Hey LongHairGal!
I have probably given thousands of dollars worth of stuff to Goodwill.
You mean they don't tell you???
In the UK you donate clothing and other items to a charity shop - and at the end of the year they send you a letter informing you how much they sold your items for! Cool eh?!?!
If you are a tax payer, you let them know when you donate the items, then the charity (hopefully!) sells the items for money and the charity then claims that money as a donation from you via 'gift aid' so they claimback the tax you paid from the government - increasing the donation by 25%! The charity lets you know at the end of the tax year - also if you are a higher rate tax payer you get a small tax break if you claim it.
It works because charity shops are computerised and can therefore put a unique bar-code sticker on each item that they can scan at the till when it is bought - it's really kinda a 'loop-hole' (swapping your clothes for money which is then donated), but it is standard practise nowadays.
www.thirdsector.co.uk/hmrc-changes-rules-gift-aid-declarations-goods-donated-charity-shops/finance/article/1165048