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From Closet to Cause: The Best Places to Donate Baby Clothes

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Where to donate unneeded baby clothes to help at rick children
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Babies grow out of everything from clothing to infant car seats in the blink of an eye! It can be hard to figure out what to do with all the baby gear you no longer need. Between listing all your items and negotiating with hagglers, selling baby clothes on eBay or Facebook can be a time-consuming hassle. Gifting your child’s hand-me-downs to a growing family may be easier and more gratifying. But if you don’t know any new moms in your area, you may be wondering, where can you donate baby clothes? Here’s a list of worthy charities and organizations that accept baby clothes.

Where to Donate Baby Clothes

Foster care
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1. Foster Closets 

Children in foster care usually have very few belongings and need support. Foster closets are nonprofit organizations that provide free or low-cost necessities to foster kids and parents, including clothes, books, and bedding. These closets are often run by volunteers and rely on community donations, so they’re great places to support if you’re wondering where to donate baby clothes. Look up “foster closets near me” or call your local CPS to find out how to drop off your gently used items.

2. Buy Nothing Groups

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Buy Nothing groups are forums where you can offer free, gently used items like baby clothes to people in your community. You can also respond to requests for household goods if you’re willing to donate the items someone needs. These gifting groups are usually hosted on Facebook or the Buy Nothing app. Membership is limited to households in your area, so you won’t have to pay any shipping costs to donate baby clothes. Just keep in mind that trading, bartering, and selling aren’t allowed. You can find your local forum here. 

3. Baby Banks and Pregnancy Centers 

Similar to foster closets, baby banks are organizations that provide material resources to low-income parents. They’re always in need of gently used baby clothes and gear, so see if you can find one in your area to donate to. Pregnancy centers that serve expectant mothers could also make use of your secondhand items. 

4. Giving Factory Direct

baby clothes
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Wondering where to donate baby clothes if you don’t have a baby bank in your area? Try Giving Factory Direct, an organization that helps clothing-insecure children. All you have to do is enter the size of the baby clothes you want to donate and Giving Factory will match you with a family in need. You’ll receive a free shipping label so you can package your items and drop them off at UPS. Just make sure that your donations don’t have any rips, stains, or personalized name tags before you send them off. 

5. Thrift Stores 

Thrift stores like Goodwill and the Salvation Army are also great places to drop off gently used baby clothes. Although secondhand shops make customers pay for merchandise, the profits they earn support their charity efforts. Goodwill, for example, spends more than 80% of its revenue on job training programs for veterans and people with disabilities. Plus, thrift stores often give shopping vouchers to partner organizations like The Red Cross, which are then distributed to people in need.

6. Churches

get baby clothes
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The final entry on our list of where to donate baby clothes is one of your local churches. Many congregations run clothing drives to support families in the community and would appreciate your donation. Some churches even have their own baby banks, so call a few religious organizations in your area and see who accepts infant apparel.

Hopefully, we’ve helped you figure out where to donate baby clothes to make a difference in your community. Are there any organizations or charities we missed? Let us know in the comments!

Charity Birthday Party Ideas Your Kids Will Love

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Charity Birthday Party Ideas

Although birthdays are meant to be a celebration, sometimes we can’t help but feel we’re spending more money on a party than we need to. Instead of paying hundreds of dollars on new toys that your child will outgrow, put that money to good use by hosting a do-good birthday party for your kid. Lots of parenting websites have great ideas for charity birthday party ideas, and we’ve compiled a list of our favorites. And if you’re worried about your children hating your suggestions, kids are natural givers and would likely be more than willing to help out people in need.

Bring an Animal Shelter to Your Home

There are plenty of pet adoption centers and animal societies that would be willing to bring their animals to private events like a birthday party.

Charity Birthday Party Ideas

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Or, you could see if you could host your party at the local animal shelter.  That’s what the Shaw Family in Portland, Oregon did.  They had their party guests bring treats, toys, and other donations for the cats and dogs, and you can do the same. Guests can also be given the option to adopt one of the pets!

