Restoration Thrift

About

Find your treasure today!

Story

Throughout the Bible we see God bringing restoration to all things and using people in the process. He restores cities, restores peoples’ health, restores relationships, restores families, restores nations, restores the earth and most importantly restores our broken relationship with Him through Christ’s atoning work on the cross. As Christians, we live with the hope that one day God will make all things new and seek to join in this restoration that He has already begun.

As St. Roch CDC works to bring restoration to all parts of our community, we want to have an apparatus that both furthers our mission while creating a sustainable model of development.

We are launching a thrift store that has a quadruple bottom line:

Create jobs so that those who have had challenges entering the work force can do so with dignity and support.
Create a diversified funding stream to support ministry initiatives.
Provide an excellent and affordable shopping experience for customers.
Provide opportunities for people to give back through in-kind donations and volunteer service. Additionally it is our aim that we will be able to provide financial support to partner organizations that are bringing restoration to neighborhoods throughout New Orleans.
Timeline:

August 2013: Set up collection warehouse
September 2013: Begin collecting clothing and other items for store
January 2014: Research options for retail space
March 2014: build out store, hire & train staff
June 2014: Grand opening

Current Needs:
Donations, donations, donations! Clothing, housewares, costumes, sporting goods, vehicles, boats, etc.
$50,000 in seed capital
Churches or businesses willing to serve as collection sites with official Restoration Thrift collection bins
Volunteers to coordinate collection sites and delivery of items to warehouse
Volunteers to construct collection bins
Connections to textile industries and third-world markets to sell excess donations classified as #2′s and #3′s to generate additional revenue.
Anticipated Results

-Jobs: We hope to eventually generate up to 10 new jobs by hiring both full-time and part-time employees.
-Income: We have been advised that a decent thrift store can net anywhere from $5,000- $30,000 in monthly revenue.
-Excellent and affordable shopping: We are aiming to create a top notch shopping experience by providing friendly customer service, an ascetically pleasing and well organized store and selling items at fair prices to help shoppers stretch precious dollars.
-Give-back: New Orleans possesses one of the greatest spirits of generosity the world has to offer and we want to have an avenue to bring even greater value to this generosity. As people give their time, talents and treasure to Restoration Thrift their sacrifices are supporting restoration efforts throughout the city by supporting not only the work of St. Roch CDC but also a variety of partner organization doing similar work. Likewise, New Orleans is also a destination spot for volunteer teams from across the country. We are aiming to have 5,000 hours of volunteer time contributed each year and countless donors of in-kind donations.

Interested in lending a hand or donating your gently used or new items? Contact Ben McLeish at [email protected] or (504) 564-7739.

Donations

Your donation to Restoration Thrift is tax-deductible. IRS code requires the donor to list the condition of items (good, like new, new, etc.) and the estimated value. Items donated must be in “Good” condition to receive a tax deduction.

Restoration Thrift will provide a receipt upon request or you can down load a receipt that meets the IRS written substantiation requirements for donations accepted at St. Roch CDC’s Restoration Thrift. You can also track your donations for free on TurboTax®’s ItsDeductible website. When you donate property and claims to Restoration Thrift, for tax purposes, you must prove that the donation was made and establish how much the donated property was worth at the time of contribution. St. Roch CDC cannot place a value on the goods, determining the fair market value of a gift of property remains the responsibility of the donor. For IRS guidelines please see IRS Publication 561 – Determining the Value of Donated Property.

Visit http://strochcdc.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/values.pdf for a listing of average estimated values of items in good condition. This list is for your guidance only in determining value of your items.