The retail apocalypse has been very, very good to Delivering Good.
The New York-based organization (No. 122) distributes new donated clothing, toys, and household items to people in disaster areas and needy households. As the trend of retail stores shuttering has gathered speed, the 32-year-old charity’s long-standing work with key players in corporate America has borne fruit.
“Because of that relationship, they think of us, they think of being philanthropic with that product,” says Lisa Gurwitch, president of the organization. “There are other things they could do with it.”
The charity, until recently known as K.I.D.S./Fashion Delivers, raised $217 million in 2016 — almost 99 percent of it arriving in the form of donated goods from retailers, manufacturers, and other supporters. The total represents a 63 percent jump from 2015.
Meeting Donors’ Needs
Delivering Good says its success comes from finding ways to help its donors — particularly its corporate backers — as it helps the needy. As businesses increasingly align their giving with their missions, the charity has tailored partnerships to meet those expectations.
For example: Kidbox, a start-up children’s apparel company that sends packages of seasonal clothing to its subscribers, donates an item of clothing to Delivering Good for every package it sells. On the Kidbox website, customers can choose which of a set of four rotating causes they would like the company and Delivering Good to support on their behalf, such as military families and homeless or low-income families. “They have a mission of clothing 1 million children, and they want to engage families in philanthropy,” Ms. Gurwitch says of Kidbox. “That’s a partnership that’s really meaningful to us.”
Other companies, like the shoe company Skechers and the apparel maker Burlington, want to support the communities where they work. Delivering Good lets them earmark their product giving for those places. Burlington, for example, donates about four pallets of new merchandise to Delivering Good’s local partners in the towns where the company opens a new store, according to Shakiera Walker, a spokeswoman for the charity.
The Chronicle’s annual nonprofit ranking reveals charitable-giving trends today — and what they might look like tomorrow.
As part of a strategic plan launched with Delivering Good’s name change, the organization is focusing more on individual giving to help diversify revenue. It’s also exploring planned giving, beginning with an effort aimed at its trustees. “We want to start to educate the board, and then from there we’ll take this idea of legacy out to individuals who have supported us,” Ms. Gurwitch says.
Looking Ahead
As online commerce chips away at brick-and-mortar stores, the charity will continue to help retailers find a home for their unsold goods. It also helps companies offload products that have been discontinued or whose licenses have expired.
Some supporters have had a rough 2017. The largest product donor in the charity’s 32-year history, Toys “R” Us, filed for bankruptcy protection in September. It’s unclear whether those struggles will result in more gifts, but disaster giving is likely to help. More than 250 companies — out of the charity’s roughly 500 backers — supplied new products to victims of this year’s string of hurricanes, floods, and wildfires. Burlington, Hanes, Ikea, and Macy’s are among those stepping up.
Ms. Gurwitch is not worried that her charity’s donors who gave for the emergencies will beg off contributing later in the year. “When people respond to a disaster, that often comes out of a different pocket,” she says.
The disasters did force the group to quickly shift its themes for late 2017. “We had been planning for our end-of-year focus to be talking about the needs of people for back to school, back to work. But as we move through this period, we will try to tell the story of people who are in need all the time.”
That, she says, “is what donors want, whether it’s a big corporate partner or an individual writing a personal check: They want to hear the story. They want to know the need. They want to know how an individual person is going to benefit.”
