Donate NZ founder Claire Sawyers
Innovator Claire Sawyers
PHOTO: Chris Skelton
How often do we move office or house, upgrade or downsize and end up with valuable stuff we just don’t need any more? Whether we ring up the Sally Army, stick it on Trade Me or dump the lot, getting rid of surplus stuff is usually as much an afterthought as it is a hassle.
Claire Sawyers, creator of the award-winning Donate NZ website (donatenz.com), wants to turn this on its head. “You mightn’t think of giving away your second fridge, but when you know that Mobility Dogs [a charity that provides trained assistance dogs to disabled people] needs one, it’s a whole different ball game,” she says.
Donate NZ is an automated, online matchmaker, a portal where people and companies can donate goods and time to charities, schools and early-childhood centres. “Think Trade Me, without the cash,” says Claire. Sign up, browse the wishes of worthy organisations, and suddenly you’re not getting rid of unwanted gear, you’re finding ways for it to be better employed.
Since it started in 2006, Donate NZ has signed up more than 1,000 organisations and facilitated the donation of more than 100,000 items. Some donations are large—like when a large ad agency moved to pre-furnished digs and gave away a building’s worth of stuff. Others are quirky—like the frog given to a playcentre by a staff member at the Sustainable Business Network. And it connects communities. Recently, an elderly lady cleaned out her linen cupboard after hearing that her local playcentre was after towels. “She now gets a real buzz from looking out for other things they might need,” says Claire.
The Donate NZ model is the first of its kind worldwide, but it’s not a lark for the faint-hearted. Claire is backed only by her parents and their floristry business, Roses are Red (www.rosesarered.co.nz). The family has sunk many hundreds of thousands of dollars into the venture.
Having recently taken Donate NZ from a business to a registered charity, Claire is now working on several different funding strategies, pitching to the Icehouse Fast Pitch competition and wooing corporate sponsors. “We bring a lot to the table; we just need to find an organisation that can synchronise with us. It’s just a matter of time. We’re absolutely committed to making this work,” she says.
