Giving in times of crisis
The Agence du Don en Nature is an association that acts as a bridge between sixty big industrial groups and around 350 charitable associations. Millions of unsold products are redistributed.
di Redazione
Every year in Francenearly half a billion of non-food products are destroyed while more than 8 million people live below the poverty line. The Agence du Don en Nature (Agency of gift in kind) is a French association working to answer to these challenges. Founded in 2009, it collects new unsold non-food products from big companies and distributes them to charitable associations, acting as a bridge between the profit and the nonprofit world.
The Agence du Don en Nature (ADN) can count on the cooperation of 60 donors- companies like L’Oreal, Renault, Procter& Gamble, Célio – and distributes their surplus products to 350 charitable associations helping 500,000 people. Starting from real needs identified on the field the ADN is in charge to find the products the associations need from corporate donors.
An online catalogue enables partner associations to choose in a few quick steps the products that correspond to the needs of the disadvantaged people they help: pens, clothes, informatic material, cosmetics, hygiene products…
The Agence du Don en Nature manages the logistic aspects related to collection, storage and redistribution of the products. In exchange charitable associations can benefit of its services paying a little contribution to the handling and delivery costs of the products.
Some key figures show the triple impact of the French association: social, environmental and economic. In three years the ADN has provided a very useful service to 350 associations which help 500 000 people, and it has recovered new products that in most cases would have been destroyed (the equivalent of 2300 tons of waste has been avoided). Eventually, since 2009, 20 million of Euros of non food products have been redistributed: a more ethic and economic source of supply for associations.
