Most volunteers who help out with charities of all kinds are private citizens offering their services for free and in their own time.
Often charity activities involve the collection of unwanted goods that are then redirected to those who need them, either in the home country or to the developing world.
Items that are donated are normally clothes, furniture, household appliances, kitchenware or books, generally anything that can be cleaned and is in good enough condition to be re-used, but is neither dangerous nor unhygienic.
All these items are bulky, however, and need to be stored. It is a problem not only for individual volunteers, who may have to collect and keep goods at home until enough has been collected to fill a container if the eventual destination is overseas.
Equally even donations to charity shops or furniture recycling projects can outstrip the organisation's storage capacity.
Storage space is not only needed for these kinds of voluntary organisations. It can also be an issue for amateur drama and operatic groups, which over time collect an impressive number of lovingly-made costumes and props, many of them also created by volunteers and needing to be stored.
Charities and voluntary organisations often have minimal spare funds and organisers understandably do not want to "waste" hard-earned cash on more than minimal administration and of course on storage.
The self-store industry has an impressive track record in supporting charities both by staff fund raising initiatives and also, by donating spare storage space either at a reduced rate or entirely free.
Of course, it is good for their image, demonstrating corporate social responsibility and support for the local community, but it is a valuable contribution that has been a lifeline for many organisations.
There are many examples of such local initiatives in the UK.
In East Anglia, a charity that collects hospital furniture and other equipment to be shipped to developing countries, had outgrown its existing storage and a local self-store facility came to the rescue by allowing the charity to store its overspill awaiting shipment at a discount and agreed to be flexible in allowing it to pay for only the area it had used at any time.
A local drama group in another town had accumulated a vast collection of costumes over more than a decade and was suddenly given notice that its current storage building was no longer available. Again a local self-store facility came to the rescue, offering a unit for free, so the drama group was able to save its costume and prop collection.
Some self-store organisations offer one free space for charity in every store.
Many offer short term storage in response to disaster emergency appeals, like the Haiti earthquake, or for charities collecting goods for a specific fund-raising event, like an auction or sale.
In the North of England one company has donated space to a charity that works hard collecting donated items so that less fortunate children in the area can receive Christmas gifts.
Another is acting as a collection and storage point for school equipment which is to be shipped to Africa
If storage space is a problem it is worth contacting the local self-storage unit in your town and asking whether they are willing to help.
Author Resource:
Storage space can be a big problem for charities collecting donated goods to sell, distribute or send overseas for long term or emergency appeals. Ali Withers discovers that self-store units in Suffolk and the rest of the UK has a good track record in helping make sure hard-earned fund raising is not eaten up by storage fees.
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