Textiles Care2Collect

The National Blind Children’s Society has commissioned care2collect (the charity fundraising arm of I&G Cohen Ltd) to raise funds on its behalf from the sale of recycled textiles through kerbside collections.

Like the vast majority of UK charities NBCS does not have the resources to operate retail shops to bring in this essential revenue, without which we could not continue to provide vital services to the estimated 24,000 children with visual impairment in this country.
care2collect carries the full – very substantial – cost of collecting, warehousing, sorting and transporting the recycled textiles for onward sale in worldwide markets where they are much needed. There is no cost or commercial risk to the National Blind Children’s Society, which is not in a position to finance such an operation itself.
NBCS therefore relies totally on the efforts of care2collect on its behalf, which result in approximately 40% of the charity’s income.

NBCS receives – at no cost to itself – £50 per tonne of recycled textiles collected. This is by no means an insignificant, or indeed unfair, amount considering the very large investment required to set up and run a commercial operation on this scale, let alone the substantial risk involved.

NBCS has absolute confidence in its commercial partner care2collect, the charity fundraising arm of a well-respected and long-established family firm which has won many enterprise and industry awards over the years.
Since the partnership with care2collect started NBCS has benefited by more than £1 million, with the added benefit to the environment that many thousands of tonnes of waste textiles are diverted from landfill.

Provided that the public check that the collection bags and vans meet the following criteria, they can be confident that their generous donation is genuinely going to NBCS to the direct and immediate benefit of the children with visual impairment who so desperately need our help.

• Bags and collection vans must be clearly marked with the NBCS logo
• The NBCS Registered Charity Number 1051607 is clearly visible
• The contact phone number 0844 873 2199 is clearly visible
• All collectors carry ID from NBCS

If anyone is at all uncertain about whether a collector is genuine, they should contact the police at once.