I've read way too many books on philanthropy, and in general it's not pretty. The group with the most systematic approach to the cause is probably Bridgespan Group, and they discuss more on
GiveSmart blog, but it's a lot of work. The best thing about all of the reading has been helping spouse and me figure out what we care about. Our experiences with volunteering on non-profit boards have been equally disappointing.
However I surf at least twice weekly at White Plains Beach, Kalaeloa, on the southwest corner of Oahu.
Every time I'm there I notice the tents away from one side of the public beach. At first they're just families spending the weekend fishing & surfing. Then you notice the truck parked by the tent, and the canopy on the other side, and after a week you realize that they're not just spending the weekend fishing anymore. This is their "home". And this is one of the relatively unpopulated areas. Nanakuli/Waianae have much bigger homeless populations on their beaches.
The police ignore everything short of outright vandalism & felonies (and I agree with their approach), but the local social services people drop by.
I'm a dawn patrol surfer, but one day I stayed a bit later and noticed a group setting up on the beach. I researched their website,
AccesSurf.org, and added them to our list.
So now we donate to the local homeless shelter, the local foodbank, and AccesSurf. Plus the book royalties & blog revenue go to Wounded Warrior Project and Fisher House.
Spouse and I expect to eventually have more assets than we do today. So far our best answer has been to turn the money over to someone (probably via probate to our daughter) to run a college scholarship fund for deserving homeschool/high school graduates.
I'm planning on following some of the links provided but it there a short hand answer about what we should responsibly do with clothing that no longer fits, is worn out or for whatever reason, we no longer want? If passing it along through the usual charity channels results in the clothing being sold in the third world (with negative effect), are there alternatives (besides re-purposing it as rags or whatever where appropriate and throwing it out otherwise)? If we are looking to declutter and not hold on to things we are no longer using, what are we to do with clothing that we want out of our spaces?
Rags are the best use, but some charities still make money from this category.
Gently used business clothing is valuable to homeless shelters and social-services staffs, where they're dressing people up for job interviews.
But 95% of my wardrobe is t-shirts & shorts. 99% of it comes from Goodwill. It's divided into four categories:
The "good" t-shirts & shorts are worn on special occasions when I want to be relatively presentable in public. No holes, no frayed collars, no stains. Brand names like CrazyShirts or Disney logos. When the inevitable wear & tear set in, they're stored with the next category.
The "satisfactory" t-shirts & shorts are worn around the house. I change into them when I get home from being out & about in the "good" clothing. My daughter sends me some of this category from her college leftovers. Eventually nature takes its course here, too, and they move down to the next category.
The "below average" t-shirts & shorts are worn for yardwork, exercise, and house painting. They only stay clean for a few minutes after I don them. After I've worn them for their purpose, before I can even bring them to the washing machine, I usually have to let them dry in the sun. Clothing doesn't last much longer in the BA category.
The final stop on the clothing journey is the rag bucket. I have to be careful here because it's difficult to distinguish these items from the "below average" category. Luckily they don't stay in the rag bucket for long. Our local electric utility buys a lot of amps from the local HPOWER plant, which burns trash to generate electricity. (This even includes used oil from oil changes.) A rag in the bucket is usually only a month or two away from the trash and the HPOWER plant.
I don't know if all Goodwills do this, but our local Goodwill also sorts unneeded clothing for shredding into bales of rags. Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard is one of their biggest customers.