How a clothes donation bin company passed itself off as a charity, while donated items were put up for sale

In part two of a four-part investigation into the seedy underbelly of the lucrative clothing donation bin industry, CTV W5 uses trackers tp reveal a for-profit operation masquerading as a charity.

This is part two of a four-part investigative series by CTV W5 into the seedy underbelly of the lucrative clothing donation bin industry. W5 correspondent Jon Woodward and producer Joseph Loiero, using trackers, reveal a for-profit operation masquerading as a charity.

When Nazarene Sebastian spotted a brown stuffed elephant in a Toronto-area thrift store, she thought it would be the perfect Christmas present to donate to needy children.

What she didn’t know was that the stuffed elephant had already been donated, as part of a W5 investigation that tracked what happened to the items people place in clothing donation bins.

When a W5 crew knocked on her door in Brampton, Ont., she found out the money she spent on that elephant may have been a source of revenue for a collection of organizations that seem to be profiting off people’s donations.

And that those organizations have previously faced allegations of profiting improperly from a charitable status that has long since been revoked.

“Probably they capitalize on it because they see the value of something that is worth reselling,” Sebastian said in an interview with W5. “But it should be given to the ones who really need it.”