Across three countries, 1-800-GOT-JUNK? recycles the recyclables and donates the donate-ables as a way to divert items from the landfill, while simultaneously giving back. In order to give back as much as possible, the 1-800-GOT-JUNK? Virginia North franchise has built ongoing partnerships with five charitable organizations! To continually support Soles4Souls, Leveling the Playing Field, Second Chance Toys, Women Giving Back, and Brother’s Brother Foundation, the franchise opened up a warehouse in 2014 as a way to store large amounts of donatable items until they are ready for collection. This 4,000 square foot space not only holds the items they have collected, but also acts as a drop off location for those in their community who want to donate items.
Keep on reading to find out more about these charitable organizations, how the Virginia North team helps them, and how you can get involved!
Five charities that will accept gently used items
1. Soles4Souls
Soles4Souls gives any new or gently worn shoes to micro-enterprise programs in developing countries, such as Haiti, Central America, and parts of Africa. 1-800-GOT-JUNK? Virginia North does their part by packing up any shoes they’ve picked up on jobs or that get dropped off directly at their warehouse. Once on pallets and packaged properly, the team sends the shoes directly to Soles4Souls. In the past five years, 1-800-GOT-JUNK? Virginia North has processed over half a million pairs of shoes!
If you want to help out you can donate or involve your community by starting your own shoe drive!
2. Leveling the Playing Field
Leveling the Playing Field collects gently used or new sports equipment for donation to schools and programs in low-income neighborhoods. These donations allow programs to reallocate their equipment funding towards lower registration fees, which in turn allows more children to participate. At the Virginia North franchise, every six weeks they collect enough equipment donations to fill a whole 1-800-GOT-JUNK? truck!
If you want to support Leveling the Playing Field they have many different ways you can get involved, from donating, volunteering, or hosting your own collection drive!
3. Second Chance Toys
Second Chance Toys is a non-profit organization committed to giving gently used toys to local children's charities. With the help of 1-800-GOT-JUNK?, Second Chance Toys is able to transport toys from the toy collection centers to local charities. Since the start of this partnership, 1-800-GOT-JUNK? as helped collect over 250,000 toys!
Toy donations are important year round, but hold even more value around the holidays, so if you have any toys that are no longer needed be sure to donate them before the holidays! For more information about the partnership between 1-800-GOT-JUNK? and Second Chance Toys, along with how you can get involved, check out this blog post.
4. Women Giving Back
Women Giving Back is an organization that provides women in need with professional clothes at no cost, in order to set them up for success in job interviews and after they secure a job. Virginia North collects enough to send a van full of clothes to Women Giving Back every month! If you’re in the Virgina area and have clothes you no longer need, consider donating them to Women Giving Back as a way to help out the women in your community.
5. Brother’s Brother Foundation
Brother’s Brother Foundation provides medical supplies, pharmaceuticals, and education materials to people all over the world. 1-800-GOT-JUNK? Virginia North keeps an eye out for any crutches, wheelchairs, or walkers that they find on junk removal jobs in order to give them to Brother’s Brother Foundation. Twice a year, Virginia North is able to donate several hundred crutches to the organization! If you’re interested in giving back, you can volunteer or donate to Brother’s Brother Foundation
In addition to the charities 1-800-GOT-JUNK? Virginia North collects items for, they also contribute financially to other charitable organizations, such as BRAWS, Fairfax County Child and Family Service, and Community Empowerment Northern Virginia.
1-800-GOT-JUNK? Virginia North is quite a source of inspiration for doing charity work in your community! For even more ways to donate, check out these 10 charitable donation ideas. If you have items you no longer need, but taking them to donation centers seems too overwhelming, call 1-800-GOT-JUNK?. All you have to do is point!