Have a Couple Piggy Banks in the Party Area

At an early age, we teach kids the value of money with allowances and earning extra cash with chores or babysitting. To show them how a little goes a long way, have a couple piggy banks in the party area where guests can make their donations.  You can label each of the piggy banks with a different charity, which gives guests the option to choose which organizations they would like to support.

Organize a Clothing Drive

Take cue from the Multari twins in Hamilton, Ontario, and have your child’s friends and neighbors bring in previously loved and any unused clothes. The girls ask for pajamas every year, sometimes receiving as many as 93 pairs of pajamas to donate.  The girls’ pajama drive has been so successful, they have even started their own nonprofit.  Depending on your charity, you might have to limit the kinds of garments you accept.

Donations to Your Local Homeless Shelter

Another idea is to call your local homeless shelter and ask what items they need.  Then, you can create a wish list, and party goers can choose from the wish list.

Another idea is to see what food the shelter may need.  You and your party guests could create sack lunches for the homeless, making sandwiches, bagging chips and desserts, and adding a fruit.

Final Thoughts

American children are often spoiled when it comes to material items, especially when they receive many gifts from well-intended birthday party guests.  Instead of showering your children in gifts, choose one of these charity parties to help spread the wealth, so to speak.  The more you and your children practice giving, the more you’ll enjoy helping others.  Your guests can feel good about their role in helping others, too.

Read More

Should You Sell or Donate Old Cell Phones?

Great Gifts: 6 Unusual Birthday Presents for Kids

A Parent’s Guide to Choosing Birthday Gifts for Toddlers

Teaching Volunteer Values to Your Children

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kids volunteering with dogAs the winter holidays approaches, it seems as though the entire world works itself into a frenzy of giving, both financially and in other ways. Regardless of your family’s traditions or spiritual beliefs, the winter holidays can be a great time of year to teach one of the most valuable lessons you can teach your children: how to love.

Set The Example

We constantly tell our children to be nice, to be polite, to share, to give, to be kind. But as with any other lesson, it is important to set the example you want your children to emulate. The winter holidays are a time for giving, loving and sharing; to teach this to your children, it’s important to get them involved with giving, loving and sharing with the community.

Unfortunately, it can be a lot harder to find ways to give when you are keeping a strict budget. Cold and wet weather are also seen as deterrents to volunteering, especially when dealing with small children. Yet, there are a lot of ways to get your kids in the mind frame of giving back without having to brave freezing temperatures or spend a fortune.

Here are a few key points to remember when seeking volunteer opportunities with your children:

  • Focus on the message. To start brain-storming ideas for your children, begin by zeroing in on exactly what you want to teach them. Why do you think that it is important to volunteer? How you answer that question will impact the activities you choose. For example, if your family is religious, you may want to choose an activity with a religious message. Look for an organization with religion-related events.
  • Find something fun! If you choose tedious, boring work for you children to partake in, you may be inadvertently teaching them that volunteering is tedious and boring. These jobs, such as sorting clothes or sitting at a booth, are still important; but you may want to start the experience with fun activities and gradually sprinkle in these less exciting opportunities.
  • Be prepared to field questions from your children. Helping out in a soup kitchen can be a lot of fun, but younger children won’t understand the concept of not having a home. Do some thinking before taking your children to places like this, and be prepared with answers in advance so you aren’t caught off guard. This also goes for domestic violence shelters, terminally-ill hospital wards, or any particularly heart-wrenching situation. These places are what make volunteering so special: but it is a heavy message to teach. Don’t necessarily shy away from it, but prepare yourself and your children as best as you can, which may mean waiting another year or so.
  • Make home-made holiday cards for residents of a nursing home or hospital.
  • Play with Animals.  Take your children to the local Humane Society and spend an hour playing with the animals.
  • Pick out a toy to take to the Salvation Army or Goodwill. All of these activities cost relatively little, but teach a clear and positive message.

If you do decide that you want to do an activity that costs more money, get your children involved in a family piggy bank dedicated to the holiday season. Even a dollar a week can buy Thanksgiving dinner for several families, a winter coat for a child in need, or mittens for dozens of children.

Do you volunteer with your children? How did you teach the value of giving back?