Where to Donate Unused Event Materials After Cancellations

Author: Cristi Kempf       

covid-19

The nonprofit Good360 will take certain unused items from events recently cancelled due to the coronavirus outbreak and resulting restrictions. (Courtesy Good360)

Takeaways from Good360 CEO Matt Connelly:

  • The nonprofit Good360 is accepting certain materials from meetings and events canceled due to the COVID-19 outbreak and resulting restrictions.
  • Good360 has a membership base of more than 90,000 vetted nonprofits that support people in need.

As events around the world are canceled during the COVID-19 outbreak, what can planners do with all those customized tote bags, T-shirts, and water bottles that will go unused?

The nonprofit Good360 is offering what it calls a socially responsible option, enabling the donation of certain event materials at risk of ending up in landfills.

Matt Connelly

“Good360,” CEO Matt Connelly told Convene via email, “has a 37-year history of helping companies and organizations make responsible decisions regarding the donation of goods, which become available for donation from a wide variety of situations.

“We help companies solve the question of responsibly handling excess and overstocked goods, like-new customer returns, and other unsellable goods,” Connelly said. “For example, we partner with the NFL every year to donate the apparel items from runner-up teams in the Super Bowl, NFC, and AFC championship games.”

Good360, he added, has a membership base of more than 90,000 vetted nonprofits that “support people in need and those nonprofits serve every imaginable cause — disaster, homelessness, poverty, military, breast cancer, foster children, education, women’s shelters, substance abuse recovery, health/wellness and many more.

“Our model,” he said, “allows us to serve large, national nonprofit partners as well as regional and community-based nonprofits that might not otherwise be able to get access to these goods on their own. We do also work with nonprofit partners that operate internationally.”

Good360 has distributed more than $9 billion in donated goods around the world, Connelly said.

Items accepted by Good360:

  • Clothing, including T-shirts, jackets, hats
  • Office supplies, including pens, notebooks, USB drives
  • Kitchen items, including drinkware, travel mugs, potholders
  • Water bottles
  • Tote bags/drawstring bags
  • Health/personal care items like hand sanitizer, lip balm
  • Sunglasses
  • Flashlights
  • Umbrellas
  • Product display samples such as furniture, kitchen items, bedding, linen, and similar

Items not accepted by Good360:

  • Food (Read a previous story to find out how you can donate unused food.)
  • Tchotchkes (paperweights, stress balls, keychains)
  • Magnets
  • Bottle openers
  • Mobile phone accessories
  • Name tags
  • Lanyards
  • Calendars
  • Pamphlets/handouts
  • Booth components
  • Any non-essential items

To find out how to donate to Good360, visit good360.org/donate.


What Events Professionals Need to Know About COVID-19

PCMA has created a COVID-19 resources page to help event professionals find reliable information about the outbreak and to share events industry-related resources to ensure they are prepared.

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