Our Approach
West Michigan Nice?
What is West Michigan Nice and how does it negatively affect nonprofits?
According to an article published by The Grand Rapids Business Journal “West Michigan Nice” is a phrase associated with being polite in an attempt to not hurt someone’s feelings (a donor in our example), even when withholding the truth negatively impacts the person or organization.
Many companies, both national and local, donate products that they can no longer use and want to do so responsibly. With the best of intentions, local companies often choose a well known nonprofit and give a well intentioned donation; often without a conversation around the specific needs of that organization. The nonprofit recipient accepts the donation even when it is at the detriment of the organization. As a nonprofit organization who serves more than 100 other local nonprofits, we have heard this phrase and story repeatedly from our members.
Two specific examples come to mind:
One nonprofit mentioned that a global company, headquartered locally, generously shared a whole pallet of brand new size 8 red tennis shoes with their nonprofit. The nonprofit had more than 100 youth being housed who could use new tennis shoes. The problem was that only 3 children fit that size and only one wanted a red pair of shoes. Because the nonprofit did not want to offend the donor and risk losing future donations, they politely thanked the donor and received the products. This is a perfect example of “West Michigan Nice”.
Another nonprofit told us a similar story. A large West Michigan retailer donated 8,000 coats to their organization. This organization who primarily serves homeless people knew that the 100-200 people they regularly served could use new coats. However, they did not have space for 8,000 coats, nor a need for such a donation. Not wanting to offend the donor, they accepted the donation and then had to spend time/money out of pocket to rent a storage facility while they figured out what to do with this donation.
Why is this important to The StoreHouse you may ask?
The StoreHouse has expertise in handling the logistics of both large and small donations and is connected to more than 100 nonprofits AND schools in which a donation of shoes or coats could have been matched to the perfect need without causing strain on the recipient.
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