The Nonprofit Insider Podcast · Swim Karim

Episode Revisit: What Happens to Your Donated Goods After a Disaster?

·25 min·1 clip

65,000 teddy bears were donated after Sandy Hook, and local EMS, fire, police, and USPS had to help sort them.

1. The Nonprofit Insider Podcast episode 48 focuses on what happens to donated goods after a disaster, using New Mexico wildfires in Rio Doso as the setup. 2. Swim Kareem hosts the episode and frames it from his work in the nonprofit space, where he says he has been asked about donations, reviews, and disaster relief logistics. 3. The episode asks what disaster donations are actually for, especially when people send goods instead of cash. 4. Kareem separates everyday donations from disaster donations and says he wants to explain both the myths and the practical outcomes. 5. He defends Goodwill after a conversation about rising thrift prices and says critics forget that donated goods are not all usable inventory. 6. He cites a university-backed estimate, referenced through the Seattle Times, that 60% of thrift-store donations across the United States are not worth anything. 7. He says that means items often become trash, get incinerated, or are deeply discounted rather than resold at full value. 8. He gives examples of an old vacuum, broken dressers, stained T-shirts, and a 25-year-old printer to show why some donations function as dumping. 9. He says Goodwill has 161 affiliate groups across the United States and that those affiliates may spend as much as $115 million a year on trash services. 10. He then turns to disaster logistics and says wildfires, hurricanes, tsunamis, flooding, and mass shootings can trigger a rush of donated goods. 11. He points to the Hawaii wildfires as a case where people sent items because they felt a personal connection to the island. 12. He says those donations are often hard to transport, hard to sort, and not needed in the way donors expect. 13. He uses Sandy Hook Elementary School as an example and says one report described 65,000 teddy bears or stuffed animals being donated. 14. He says local EMS, fire departments, police stations, and USPS workers had to help handle the volume of goods sent into Newtown, Connecticut. 15. He says one nonprofit reality is that donated items may be passed to another nonprofit, sold, or stored instead of handed out immediately. 16. He gives diapers, formula, non-perishable goods, bottled water, and meals as examples of items that may be used first from existing stock rather than from new donations. 17. He says nonprofits often replenish their supply with donated goods and hold those supplies for a future disaster, even if donors expect immediate use. 18. The tone is conversational and explanatory, with repeated direct address to listeners and long digressions into examples and disclaimers. 19. People who donate to disaster relief or work in nonprofit logistics will get the most out of this episode. 20. People wanting a short, purely inspirational fundraising story may skip it.

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