Grant subsidises some Scottish charities' registrations at In Kind Direct

Howard Lake | 10 January 2003 | News

A grant from The Robertson Trust now allows care organisations in Scotland with incomes below £500,000 to register with donated goods charity In Kind Direct for a subsidised rate of £25 plus VAT.

Scottish charities can now join In Kind Direct’s network and choosing from hundreds of essential everyday items, available at savings of up to 90% of their usual cost. Smaller Scottish care organisations can save on the usual registration fee, thanks to a grant from The Robertson Trust.

In 2002 £5.3 million worth of surplus goods were redistributed by In Kind Direct to more than a thousand UK voluntary organisations. “It’s been a great year for In Kind Direct. We’ve distributed over 25% more goods to our partner charities than in 2001”, says chief executive Robin Boles. “There have been some wonderful donations such as 20 tons of Andrex toilet rolls and 17 pallets of Early Learning Centre toys which all flew straight out of the door with over 200 charities benefiting. Just before Christmas Tesco called -offering 23 pallets of crackers. Within a week, we’d delivered to 70 charities in time for their Christmas parties.”

Heading In Kind Direct’s list of 30 Top Goods Donors for 2002 is toiletries and household products company Colgate Palmolive, followed by publisher McGraw Hill, Johnson & Johnson, Microsoft and Corporate Express. Most are large businesses such as Kimberly-Clark, Black & Decker, Procter & Gamble and Adidas but there are also smaller companies on the list, like family-run Swift Cookware, a stalwart donor for a few years now.

Founded in 1996 by HRH The Prince of Wales, In Kind Direct says that it is the only UK-wide organisation to co-ordinate in-kind giving, providing companies with a simple and efficient way to deal with surplus goods, which are otherwise expensive to dispose of, warehouse and manage. Since operations began in 1997, more than £25 million worth of goods have been donated by over 475 companies.

Voluntary organisations in the network receive a monthly catalogue of products currently available. Goods are offered for a small handling charge (which includes delivery by TNT Express), equivalent to 10% of the retail cost.

About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale. He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.