Charity shop avoids closure

A year ago, charity shop It’s Donated on Lowther Street, near York Hospital, was in grave danger of closure.

With falling sales and increasing costs, trustees voted in May 2022 to close It’s Donated and give its assets to the causes it supports.

It’s Donated is run by John Lally International Foundation, a small local charity which supports environmental causes. It’s well known in the Groves, setting up planters for instance in the Lowther Street shopping arcade, and paying for a new hedge to be planted at Park Grove School. It’s an ‘International’ charity because it supports eco causes worldwide. This year, it has given £8,000 to help reclaim deserts in Maili, Africa, and £4,000 to build a charity in Indonesia, which builds river barriers to stop plastic flowing into the ocean.

Against all the odds, the charity has succeeded beyond its wildest dreams this year. Sales have been higher than any previous year. Doom and gloom have changed to delight as the shop contemplates a rosy future, having paid all its costs and made a profit.

It’s Donated is becoming better known in York with customers coming from far and wide to see what it has to offer – it claims to have a better range of clothing than any other charity shop in York. Unlike Yorks’s mecca for charity shops, Goodramgate, which is high on pedestrians and low on donations, Lowther Street is short of pedestrians and high on donations – so It’s Donated is able to offer the best.

Bongo drums, chess sets, golf clubs, plants for the garden, tool kits, cat baskets – you don’t know what you might find at It’s Donated. Its range is supplemented by organic incense, oils and oil burners, bamboo socks, rugs and jute bags, donated by Shared Earth, the Fair Trade/eco shop near York Minster.

Currently It’s Donated is looking for a new part-time manager; anyone interested should apply to trustee Jeremy Piercy at jp@sharedearth.co.uk

Contact: Jeremy Piercy 01904 655314.