Shoe drive fundraisers are a lot of fun for the thousands of partners who work with us. They know by collecting gently worn, used and new shoes, raise money for their cause. However, shoe quality is essential.
In sum, we get a question often asked by our partners. And we want to explain why we strive to ensure the shoes collected are gently worn, used and new.
Life in a developing nation.
To start, if you partnered with us in the past or looked at our website, you know we work with micro-entrepreneurs in developing nations who sell the shoes. We partnered with approximately 4,000 small business owners in countries worldwide, including Haiti and Pakistan. Unfortunately, in many nations people live in poverty, or even extreme poverty. Meaning, families earn as little as $2 a day or even less to survive. Of course, that’s not a sustainable income—even in a developing country.
Because of systemic poverty, low-quality education and scarce work opportunities people create their own paths. They do so in the hopes of having a chance to provide for their families. So, one of the principal ways people develop opportunity for themselves is selling merchandise. And that includes necessary shoes. Children attending school, need shoes as part of their uniform. Also, parents need shoes to go to work. Everyone needs footwear to prevent diseases from the parasites that can enter the bloodstream from the ground.
Why does the quality of the shoe matter?
The quality of the shoes collected in shoe drive fundraisers is critical. When our partners collect shoes, the footwear gets processed. So it’s vital all pairs be gently worn, used and new shoes. After processing and the issuance of a check to our shoe drive fundraising partners, the shoes get consolidated with hundreds of others from other shoe drive fundraisers across North America.
The shoes get shipped to countries worldwide. Ultimately, micro-entrepreneurs purchase the footwear for a small fraction of the original cost of the shoes. It’s vital to have a commerce-driven approach to helping people in developing nations create and sustain economic opportunities for themselves. Also, if we simply gave away shoes more harm could happen than good. In other words, it could destroy economic markets and jobs. Why? Well, people wouldn’t sell shoes if other people were giving them away in the communities.
The quality of the shoes matters. Micro-entrepreneurs who purchase the shoes for inventory, clean and then prepare them for sales in their communities. The reality is if you wouldn’t buy a pair of frayed and torn-up shoes, people in developing countries wouldn’t want to buy them either. But there’s another reason why the quality of the shoes is essential. And that’s that in developing countries the vast majority of people walk from place to place because they can’t afford cars. So they need good walking shoes and sneakers to get around and for walking long distances.
Join the shoe drive fundraising movement
We hope that our post provides you with more clarity around the reasons for gently worn, used and new shoes. If you’ve never done a shoe drive fundraiser, or would like to learn more about it as a stand-alone or in addition to another event, we invite you to do what thousands of others like you have done…
Join the shoe drive fundraising movement!
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