If you manage, direct, work or simply volunteer in a non-profit donations-only thrift shop, chances are you have some challenges consignment or buy-outright shops don’t have. The biggest one could be
How to make some donations look salable!
We’ve collected up over 100 ideas on how to Increase the Value of Your Donations in a Pinterest Board here. A sample of ideas I’ve gathered to monetize what might otherwise be 25- or 50-cent items :
You know all those utensils you get donated? Get a volunteer to make a horizontal board with spaced, cute tin cans in which to show them. Voila! An item you’d be lucky to get a quarter for, is now worthy of 3x the price! Presentation counts!
Buttons are often in good supply at thrifts… and if you have some volunteers who enjoy crafts, this could be a “holiday boutique” best-seller in your non-profit.
Another crafty-volunteer idea for your premium gift area in your shop.
Odds and ends plus some good glue and an eye for centered yields this great stand. Make some to display your jewelry and some to sell! See my version of this. Click the pic for her tutorial.
Frames are another big donation item that could be hard to sell… unless you add twine, a staple gun, and a clothes-pinned example or two. Now they’re chic! Click for exhaustive instructions.
If we’ve whet your appetite (or those of your crafty volunteers!) see all the ideas I found for you on our Pinterest Board.
Auntie Kate The Resale Expert 
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[…] Thrifty Ideas: Especially for NFP Thrift Stores (auntiekate.wordpress.com) […]
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I love the creative ideas, especially the tin can one–we have a number of nice kitchen utensils that just aren’t getting their due at our shop. Because we have a small NFP thrift shop with high rent and never enough volunteers, I have implemented the following procedures when we have things that are a tough sell, we a) give it to a local homeless metal scrapper if it has metal in it–how many toaster ovens or George Forman can a small thrift handle, b) give romance, mystery and various non-fiction softcover books to an organization that sends books to women in prison–fiction is so rarely purchased at our store, c) take hard-to-sell hardcover books to a local NFP that sells them, and donates the proceeds to Chicago literacy programs, d) a few times per year donate men’s pants and shoes that aren’t selling, to a local ER that always needs and requests them e) donate clothing that doesn’t meet our requirements, as well as housewares, linens, etc., to the Goodwill. We don’t even need a dumpster for our store–very costly in Chicago. It might seem like we hardly keep anything, but when I get a donation of 50 gently worn pairs of current women’s Ann Taylor pants and jeans, sizes 12 and 14, from one person, I’m glad we have these other places to donate our stuff.
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Thanks Heidi… I have followed your shop’s progress with delight. And WOW do you have good reviews on Yelp . Congratulations, that ain’t easy!
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