Butterwick High Street Shops

We are currently in need of additional volunteers for our shops. If you can spare a few hours a week, please get in touch with your local community shop. Please if you can, remember and support us online through our online shop and Ebay. 

This section of the website offers helpful tips on what can and should not be donated to help the Hospice raise funds.

Donating goods to Butterwick Hospice is a popular and a very helpful method of supporting the Charity. Each year Butterwick receives over 1 million items of clothing, books, bric a brac, household goods and furniture that we sort and where possible recycle and sell on through our high street shops, eBay shop or retail events. Last year over £300,000 was raised towards patient care from sales of donated goods in our shops. We would like to say a huge Thank You to everyone who helps the Charity by donating quality items that we can sell.

Gift Aid

If you are a tax payer please sign up to our Gift Aid scheme in any of our shops. Once you are a member of our Gift Aid scheme we can raise an extra 25% of added value on every item you have donated that sells in one of our shops.

It is really easy to join the scheme, just ask in our stores or at the main hospice reception. There is a quick form to fill out and then you will be issued with a membership card showing your unique gift aid number. Your number will be added to every item you donate that we can put on sale.

Every time a Gift Aided item sells we can claim 25% of the value from the Inland Revenue. This costs you nothing. We will write to inform you when we are about to claim the tax on your goods. You will then have an opportunity to claim the refund yourself or you can donate this amount to the Charity.

Making the Most of Your Donations

We can currently recycle just over half of what we receive however, there are many items we can’t sell.

It actually costs the Charity money to dispose of many items we can’t sell and we would like to avoid this.

Please check the information below to ensure your donation is of items we can resell or recycle and not something we can’t use.

We recycle over a ton of clothing each week which are not of a high enough quality to sell on through the shops. Recycling unsaleable stock is not just a way of raising funds albeit small amounts but is good for the environment. It does however take a lot of time and effort from our brilliant volunteers to sort the saleable from the not saleable.

We also have to dispose of many items we can’t sell because it is an article we are not allowed to sell or its condition is too poor. If the items you are donating are not clothing, is it a recyclable item or is it resaleable? Would you pay to own this item? If you wouldn’t buy it yourself then we probably can’t sell it.

The money we raise from your donations will go towards caring for patients young and old and their families. If we have to dispose of items we can’t sell or recycle we have to spend funds, that should be going towards patient care. Please think carefully about what you are donating. Don’t use the Hospice as a dumping ground for unwanted goods.

We are unable to collect and re-sell the following items:

TVs, Computer hardware, beds, fridges, microwave ovens, white goods, gas appliances, wall units over 5 ft in height, pianos or large electric organs or suites without the current fire regulation labels attached.

Please also do not donate part items such as incomplete toys, puzzles and games or part sets of bric a brac. Much of the bric a brac that we receive we can’t sell on because it is incomplete, such as one cup and saucer from a set or it is cracked, worn or broken. Unsalable items have to be skipped – the Charity has to pay for the skip to be emptied, or taken to the tip which uses valuable funds.

The items that do make funds for the Charity include:

Good quality clothing, jewellery, books, complete games and puzzles, unbroken complete toys, good quality bric a brac, modern furniture with safety labels where necessary, small household electrical items such as lamps etc and collectables. All these items help Butterwick Hospice Care to raise funds through our shops and support the work done every day in our adult and children’s hospices.

How to Make a Donation

Please enquire at your local Butterwick Hospice Care shop regarding any donations you wish to make, contact information can be found here.

If your item or load is large you can request the van to collect the item/load from your home, however, we only have one van so it is very busy, we would ask you to be patient if you would like to use this service. We will contact you to let you know when the van will call to collect your donation.

You can also visit our eBay shop where you’ll find lots of brilliant bargains.

We are very grateful for the support we receive through donations of goods as they provide a means of raising the money we need to maintain the high standards of care provided by Butterwick Hospice Care.