Charity clothing banks available to Nisa retailers free of charge

Nisa’s charity Making a Difference Locally (MADL) has launched branded clothing banks, a new initiative to help retailers to raise additional funds for local causes.

Following a successful trial which began earlier this year, the charity clothing banks are now available for Nisa retailers to order.

Available free of charge to retailers, the clothing banks are designed to help put communities’ unwanted clothes to better use, reduce their environmental impact and also increase stores’ MADL funds to donate locally.

Working in partnership with Nathan’s Waste Savers, every clothing donation is either sold, reused or recycled. The banks require no maintenance from retailers as they are installed, serviced and emptied regularly by Nathan’s Waste Savers free of charge.

Once clothing banks have been weighed and emptied, funds raised are banked into the store’s MADL account and donated to a local good cause of the store’s choosing.

Nisa retailer Dike & Son in Stalbridge, one of the first stores to trial a MADL clothing bank, launched a competition on the store’s Facebook page to get the word out to customers, offering the chance to win a £100 donation from their MADL fund to a good cause of the winner’s choice, simply by guessing what item was the first to be donated via the new clothing bank by store owner Andy Dike.

Engagement and feedback from customers was overwhelmingly positive and despite already having two clothing banks from other charities situated outside the store, donations over the first couple of weeks generated £42 for the store’s MADL fund.

“As a company that’s been around for over 170 years, we are all about community and sustainability. So the fact that local good causes can be supported through people helping the environment by recycling their old clothes is justwin-win,” Adam Vincent, Dike & Son company director, said.

“It’s fab to see old clothes being turned into money to give to local groups and ultimately not just go to landfill.”