StorageMart, a self-storage company with 127 locations across the United States and Canada, has designated its New York facilities as drop-off points for items to be sold at Charity Storage auctions. The company selected Women In Need Inc., an organization that helps homeless and disadvantaged women and their families in New York City, as its local charity.

Charity Storage is a nonprofit group trying to establish a national network of participating storage facilities that serve as collection points for goods donated by tenants as well as the general public. Donated goods are stored and later sold during the facilities public auctions.

Self-storage operators that join the Charity Storage network can encourage departing tenants, current tenants, auction buyers, local residents and businesses to donate items to a designated Charity Storage unit at their facilities. Donors receive a tax-deductible receipt. When the storage facility holds a public auction, the Charity Storage unit is sold along with the other units, and any revenue earned from the sale of that unit is allocated to charity.

Net proceeds from the sale of each unit at a Charity Storage auction are split three ways. The national Self Storage Association Foundation Scholarship program receives 10 percent, and Kure It Cancer Research, a nonprofit dedicated to funding kidney and other cancer research, receives 30 percent. Each participating self-storage company chooses a local or national charity to receive the remaining 60 percent.

Partnering with Charity Storage is a perfect fit for StorageMarts vision of community support, said Sarah Little, interactive marketing director. We selected Women In Need Inc. (WIN) as our select charity for our New York self-storage properties because this organization meets a very real need in our community. We learned that 80 percent of the homeless in NYC are women and children. Once we were aware of that fact, it was no question; WIN was the group we had to support.

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