Charity stays at home for far too long

I would be the first to admit that I don't know much about charity fund raising. But the economics and psychology of doorstep collection sacks completely defeat me.

At very regular intervals collection sacks are pushed through our door, presumably by volunteers from a range of charities. Recent ones have been Marie Curie and the British Heart Foundation. These sacks appeal for items that can be sold in their shops, and promise that they will be collected – full or empty – a few days later.

Most times when we receive these sacks we have nothing to give them – we are quite efficient at donating surplus stuff to our local Cornwall Hospice Care shop – if only to get it out of the house as promptly as possible! So the sacks go straight back on the doorstep for the promised collection.

And there they sit, for weeks at a time until we get fed up and throw them away.

Now, if ever we had stuff to donate we could use one of these sacks couldn't we?? Well no, because I would be afraid that our donated items would similarly sit on the doorstep for weeks at a time – presumably until we got fed up and took them to Cornwall Hospice Care.

Now, I can only presume that these sacks cost something to produce. And I presume that the cost of this production has to be met from the general funds of the charity. And if the sacks are never collected they never generate an income, and are a total waste of the charity's funds.

So what is it all about? Why do the charities do this? In my experience quite a few charities distribute the sacks, and almost none collect them. I would love to know the answer to this, because at the moment it just makes Mr Grumpy grumpy!