Donating Stuff

try sfsmiles.org, we are a charity that supports charities...we have donated 100's of baby items to the Homeless Prenatal Program and over 20 different charities throughout SF : )

Domestic Violent shelters!!! sometimes they will not give the physical address in order to protect the victims, however, they will let you know where you can leave it. I find this to be a great cause and it really does help these women and children who most of the time left everything they had behind for the safety of their own life.

We have a place called Relief Nursery - it's a program that helps people that are struggling (mostly single parents). I donate clothes and toys to them when I can. One time I was on Craigslist and looked for people who are in need. I found a gal who had little to no money and I gave all of my big baby stuff (highchair, baby swing, bouncer and stuff) - I told her the only thing I wanted in return was when she was done with it to give it to someone else who needs it. Just pass it on.... it's about good karma.

You can ask them what they do with all donations. In my line of work, I donate items that may have been left behind to non profit charities. I have found that some of the large places do send items overseas. Not that it is a bad thing, but I believe in assisting our community first and I know there are still PLENTY in our community in need.

For my personal items, I like to donate to family services/child haven. Many of the kids walk through the door with the clothes on their back. As well, when children are fostered out, the foster family can take clothes from a bank to cloth the children.

Since the Holiday's are coming up, you can watch for homeless projects. The weather is changing and it is time for the homeless to pick up blankets, jackets, and pants. They do this through donation. Sometimes, they give toiletries and toys as well.

I like to donate my stuff to an abused womens shelter. There's a lot of women and children who have to leave a life-threatening situation with just the clothes on their back and have to re-establish a new household. This is my way of helping out and supporting them with their transition. I'm sure if you google your local domestic violence hotline, they can tell you who to call and whether or not they pick up donations in your area.

Good luck with the house clearing. I've been doing it myself off and on for the past year and it sure does feel good.

Ask the school if they know of any in-need families. If you're like me, you need to adopt a family with kids just a year or two younger than your own--you would really bless them over the years!

I like donating to Big Brothers Big Sisters because I think they do really good work and they'll come pick up donations.

If you have a housekeeper, gardner, handyman, or someone that helps you on a regular basis you could give it to them. I usually give my kids outgrown clothes, shoes, etc to my housekeeper who sends it to her family in Mexico.

depending on what you have, homeless shelters are great at getting things to those in needs. We take my husbands stuff to the mens shelter and mine and the kids stuff to the woman and family shelter. We also take stuff to the domestic violence safe house. When I make runs I usually let the folks at my hubbys work know I am going and I almost always get stuff brought in from them as well! Once year I got 4 brand new coats to take to the homeless kids! As well as donations of food and milk :) It feels good knowing the stuff is going to someone who really needs it.

you could try putting them up on your local freecycle.

I got rid of tons of stuff via freecycle but I always met the folks at a public place near my home so I didn't have strangers coming up to the house.

I also used to donate to a foster home for teen moms. These were girls who were pregnant or parenting all while being foster kids. Talk about literally having no one and nothing.

I prefer to donate/give away in a way that the recipients don't have to pay for it like the above two.

We like Catholic Charities for redistribution to families. And we're not Catholic...

We give clothes to kids from families at our school who are like us and don't have a lot of extra money to spend.
Also, you might check with some of the local churches to see if they know of any families in need.
I also give away a lot of stuff on freecycle, it's awesome, and I've never had any problems with weirdos, you can usually tell from their replies to your email posts.

We go to Echo (it helps abused women and kids). It's a local place here. Also we use Goodwill, Salvation Army, Purple Heart, Red Cross, anyone who is collecting at the time we need to donate. I've done freecycle but not a fan of people coming to our home and getting stuff. Sometimes word of mouth helps where you can pass it along to people for other people that need help but don't want to ask.

I don't know if anyone already said this, but I try to find local churches (they usually had ads in the paper or on craigslist) in need of items for their ministry work. Other than that, Goodwill is super close, so we go there. Also, if you feel up to it, sometimes on craigslist you'll come across people begging for kids clothes and things like that... I would NEVERRR give those people money, but I don't mind passing on hand me downs and praying that those kiddos are eating enough!!

If there are any local non-profit organizations that have thrift shops, check into their guidelines. I've recently heard that Goodwill sells bundles of unsold clothing to China. : ( I also know that we (in a fairly small town) have 2 thrift stores (Mission and Humane Society) that recycle fabrics/materials (damaged or out-of-style clothing) for a little profit, and I feel good about that.

Depends on the items. In general, I like Goodwill. Another great place is a women's shelter or domestic violence shelter. The nurse at our elementary school used to collect children's coats to help kids who would come to school wearing a windbreaker in the middle of the winter. Gentlely used children's books, I donate to the school, or to the library, they usually give them directly to the needy children in the community.