VABumblebeans

I'm going to hop into this conversation, and share with you a bit how my quilt drive works. As I have had personally experience with this. I organized the quilt drive,but all the paperwork, inventory, and thank you cards are sent out by BASICS. I do not touch the quilts, until we personally hand out the quilts to the families. I can tell you in my experience, often it's a person, who already has a position in the org, and this is not their only job, but an extension of their job. In my case, the people who are helping the families, are OFTEN the people checking in the boxes as well. people do indeed make mistakes,That is not an excuse,So I am just providing info on what is handled daily.

Often, We have days were we receive 20-30 boxes,
Often we receive boxes where the ONLY address for the quilt is on the OUTSIDE of the box and NO INFO is provided INSIDE the box.
Often the boxes are damaged, or smudged, or written in a way that you can not read the address correctly.

All of these things need to be considered. People are human, All org's are set up to help the person in need,and comes from a place of love and respect. I do highly recommend that you send your parcel for receipt of delivery confirmation, for your sake. And also include a typed note with your address, and your email, ( we send both an email and a snail mail card)

Also note: If you request a tax exempt for your donation, you must request it, for only the cost of your material used. Not what you think your quilt would sell for if you tried to sell it. That's the law. Often for amounts under $100 people don't ask for the slip, and slips are not sent out for that, unless it is requested by the sender.
Yes, every quilt is noted and recorded by the org.

Let me provide you with a couple of cases to also think about.
One case, a gal was upset that a thank you was never recvd. The box was actually never recvd by the post office,but was later sent BACK to the sender, as she wrote the WRONG address on the box. Mistakes happen.

Case two: We also have had a case where 5 people sent on longarm quilter tops that she could complete and send off to BASICS. One of the people who sent a top to the longarmer, never provided her info. SO, the longarmer,completes the quilts on her time, her coin to send the 5 quilts to Basics, with her return address on the box, with no note inside other than hers.(the long armer) ( not he 5 people's names that sent the tops) The person who sent the TOP only, was furious that she never recvd a Card or acknowledgement from the quilt drive.

So the questions are: How would the drive now that 5 quilts that had many hands to finish, know that? when the info had not been provided? After many emails back and forth, and lot's of time was used to sort this out, Thank yous were sent out, indeed. But it took us to find all the info to do so. We make the effort. We've thanked, but sadly she is still upset with us. Her quilt is also posted, so, she has seen where her quilt went.

I totally understand why she is upset. It makes perfect sense. The error was not done maliciously by anyone...

Mistakes do indeed happen. We apologize for all of them. It has been a rare case when that does happen. We've had three cases out of 500 quilts rcvd. And the situations are always rectified.

We are always grateful for your quilts. Sometimes mishaps happen. But know that your efforts NEVER go un-thanked. We appreciate your quilts, your time, your generosity.

I try to personally take pictures of EVERY single quilt and add them to the Website and flickr group so you see exactly who is snuggling up in your quilt. As long as the person who is receiving it allows me to photograph them.

Believe me, Hugs, tears, smiles, are always attached to your beautiful quilts. I hope you can find the JOY in the two quilts you gave. It really is a priceless gift you've shared.

Victoria
http://bumblebeansbasics.com/