OUR STORY

Our story

Hello, my name is Rachel Samuel and I am the founder of DonateDirect. This is my story.

It all started with a couch! We were moving house and had a much-loved couch in excellent condition that wouldn’t fit into our new place. I knew that in the recent Victorian bushfires some people had lost their entire homes. I wanted to donate the couch to someone who had lost all their property. I rang numerous charities, trying to donate the couch to someone in need. I got nowhere. Our only option seemed to be waiting many weeks for a charity to pick up my couch only to be in-sold at an op-shop, or using hard rubbish collection. I couldn’t guarantee that my couch would reach someone in need. The process frustrated me. This must happen all the time. People frequently update and turnover their homes, their furniture, their flat screen T.Vs. They often don’t know what to do with their stuff when they declutter or move home. And so often it just gets thrown out. Having worked for many years in the public health system I knew there were people in need. I spoke with friends and colleagues and found that there were many people out there who felt the same way. So, I decided to develop a charity initiative, using a Donations platform which allowed people to donate their items and have them go directly to people in need. DonateDirect.

Our aims are simple:

To help people in the community to donate their pre-loved items directly to people in need. To provide easier access to material aid for homeless and vulnerable individuals, in turn improving their quality of life. To promote recycling of quality goods, thereby reducing the burden of waste on our environment. I hope you like what we’re trying to achieve and enjoy participating in our initiative.

Thank you so much for your support.

Rachel xo