.
Some bins around town are legitimate non-profits, others are companies that are for-profit, and other donation bin organizations pay or reimburse non-profit entities to use their name on the bin, Arntz said.
“It’s very confusing and it’s not really clear to people, and we are encouraging folks to be smart about their donations,” said Bramlage.
It is illegal to be misleading, according to Sam Kirk, senior attorney in the charitable law section of the Ohio Attorney General’s office.
“If they are using a charitable appeal and indicating that items are used for a charitable purpose then that is illegal, that would be the type of thing we would look at, whether it crosses the line,” Kirk said.
Kirk said his office has not had any complaints about the bins, and nothing pending on either of these organizations.
Kettering city officials said they’ve had complaints about the Mercy bins being placed in business parking lots without permission from the business owner.
Kettering Zoning Administrator Ron Hundt said he’s talked to a worker affiliated with Mercy bins about this, and he was told that it was ‘driver error,’ and the bin was mistakenly placed in the wrong location.
Arntz said the bins are potentially impacting donations to Goodwill, and its mission to employ the disabled.
“Our donations haven’t grown as they have in the past, and that probably is in part because of the bins,” Arntz said.
He said he wants consumers to be informed, and for the labeling on the bins to be more clear.
“When they walk up to the donation bin, they should understand the organization they are donating to, and make sure that if they want to do good things with the items they recycle, that they understand the organization, and how those items are going to be used,” Arntz said.
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