Any old rags for Latvian childen: Charity clothing collections in Tonbridge....

I don't wish to sound uncharitable, and I'm aware that this is a bit of a sensitive topic but I've always wondered about some of those, so called, charities who drop plastic bags through your letter box. One came through my door this morning asking for clothing collections for Latvia. I'm sure it's a worthy cause, and they do look legitimate enough with a web site, professional looking packaging and, crucially, a registered UK charity number. The only thing that caught my eye and made me wonder was the line in the text on the clothing bag which mentioned that Retexa, who presumably are the distribution company who work for Children Our Future, will donate "...at least 60 pounds from every tonne collected... to Children Our Future." It's a funny way of putting it and possibly could be put down to the language barrier if they are Latvians. I'm not worried that they mixed their imperial weights with their metrics so much as the meagre amount. By my calculations of 2.2 pounds to a kilogramme that's 27.3 kg out of 1,000 kg or only 2.7% guaranteed to be donated. What happens to the other 972.7 kg of every tonne collected? Is that the distribution company's to sell? If so how and where do they sell it? Do they pick out all the designer label gear before they send the rest off to Latvia? I'm singling this charity out as an example, although I'm quite sure there are others in the same boat. Maybe this is normal, maybe all the charities operate on a 2.7% ratio and maybe 2.7 kg in every 1,000 is better than nothing but it did strike me as very low....