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opinion

John Lorinc is a Toronto freelance writer.

When my children started going to overnight camp a decade ago, I decided to use that parenting interregnum to hoover old stuff out of closets, basement nooks and the furnace room, with the goal of hauling it all to the neighbourhood Goodwill.

The process, if I have to be really candid, was driven by convenience as much as altruism. The store, one of those that shut down this week, was situated near my home, and featured a spacious loading bay. While the local Salvation Army outlet is even closer, its entrance is less well-suited to the delivery of bulky objects.

For some of those who routinely fed the maw of those teeming drop-off docks, the abrupt closing this week of 16 Goodwill stores and 10 donation centres in Ontario may raise questions about what to do with consumer castoffs such as kids' clothes and toys, books and kitchenware.

But the reality is that Canadians, in recent years, have begun to seek out more entrepreneurial non-profits that not only accept used items, but also are set up to ensure that they find their way to the families and individuals who need them most.

And perhaps the arrival of thousands of Syrian refugees, including those supported by private sponsorship groups, has prompted many Canadians to be far more focused and mindful about what they do with the things that accumulate in their closets.

"We received an exuberant amount of donations" because of the Syrian situation, said Alykhan Suleman, executive director of New Circles, a 10-year-old Toronto not-for-profit group that distributes clothing to newcomers and low-income families in three suburban high-rise enclaves. The organization, he added, had to stop accepting donations until February because of the "overwhelming" response.

That account offers a stark contrast to Goodwill's cash-flow crisis. While the organization was a social enterprise that provided union-level wages to people who struggle to find work, Goodwill's quasi-philanthropic retail model seemed to be oddly out of step with the temper of the times.

Today, people can donate individual items on Kijiji without ever leaving their homes. The proliferation of front-yard book boxes – the Little Free Libraries, and homemade imitators – has provided an alternative and highly localized way for people to share or give away old books that might have otherwise ended up on Goodwill's shelves.

In other cases, people who want to give are looking to connect directly with charities that provide a more targeted mission and better service.

Consider furniture banks, which have become an increasingly important fixture of the in-kind philanthropy world. According to the Toronto-based Furniture Bank, the number of donors last year jumped 21 per cent from the year previous, while the organization also saw impressive 30-per-cent to 34-per-cent increases in both the number of customers served and the roster of volunteers.

The organization, founded in 1998, allows donors to drop off items, but it also offers a pickup service. And, perhaps as critically, it makes sure that supporters and the general public understand what becomes of those goods by compiling statistics about end-users. Refugees and newcomers, for example, account for 23 per cent of the customers, while one-third are formerly homeless people rebuilding their lives.

This kind of information also provides donors with a measure of assurance that the recipient isn't a thrift store bargain-hunter looking for cool vintage items.

Other groups, from drop-in centres to charities that provide business clothing to unemployed people looking for work, have sought to capitalize on key moments in the consumer calendar – such as "Giving Tuesday," the conscience-plucking sequel to November's Black Friday shopping frenzy – or they establish a physical presence directly in high-need communities.

Both the Furniture Bank and New Circles, as well as dozens of other non-profits in big cities across Canada, are working closely with settlement agencies that are helping the Syrians.

But outside these non-profit networks, thousands of Canadians who have joined refugee sponsorship groups are taking stock of what they own as they look for items that can be donated directly to the families they're sponsoring.

That process, of course, goes well beyond the busy work of keeping the closets from exploding. It's about helping families build new lives in an unfamiliar land, and thus represents a more compelling form of, well, goodwill.

"It's not just about getting rid of clothing and cleaning your house," said Mr. Suleman, who urges donors to only give items that they themselves would be prepared to wear and use. "It's about human dignity. We all have to be conscious about quality."

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