I think it’s commendable that you shop at charity shops and donate proceeds from selling items, and that you’re thinking about their effectiveness. I think these charities that run shops in the UK are unlikely to rank highly on cost-effectiveness because they probably score quite low on the Neglectedness aspect (they’re recognisable brands, which means that more people are likely to know them and therefore donate to them), and a lot of these charities do local community work (and therefore tends to be less cost-effective than funding charity work overseas).
My approach when I buy clothes and other stuff from charity shops is mostly to reduce the harm from buying this stuff new rather than to contribute to a specific charity. Interested in your thoughts!
Yeah that’s my motivation mainly—to reduce harm of new stuff, but given prices are broadly similar it seems worth buying from them (if convenient and the charity has some benefit in expectation) rather than other people on gumtree /​ ebay etc
It seems likely to me that Oxfam would be quite a bit more effective than a shop supporting local community work
I think it’s commendable that you shop at charity shops and donate proceeds from selling items, and that you’re thinking about their effectiveness. I think these charities that run shops in the UK are unlikely to rank highly on cost-effectiveness because they probably score quite low on the Neglectedness aspect (they’re recognisable brands, which means that more people are likely to know them and therefore donate to them), and a lot of these charities do local community work (and therefore tends to be less cost-effective than funding charity work overseas).
My approach when I buy clothes and other stuff from charity shops is mostly to reduce the harm from buying this stuff new rather than to contribute to a specific charity. Interested in your thoughts!
Yeah that’s my motivation mainly—to reduce harm of new stuff, but given prices are broadly similar it seems worth buying from them (if convenient and the charity has some benefit in expectation) rather than other people on gumtree /​ ebay etc
It seems likely to me that Oxfam would be quite a bit more effective than a shop supporting local community work