When we start a non-profit, we are usually pretty open to ANY help, any donations. Sometimes the cost of free can be higher than you’d expect. When we started, we were approached by several fabric companies wanting to help. Some were a perfect match, some were overwhelming with their generosity, and some simply put a piece of paper over “Basura” and said, “Binky Patrol” (Basura is trash in Spanish.) In this episode, we visit about the first donations and how they are still dear to us, even though they were challenging at first.

Just because you are a charity, doesn’t mean you have to say yes to everything people want to donate to you. When we started we received generous donations of amazing fabric, and a bunch of “what do we do with THIS?” fabrics. We learned pretty fast how to politely turn down the donations that really didn’t fit.

Our first amazing donations came from Mirage Framing in Santa Ana, CA, bb dakota (became Steve Madden), Lucy Max Children’s Boutique in Laguna Beach, and our beloved, Hoffman Fabrics. Within the first week, we had to secure donations to cover the cost of a 10 x 10 storage unit and shelving to organize it all. Following that, anyone with scraps wanted to donate them to us, but it didn’t all work great for binkies. We bartered for cottons, flannels, and fleece and gave away the sheers, drapery fabric, upholstery fabrics, double knits, and wools.  Join us for this episode, “It’s OK to say, “No.” to free fabric on All-volunteer, All Heart from Binky Patrol.

 

 

Learn more about Binky Patrol at https://binkypatrol.org.