Non-Profit Clothing Life Cycle: Interactive Review and Research Agenda

The clothing donation landscape has been impacted by the rise of fast fashion and changing demographics of clothing donors. However, operations within second-hand non-profit clothing retailers remain unsophisticated without up-to-date technology or significant operational experience. The impact of these evolutions has not yet been extensively explored from supply chain perspectives. By investigating the end-to-end operations of these charities (e.g., donation sources, inventory management practices,  and the end-of-life pathways for unsold items), the research aims to develop an agenda for future research. The research methodology includes qualitative surveys and semi-structured interviews with donors and charity managers. This work has been accepted for presentation at the national Decision Sciences Institute (DSI) conference in San Francisco, November 2026.

Researchers: Sri Wandanil Amelia  and Aigerim Zholmyrza