Community Thrift Store Disbursement and Bay Area Charity Partner Update
Community Thrift Store is a non-profit that supports other non-profits while also providing a unique shopping experience and donation opportunity to our neighbors. We deeply value our relationships with our charity partners and one of our many challenges during the pandemic was figuring out how to best support them during this difficult time. After several months of closures and modified operations, we are grateful to be fully open for shopping and donations which allows us to refocus our efforts toward our many charity partners.
Community Thrift has been a solid donation base for us as well as a huge support for the local community. They make the process of donating on our behalf seamless and fun. And I never know what I’ll find there when I’m browsing and always thinking that when I buy something it is going to benefit the life of a loved pet that might otherwise have been euthanized. Truly Community Thrift does an immeasurable service to our entire community.
—Alan Stewart, Board Member for SF Aid for Animals, a CTS Charity Partner
CTS Disburses Funds to Bay Area Charity Partners
The team at Community Thrift Store is happy to announce that we have resumed disbursements of funding to our charity partners. In a typical year, CTS makes quarterly disbursements which are calculated for each charity partner based on sales of items that were coded for them when a donor selected their charity. In 2019 our disbursements to charity partners totaled $469,451.00.
Of course, the past year has not been typical and we have decided that it is important to support all of our charity partners at this time, even if typical sales goals were not met. Therefore, we have offered varying amounts of disbursement funding to every organization on our roster of 204 charity partners. It is our hope that these funds will help our partner organizations continue to provide the important services that help our Bay Area neighbors.
How Non-Profit Organizations Have Helped Throughout the Pandemic
Each and every one of our charity partners is a vital resource to our community. We would like to highlight a few organizations that have shared how they were able to provide services during the pandemic.
Children’s Book Project
Thanks for Community Thrift’s ongoing support of our mission to give free books to children who need them for equity in literacy, learning, and life! Since the start of the pandemic, we’ve been working harder than ever to get books where they’re needed most in San Francisco.
—Kathleen Wydler, Book Bank Manager at Children’s Book Project
The Children’s Book Project, which has been a CTS Charity Partner since 1996, works with educators and community leaders at schools, public health clinics, public housing, and grassroots organizations to distribute books to children. Since the pandemic began in March 2020, Children’s Book Project has given away over 90,000 books to vulnerable or economically disadvantaged children.
Kathleen Wydler, the Book Bank Manager, explains how they managed operations once the shelter-in-place orders took effect: “Two part-time Book Bank staff pivoted operations overnight to count, sort, select, and deliver books; we moved across town to the Bayview in November 2020 while keeping our service going; and reopened our Book Bank to clients and volunteers with our team of 4 part-time staff in 2021. We’re small and lean, but mighty!”
Learn more about The Children’s Book Project
La Casa De Las Madres
La Casa de las Madres is a leader in the Bay Area’s fight against domestic abuse. Founded in 1976 as California’s first refuge from domestic violence, La Casa’s once-quiet shelter has grown into San Francisco’s most comprehensive resource for women, teens and children surviving abuse. They provide half the city’s emergency beds for people fleeing imminent danger from abuse, and they are the only organization enabling access to safety 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. But, La Casa goes one step further, with an active Drop In Counseling Center and advocacy programs that resource domestic violence survivors of all ages and prevent future violence by changing public perceptions about abuse.
Over these past 18-months, victims and survivors of domestic violence faced new peril under COVID-19’s movement-constrained conditions. The pressure and proximity created by social and physical distancing exacerbate the likelihood, escalation, and intensity of explosive abuse. Messages to La Casa’s Text Support Line increased by two and three-fold. Additionally, the economic strain caused by pandemic-related employment and income reductions in non-professional sectors, disproportionately landed on Black, Brown, immigrant, low-income, and women-identified community members. Thus, the vulnerable women and children La Casas serves in our community were made more vulnerable to harm and instability over the last year.
So, it was even more essential that La Casa did not falter and that their 24-hour safety net for people experiencing abuse was uninterrupted. Over 2,500 women, teens, and children accessed La Casa’s safety and support services across 2020, 226 survivors were confidentially sheltered, and La Casa answered over 5,000 hotline calls—more than 12 help-seekers every day of the week. No one deserves abuse, and La Casa is there to provide free, confidential options counseling, safety, and support services 24 hours a day. Services are multi-lingual and available to anyone, of any background, in need. If you or someone you know needs help, please call 877-503-1850 or text 415-200-3575 today.
Learn more about La Casa de las Madres.
SF-Marin Food Bank
If you regularly read or watch the news, you know that the pandemic contributed to a drastic increase in food insecurity across the nation. The SF-Marin Food Bank saw this need firsthand and worked tirelessly to meet the growing needs of our community. In just two months, the number of people served by the Food Bank rose from 32,000 households a week to 62,000 households a week.
The Food Bank faced the huge challenge of meeting double the need with the same amount of space while also dealing with the constraints of the pandemic, including product shortages, safety concerns, and the emotional toll of COVID. The Food Bank added two warehouses and new equipment to distribute 77 million pounds of food. They are heartened by the public awareness of food insecurity in the Bay Area, which was a serious problem long before COVID and requires action beyond what food banks can provide. They saw a silver lining in the improvements to CalFresh and other legislative changes that were spurred by the increase in need.
Learn more about how the Food Bank has met the needs of our community during the Pandemic.
Senior & Disability Action
The pandemic has been especially scary for seniors and people with disabilities, who are at a higher risk of illness as well as social isolation. San Francisco Senior and Disability Action works to advocate for the rights of seniors and people with disabilities on an individual and social justice basis through collective action. Their mission is to empower the people they serve to live well and safely.
During the pandemic they worked to keep people connected and informed. Their team did this through an online program they call “Senior and Disability University and Survival School: Pandemic Edition”. They also successfully advocated for San Francisco to send shelter-in-place updates via 311 to residents without internet access. Additionally, they worked with Bay Resistance to organize the Cross-Bay Mutual Aid Project to facilitate food deliveries, home care, and check-ins between community members.
Learn more about how Senior & Disability Action worked to meet the challenges of 2020.
How You Can Help
When you shop at Community Thrift Store you are supporting a network of Bay Area charitable organizations; when you donate furniture, household items, books, or clothing to CTS you can choose which charity will benefit from the sale of your items. Want to learn more? Get our insider tips for vintage clothes shopping or read our 5 Tips to Donate Responsibly before dropping off your donation or scheduling a free furniture pickup.