Give locally; know your charity

 No one benefits when you drop your used clothing in a Planet Aid box. And it also gets millions from the U.S. government (that be us).

"Reveal and NBC Washington dug up IRS records showing that Planet Aid makes up to $42 million per year. That money is supposed to be donated to needy communities in places like Malawi and Mozambique. But in an FBI file on Planet Aid’s parent organization also obtained by NBC, investigators wrote that “Little to no money goes to the charities.”

Planet Aid seems to be controlled by a Danish organization known alternately as Tvind or The Teachers Group, which was founded in the 1970s by a man named Mogens Amdi Petersen. According to Danish court documents, Tvind is a kind of secular, ostensibly humanitarian cult, in which members are instructed to live collectively, “transfer all their available income to joint savings,” and “forgo their personal rights, such as the right to start a family to their own wish.” Petersen himself is an internationally wanted man, having allegedly committed fraud and tax evasion and his home country, and the NBC report speculates that he may be hiding out in a $25 million, 494-acre compound in Baja, Mexico."

 http://gawker.com/planet-aids-yellow-clothing-donation-bids-are-part-of-a-1778611205

https://www.charitywatch.org/charitywatch-articles/planet-aid-39-s-34-recycling-34-program-debunked-/88

http://metrovoicenews.com/is-planet-aid-scamming-you/

 http://www.nbcwashington.com/investigations/Behind-the-Bins-What-Did-Planet-Aid-Do-With-Your-Taxpayer-Dollars-380333921.html

I donate to the Discovery Shop (cancer), Volunteers of America, and to our church's resale shop and food pantry.  There are so many scams and non-profits so poorly checked, that you really need to do your own investigation.