Why does Furniture Bank have a pickup fee?
At Furniture Bank Toronto, we are often asked why we charge donors for furniture donation pickup. After all, we are a charity, right? Why would we have a fee for our pickup service?
The short answer is: “So that we can pay the bills every month and continue to offer donated furniture for free to marginalized families.”
Furniture donation provides a critical service to families in need in the greater Toronto area. The modest pickup fee that Furniture Bank charges helps us cover our expenses so that we can continue helping those who need it most.
Other charities with retail social enterprises – such as the Salvation Army or the ReStore take donated items and sell them to the public to fund their operations). At Furniture Bank Toronto, we raise money through our furniture donation pickup service. This revenue closes the gap between our operating costs and the grants and donations we receive from our generous supporters.
Also, unlike a junk removal company that could charge you $250 or more to take your unwanted items to the dump, we provide the same furniture removal service but with huge social & environmental impacts! Donating your gently used items to Furniture Bank Toronto helps us furnish homes for those who just don’t have the resources to do it themselves, whether they are new immigrants, people transitioning out of homelessness, or those who are simply struggling to get by in these difficult times.
When you hire Furniture Bank to remove your used furniture, our pickup fee enables us to:
- Provide free furniture to marginalized members of our community, including mothers like Sarah.
- Pay rent and utilities on our 27,000 ft2 facility, which houses:
- the warehouse where we unload donations of gently-used furniture and prepare orders for up to 20 families in need per day.
- our furniture showroom, which offers clients the dignity of choosing furnishings suited to their personal style and space restrictions of their new homes
- the workshop where we salvage and repair slightly damaged furniture and make them available to families instead of ending up in a landfill.
- the Studio – another social enterprise within Furniture Bank Toronto run by a master artisan, who upcycles furniture for resale to designers at a local consignment shop.
- the hub of Furniture Bank’s operations, our modest office.
- Maintain, insure and operate a fleet of 11 trucks year-round! That’s a lot of gas.
- Employ over 20 drivers and movers through our social hire program, Leg-Up.
- Significantly subsidize furniture delivery costs for client families whose deliveries are not covered by their referring agency.
- Sustain a charity with 50 employees that is only partly funded by financial donations and grants.
- Actively reduce and reuse your usable, gently-used furniture – which means it’s not ending up in a landfill.
We also issue gift-in-kind charitable donation tax receipts for the value of your furniture donation.
Ways to donate furniture in Toronto
Our pick-up service is optional. If you’d like to find a new home for your unused furniture and houseware, you can also drop them off at our warehouse in Etobicoke. Our warehouse team will gratefully accept your donation and collect your information for your tax receipt. By supporting Furniture Bank Toronto, you are restoring dignity and giving families hope for a much brighter future!
Do you live in the Toronto area and want to request a furniture pick-up to help families in need? Learn how you can hire Furniture Bank Toronto to pick up your items.
