Charity Begins at Home

They say that charity begins at home…

Well there are a few “charities” that have their eyes set on my home, that’s for sure!

Every day I’m being bombarded by leaflets and stickers from so-called charities seeking donations of clothes. These leaflets are usually dropped through the letterbox during the night, so I’ve yet to actually meet any of these kind-hearted samaritans face-to-face and quiz them on their charitable endeavours.

‘Junkmail’ like this has been a bugbear of mine for some time, but I hadn’t quite realised how serious and rampant a social issue it is until Anne Doyle delivered a solemn news report regarding same on last night’s 9pm news.

Did you know that the vast majority of these nocturnal paper-pushers are NOT charities – they are commercial rag merchants hoping to take advantage of your goodwill! Indeed this problem has become so prevalent that the Irish Charity Shops Association has drawn up a set of guidelines to help you identify whether a door-to-door collector is a legitimate charity or not.

Observe the ISCA ‘coat-hanger’ logo on the left

If you receive a leaflet or sticker through your door and you want to establish whether it is from a genuine charity shop, you need to examine the following:

• Does it contain the Irish Charity Shops Association coat-hanger logo (see above)?
• Does it have a CHY number? (CHY followed by 5 digits). You can check the Revenue Commissioner’s website for a full list of registered charities.
• Does is contain a land-line telephone number and an address?

Remember, if in doubt, throw it out!

Yours in style,
Caroline

Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube or via RSS.

Information contained in this blog post may not be copied or reproduced without permission from Style By Caroline.