5 Ways to support your local Creative Reuse Center during Spring Cleaning (and all the time)
The Official WasteShed Blog: Post 1
May is the biggest donation month of the year here at The WasteShed. To keep the flow of donations from becoming a tidal wave, we have some suggestions for folks looking to rehome materials with us.
Pretty please:
1. Consult our donation policy
We accept a limited range of materials; if you're unsure about whether we will take something, please call (773 666 5997) or email (info@thewasteshed.com) and we'll be happy to approve your donation or recommend another place take your materials. If we have to say no or stop taking donations for a week or so, please know that it's for good reason.
2. Organize your donations
Sorting donations is very labor intensive, and when we do that labor, it is far and away our biggest expense. A mixed box of pipecleaners, thumbtacks, paperclips, beads, and felt scraps could take us an hour to process and get us about $3 in resale value; even with volunteer help this doesn't make sense economically. If you can sort and even label your donation (and cull the really useless stuff) before you bring it in, you will be doing a tiny nonprofit a huge favor!
3. Volunteer
Come lend a hand! Short of snuggling puppies at the shelter, this is the most fun you will have volunteering. We always need people to shuffle, triage, identify, organize, and sort materials, and our volunteers get store credit for hours worked. Call or email and we'll figure out a time that works for you!
4. Buy your supplies here
We make 80% of our revenue through sales of materials (and 0% of our revenue through accepting donations of materials). When you come through the shop, take a moment to look around! The shelves are stuffed with incredible treasures, useful tools, and weird doodads of every description, and we have the best prices you'll find in Chicago.
5. Donate dollars to support our work
The WasteShed is a vital resource for education and the arts in Chicago. We love what we do, and we want to keep making great things happen in our community for as long as we can. Even $20 can help us pay our amazing staff (Happy International Workers' Day, all!) and keep our programming and resources accessible to everyone. Donate here via PayPal
-Much love, The WasteShed