Labeling soap for donation?

[Meganmischke]

My ex mil is here visiting from Texas, she is very active in her church. I gave her about 30 lbs of soap for an upcoming fundraiser. I was going to send to clean the world so she saved me a ton in shipping.

My question is should the soap be labeled with my name address and phone number? The soap are either naked or shrink wraped. No labels. I know if I was selling I would not have to include ingredients ( I would). Are you required to label? Should I send her something like a business card that say donated by... for... and contact information? I can't include ingredients this time since there is probably 10 different recipes. Any suggestions or advice? Thank you

 

[cpacamper]

I'm very interested in the answer as well. I make soap for family and friends only, but was asked to make a batch for a homeless shelter.

 

[Susie]

I printed a potential list of ingredients in large, bold font to include on my box. I just put every possible ingredient on the list. I just wrote something like,

This soap may contain any of the following ingredients:

coconut oil
lard
castor oil
olive oil
sweet almond oil
paprika
peppermint essential oil
tea tree oil
clove essential oil
(etc)

That way, everyone could read and evaluate for themselves. I gave my name and phone number to the person on duty at the shelter that day. I did not label the bars.

 

[shunt2011]

I can only speak to what I've done when donating to homelss/family shelters/church shelters is I just put it all in bags and deliver it. I don't label them at all. Generally they are soaps that may have lost some of their scent or just were not good sellers. Perfectly good soap though.

 

[cmzaha]

I on the other hand label all soaps even shelter soaps. These are still people that can have allergies. I do admit most of my shelter soaps are made for the shelters and are not scrap. Even when I send a box of discarded soaps they are wrapped and fully labeled. When send soaps to our local food bank quite regularly. It is a great way to use up fo's that would not otherwise be used. Not saying bad smelling ones just fo's that either have to be hp'ed or are not good sellers. Please keep in mind, because they have fallen on hard times they are not any less human. (not trying to pick a fight, this is just a pet peeve of mine). Homeless people that I give soap to also get a full labeled bar. At times I will go to the local areas of know homeless and pass out soap

 

[OliveOil2]

I have four large buckets that are waiting till I can get to Los Angeles where I usually donate them. They are all shrink wrapped, have ingredient labels. I have gone through and labeled with simple file folder labels what each soap is, such as goat milk, salt bar, beer soap.
I have had the pleasure of giving out much of the soap myself, and it is such a good feeling. I don't use scraps, but if I don't like a color, or fragrance the soap has a home. Since I have a wire cutter I don't have the uneven bars that used to go into those buckets.

 

[Susie]

I don't sell my soap yet, so I don't have labels, packaging, and such. I typically "wrap" my soap in small brown paper bags to give away. And the shelter requested hotel sized bars, so I had to cut them that small. I am not judging the people in the shelter, I am trying to help.

 

[snappyllama]

I don't ever plan on selling, but giving away soap to those in need is certainly appealing. I'm just a newbie and wouldn't dream of even that until I've got a lot of trial and error under my belt. My question is: would I need to worry about liability or would the shelter/food bank/charity assume the risk? If it would come down to me having to have insurance... does anyone have ballpark figures for cost?

 

[cmzaha]

I don't sell my soap yet, so I don't have labels, packaging, and such. I typically "wrap" my soap in small brown paper bags to give away. And the shelter requested hotel sized bars, so I had to cut them that small. I am not judging the people in the shelter, I am trying to help.

We actually have a couple shelters that will not accept unwrapped unlabeled soaps. They can be just a plain white label as long as the ingredients are listed. Even handwritten would work. They started that after they got a bunch of odd and ends of soaps given in to them that could not be identified

 

[Susie]

I probably would not have donated if they had required labeled soap. But I guess I should be looking into getting labels and such if I am going to donate again. I wonder if the abuse shelter requires labeling...

 

[SoapSap]

I recently sent a box of soap to a charity group and did not label because they were all different. I like the idea of posting all the possible ingredients. This would help prevent anyone with allergies, etc. of using an irritant.

I would not donate any soap I would not use myself.

 

[Lindy]

Here in Canada we are required to label all the soap whether we giving it away, donating it etc.

 

[Meganmischke]

Thanks for all the replies. I still don't know what I am going to do. She took all the soap but the craft fair is 3 weeks out so I can send little cards with my info on them. So at the very least she can tape them or pass them out with the soap. That way if anyone has any questions they could contact me. On the other hand people sell naked soap so it must be fine to do so.

 

[Lindy]

I believe in the US it is okay - here a label must be with each soap.