Assistance to the less fortunate

Several organisations assisting the less-fortunate in society operate thrift shops.

These include gospel missions in Kelowna, Vancouver and Kamloops.

There are also the numerous Salvation Army thrift shops.

Prisoner peer counselling in Abbotsford and Chilliwack

Addictions Recovery
Abbotsford

Abused women and children
Kelowna
greater Victoria (4)
Courtenay
Campbell River
Chilliwack
Surrey (Cloverdale)
North Vancouver
Maple Ridge (2)
Duncan

Unfortunately Penticton and Nelson lost theirs.

Hospice thrift shops

We all have to die and the various hospice organisations raise money through thrift shops.  The ones that do are

Vancouver (3 HOBs on the West Side)
Delta (in Tsawwassen)
White Rock-South Surrey
Langley
Chilliwack
Maple Ridge
Coquitlam (Crossroads)
Burnaby
Nanaimo (2 shops)
Campbell River
Kamloops

Surrey's Hospice operates its thrift shop in co-operation with the city's fire fighters

Religious-affiliation thrift stores

There are a number of thrift stores that are religiously-affiliiated (all Christian). First and foremost is, of course, the Salvation Army (too numerous to mention but remember that most outside greater Vancouver and Victoria are independent of each other) with the Mennonites having their Central Committee shops in Powell River, Vancouver, Surrey, Abbotsford (2), Mission, Yarrow, Chilliwack and Kelowna a second.  A missionary group called Bibles for Missions operates quite a few (Chilliwack (2), Duncan, Victoria, Kelowna, Langley, Prince George and Cranbrook) but interestingly the Abbotsford branch is separately organised from the others. Langley also has 2 International Christian Responses and there's WorldServe in White Rock.

The denomination that has the most otherwise seems to be the United Church.  These include

Sicamous
Winfield
Kelowna (First United)
Westbank
Peachland
Burnaby (South Burnaby)
Surrey (Northwood)- haven't checked this one
Vancouver (First, Grace and Wilson Heights United) - haven't checked any of these
North Van (Mount Seymour)
Gibsons
Kamloops
Duncan
Nanaimo (St Andrew's, Brechin near Departure Bay seems to host a flea market)
Victoria (Gordon Head,  James Bay, Oak Bay, St Aidan's + St. John's in North Saanich)
Coquitlam (Trinity)
Golden
The Osoyoos and Como Lake churches in Coquitlam are reported to have shops but I haven't checked them yet.

Prince George, Revelstoke, and Oakridge in Vancouver have unfortunately closed their shops in recent months.

Some hold once a year events and these are Knox in Vancouver and Highlands in North Van.

The other Protestant church thrift shops include St Barnabas, St John's and St Stephen the Martyr Anglican in New West, Cobble Hill and Burnaby respectively, St Andrew's Presbyterian in Victoria, and the Duncan Seventh Day Adventist in Duncan.

Other Protestant churches with thrift shops include on in Kamloops (Westsyde), one in New West that assists a Pentecostal church in Manila.

There are also gospel missions to the homeless poor with thrift shops in Vancouver, Kelowna and Kamloops.

Catholic thrift shops are a little rarer.  There is Mother Teresa's Place of St Mary's in Chilliwack and the Pro-Life Society in Kelowna.   Various branches of Saint Vincent de Paul are active with 6 shops in greater Victoria, 2 in Vancouver and one in Kamloops. The Catholic Women's League has a shop in Squamish that I haven't had the opportunity to visit.  Schools may hold periodic thrift sales. The Catholic school attached to St Edward the Confessor in Duncan holds an annual event in September as does St Joseph's in Kelowna.

For multi-denominational, there is of course the Churches of Salmon Arm thrift store.  One of the largest in the province.  The United and Anglican churches in Castlegar also jointly run a thrift shop.

List of Health Care and Hospital Auxiliairies

A list of health care and hospital auxiliaries.  Not all operate thrift stores but (some of) those which do are listed below which make them the most numerous for a given type of organisation:

http://bchealthcareaux.org/about-bcaha/member-auxiliaries/

Kamloops (Royal Inland)
Rutland (Kelowna General)
Merritt/Nicola Valley
Revelstoke
Nakusp/Arrow Lakes
Kaslo
Cranbrook
Summerland
Penticton
Powell River

Campbell River
Comox (St Joseph's)
Nanaimo
Chemainus
Ladysmith
Duncan/Cowichan Valley
Gold River
Port Alberni
Port Hardy

Vancouver: VGH, and BC Women's and B.C. Children's
New Westminster (Royal Columbian)
North Vancouver (Lions Gate)
Maple Ridge
Port Coquitlam
Richmond
Delta
White Rock
Surrey (Surrey Memorial - the shop is actually in North Delta)
Langley
Mission
Chilliwack

Victoria reportedly had a good thrift shop but it closed recently due to high rent.

Community Living BC listings

Community Living BC has compiled a list of resources including thrift shops

https://clbc.cioc.ca/

List of thrift shops in B.C.

Here are listing of charitable and non-profit thrift shops in B.C. by region. They're all either operated by a charity, hospital or health care auxiliary, church or religious organisation, or someone (usually a small-scale proprietor) operating it privately and stating a mission to donate the proceeds to charities or in partnership with a charity (such as the B.C. SPCA who licenses out its name in return for a portion of gross proceeds).

The listings are usually directional (e.g., N-S, W-E, etc.), listing the name, address, stated opening times (if known), web pages (if any), and when last visited (if at all).

South Okanagan: Penticton, Summerland to Osoyoos
https://bcthriftshop.blogspot.com/p/south-okanagan-thrift-shop.html

North Okanagan + Sicamous: Vernon, Salmon Arm, Armtrong, Enderby
https://bcthriftshop.blogspot.com/p/listing-for-okanagan-valley-area-thrift.html

Central Okanagan: Winfield, Kelowna, Peachland
https://bcthriftshop.blogspot.com/p/okanagan.html

Victoria area - Sooke to Sidney
https://bcthriftshop.blogspot.com/p/victoria-area-thrift-shops.html

South of the Fraser: Richmond, White Rock, Surrey, Langley, Abbotsford, Chilliwack to Hope
http://bcthriftshop.blogspot.ca/p/blog-page_3.html

Vancouver, Burnaby and New Westminster
http://bcthriftshop.blogspot.ca/p/burrard-peninsula.html

Port Moody, Coquitlam and Port Coquitlam
https://bcthriftshop.blogspot.com/p/tri-cities-thrift-shops.html

North Shore: North Vancouver, West Vancouver, Squamish + Whistler/Pemberton
http://bcthriftshop.blogspot.ca/p/north-shore-to-whistler.html

South Vancouver Island + Gulf Islands: Mill Bay to Chemainus + Ganges

http://bcthriftshop.blogspot.ca/p/listing-of.html

Sunshine Coast: Powell River, Sechelt, Gibsons

http://bcthriftshop.blogspot.ca/p/sunshine-coast.html

Kamloops & Interior
http://bcthriftshop.blogspot.ca/p/kamloops.html

Kootenays and Columbia valley
http://bcthriftshop.blogspot.ca/p/kootenays.html

Northern B.C.
http://bcthriftshop.blogspot.ca/p/northern-bc.html

Updates, additions and corrections will be made when appropriate

Please comment if you have any additions, modifications, etc. to suggest

Peachland

In the lakefront town of Peachland between Kelowna and Penticton is the Peachland United Church thrift shop.  Located in the basement of the church on 4th, it is only open a few days a week.  Small in size and run by volunteers, it mostly has clothes, with some collectibles and housewares.  Good prices.  Free street parking.