Evan Schuman's StorefrontBacktalk

Every now and then, there’s a retail use of online that is actually likely to do good at the same as it helps retailers do well. The Retail Orphan Initiative on Tuesday (July 12) got quite close when it rolled out a charity-locator feature designed to deal with retail overstocks. One of the historic problems charities struggle with is the logical challenge of connecting companies and people with food, clothing or other items that they want to donate with entities in a position to accept and redistribute where they’re needed.

The Charity Locator is designed to help retailers get tax write-offs while dealing with some $65 billion of overstocked items every year. The locator features an interactive map of nearby charities from a RetailROI-developed database of 501c3 organizations across the country that focus on at-risk children, women in distress or families in need. The charity locator includes the top 125 cities and the top 300 largest malls in the U.S., with information on types of items each charity accepts, including clothing, food, furniture, building materials and educational materials. The system automatically recognizes the address of the retail store and suggests three to five local charities that will accept donations. It’s definitely worth considering.