Clothing Donations

Your business can collect clothing donations as a tax-deductible, not-for-profit charitable event
By Andrea Buginsky, Freelance Writer Many organizations accept clothing donations for homeless families living in the United States and for children living in low-income households, whose parents can't afford to buy them clothes. Donating clothing to these organizations is tax deductible. Your company can benefit from collecting clothing from your employees, customers and neighborhoods to donate to these organizations by receiving this tax deduction, not to mention doing something charitable for humanity.

You can easily set up a program to donate clothing to one, or more, of many organizations that pick up clothing donations. You can also choose to donate to an organization that has a clothing donation drop off. Get your employees involved in this program, and together, you can set up a system to donate clothes that work best for you. To do that, consider these options:

1. Choose one or more organizations to donate clothing to.

2. Decide how you will get the clothing donations to the clothing donation centers.

3. Set up clothing donation boxes and bins in your neighborhood.

Choose organizations that will pick up your clothes donation

There are many government-funded programs, schools and churches that will accept the donated clothes that your company receives. These organizations will gladly accept everyday, school and business clothing donations.
Try:  Vietnam Veterans of America accepts clothing of all types and sizes for men, women, children and infants. The Salvation Army also accepts clothing of all types. You can drop donations off at any of their drop off centers or schedule a pickup.

Find clothing donation drop off centers

Some of the charities that accept donated clothing don't pick them up. Instead, they have clothes donation drop off centers. Contact these charities to find a local drop off center in your area.
Try:  Use the Goodwill locator to find a store in your area. Some Big Brothers Big Sisters centers accept clothing donation drop offs. Use the locator to find one in your area.

Set up clothing donation boxes in your area

You will need a way for your business to collect the donated clothing. You can keep a drop off box in the lobby of your office, or leave drop off bins around your neighborhood for people to leave clothes in. Set up a volunteer program for your employees to collect the donated clothing from the bins and drop them off at the charity of your choice.
Try:  Recycling Bins has large capacity steel bins. Uline sells large bulk cargo containers that you can place in your office lobby to collect donated clothes.

• If your business involves sending employees outside of the U.S. on a regular basis, you may want to consider collecting international clothing donations too.