Even in today’s tough economy there are many ways to donate to charity without breaking your budget. Finding a way to donate to charity on a regular basis helps those that are in greater need than yourself and does not mean that you have to spend any money at all. If you don’t have the extra cash to donate to charity there are still numerous ways to easily contribute, one of which includes donating clothing.

One easy way to donate to charity begins with going through your closets and dresser drawers looking for gently used items. Many organizations accept clothing donations and actually rely on this type of contribution for survival. To make the clothing donation a consistent part of your family’s life, choose one day each season and have every member of the family search through their clothing for items that are suitable to donate to charity. This way your family will donate to charity four times a year. Once the clothing has been collected there are a few different options available to drop off the items donate to charity.

Thrift shops use the clothes that people donate to charity for resale. This method allows those in need to purchase clothes at a discounted rate. Many people who cannot afford name brand clothes, suits, or other expensive items find that they can obtain them thanks to people that donate to charity. As a bonus the organization receives money to help keep the shop running or to help contribute to other programs offered by the group. Thrift shops will also be able to give you a receipt for the items you donate to charity so you can claim the donation on your taxes.

A newer method used to donate to charity involves clothing drop boxes often found on roadsides and in parking lots. The clothing drop box usually looks like a dumpster and has an opening for people to place the clothes they want to donate to charity. These clothing drop boxes are collected by the main charity labeled on the box and the items are either resold or distributed to other organizations. There are however a few problems if you choose to donate to charity using this method.

This first issue is the fact that you cannot obtain a receipt if you donate to charity through a drop box. If you claim the items you donate to charity on your taxes this will be a problem for you. Since there is no way to keep track of the items you donate to charity, the organization cannot provide any type of receipt.

Another problem with using the drop box method to donate to charity is the unknown destination of the items. Some of the drop boxes that appear to be used to donate to charity may actually fund organizations that are scams. Unless you research the drop box organization prior to using it to donate to charity there is no way of knowing if it is legitimate or not.

The best way to donate to charity if you are dropping off clothing is to find your local thrift store. You will get a receipt for the items you decided to donate to charity, help out the group itself and also lend a hand to members of your own community. Clothing donations make it so that anyone can donate to charity.

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