Salvation Army Pushes For Last Minute Donations Amid Center Consolidation

RANCHO CORDOVA (CBS13) — If you're looking for a tax break and donate to a good cause, you have just a few more hours to donate, and it might be harder to find a location to do so.

The Salvation Army hopes the final day of 2019 will help boost them in terms of donations because they are down 10-15% for this year.

Dejuan Matthews sorted through thousands of donations on Monday at the Salvation Army distribution center in Rancho Cordova.

"Just seeing the amount of stuff people bring in here is amazing…giving away brand new stuff, stuff they never opened," Matthews said.

Nearly 100 people stopped by with donations.

"It's super busy out here, non-stop work. I only took a 15-minute break the whole time I've been here," Matthews said.

READ: Thieves Take $2,400 In Red Kettle Donations From Woodland Salvation Army Center

There was the rush of getting donations in for a tax deduction before the end of the year combined with the confusion of where to drop them off.

"They were like, 'I didn't know it was closed. I always go there,' and then they came here," Matthews said.

This fall, the Salvation Army closed four distribution centers in Sacramento, Woodland, Auburn, and Grass Valley.

Major Ivan Wild said, "We took a strategic look at what stores produced what and how we could be more efficient, so we consolidated the Sacramento store with this store here in Rancho Cordova."

All Sacramento items now go to the Rancho Cordova store and are then sent to a processing center in Stockton.

"All the donations that go to these family stores, the proceeds go to rehabilitation programs for men and women in that program," Wild said.

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The money is needed because there were five fewer shopping days this holiday season, which means less red kettle money for community programs.

"That money helps provide programs year-round such as our transitional living, emergency shelter, after school programs, our culinary programs housing program, our construction school. All these programs that really help in the cycle of homelessness," said Wild.

Closing out 2019 with a  plea for people to donate what they can whether it's clothing, cars or cash.

You will have a few more hours to make those donations on Tuesday, the Rancho Cordova store will be open until 9 p.m. on New Year's Eve.