Up to you but I was there and the guy from the Red Cross turned up in a new BM and the bloke from Oxfam in a Merc.
4 Old dears turned up from Age Concern who proceeded to spend a couple of hrs trying on shoes and filled the car up they came in with shoes for themselves, but good luck to them. That did make me chuckle.
Yeah, god forbid they had to put a bit of effort in.
I was only teasing about the helicopters, but what you described doesn't reflect the charity sector I know, and it's a shame it's coloured your view for all this time.
Places dealing with second hand clothes and shoes will make money because people give them things for free, which they can then sell, or give away. They want clothes that are clean, or freshly washed, because for a lot it's not financially worth it top get the clothes cleaned and still sell them.
Half the people doing these collections will be volunteers (which is likely with the Age Concern women). Managing a shop for Age UK pays only just above minimum wage, and they pay advice workers maybe 25k. You may well have been identified as a high net worth individual so got a bit of a sales pitch, but even so, it's probably a coincidence that you met a couple of people driving nice cars. I just can't imagine the kind of positions in those charities that would have come with a car like that, or would have paid anything like a big salary, unless you're talking senior management at the head office (remember these are huge organisations, managing thousands of staff members, and working across multiple countries, so the senior management may well be reasonably well paid - although nothing in comparison to equivalent private sector jobs).
The bit of effort is also asking someone to spend money on what isn't exactly a high margin business. Going into a building where the previous owners have abandoned stock and equipment isn't something they would usually do, and if you're not set up it's likely to fail either a value for money test, a risk assessment, or both.
Most charities rely on volunteers, or staff being paid well below private sector rates, and, far from being scams, the vast majority will have an economic impact well beyond the donations they receive.
