PHOENIX — So you took all those old shoes, out-of-style ties and jeans you haven't worn in years and put them into the box at the corner set up by the local charity.
Well, Rep. Michele Reagan, R-Scottsdale, wants to make sure you really know how much from the sale of what you put in the box actually goes to helping those in need.
In some cases, she said, a small fraction goes to the charity, with the lion's share going in the pocket of a for-profit company that services the box for the charity.
Without dissent, the House Commerce Committee on Wednesday approved legislation to require any group that solicits donations to disclose at the site exactly how much of the gross proceeds from the sale of items left there actually benefits the charity. Groups also would have to show what percentage of those funds actually remain in Arizona.
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Reagan said the measure results from her own experiences.
"I always go to the same donation box to drop my stuff off in," she said. Reagan said she believed because the box had the word "donations" that the items themselves — or at least the cash from selling them — would go to needy families.
What she learned, is that's not always the case.
She said some private companies were collecting more than $2 million a year.
"But only $60,000 was going to charity," Reagan said. "I just think I should know that as a donator."
Jim Stone, executive director of Swift Charities for Children, said the moves by for-profit corporations into the donation business "devastate what we are trying to do and devastate what some of these other non-profit corporations are trying to do."
He said every dollar his organization gets is given to partners, ranging from construction help for Banner Children's Hospital to financing the Boys and Girls Clubs of Metropolitan Phoenix and the West Valley Child Crisis Center.
What has happened, Stone said, is a Texas-based company "targeted" the donation boxes of his charity and others, placing its own boxes nearby. He said federal reports, which charities must file, show that only a "sliver" went to a small domestic-violence shelter.
Those new boxes, Stone said, have had an effect: The value of donations to his organization went from $650,000 in 2007 to $350,000 last year; Stone said his organization might be able to make that much this year "if we hustle."
Reagan said her disclosure measure is not designed to limit who can collect used clothing and other items. She said there may be reasons why a charity partners with a for-profit corporation, and why the charity agrees to take only a percentage of the total haul.
"But I just want to know, so I can choose to put my stuff in a box that does go to charity," she said.
