The local Goodwill Industries affiliate is fighting back against new green donation bins that are popping up around town.
According to labels on the bins, donations are used to support charities. But, the companies that operate the boxes have been controversial for years.
If you have extra clothing stuffed in the back of your closet and want to get rid of it donating can seem like a good idea. But, according to Goodwill, not all charities are as good as they sound.
"You want to ask yourself two questions. One, are my donations going to be used for a local cause? And, the second thing is do you personally believe in the mission of that non profit organization,?" said Ken Beurmann with Goodwill Industries.
And, local people we talked with say, knowing where you donate is very important.
"I would prefer it stay local because once we take care of people around here, you could always go beyond that and to surrounding communities."
"It is good to look into it before you just give money or your resources away. You should know what you are doing. With everything that is going on around this world right now everybody is concerned about where the money's going."
Goodwill is trying to get local charities to band together to help fight the green bins.
"We've actually reached out and communicated with the Salvation Army. In fact, we just had a couple meetings with them, we are potentially going to get a little coalition together. And, what we want to do is educate the community that there are very legitimate non-profit organizations serving very local causes," added Beurmann.
As he claims, the green boxes do not serve the Bakersfield community.
The green boxes we found were put on the streets by an organization called Campus California.
Campus California is based in the bay area, and its website says the donations it receives help people overseas.
The boxes list a Bakersfield address, but we found out it's just a mail box in a UPS store on Panama Lane.
17 News called Campus California, but the person who answered would not comment on this story.
