Mailed applications only
Applications reach Giving Center by mail. Please read this page before you send one. It will tell you whether we are the right place to ask.
Do not call about an application. Mail is the only way one reaches us.
Please read this first
There is no phone line for assistance. The number on this site reaches the property donation intake team. They cannot take an application, look yours up, tell you where it stands or pass a message to the review board. A call will not move your request forward by a single day.
Applications are accepted on the mailed form only. Not by phone, not by email, and not through any form on this website.
Giving Center used to take requests through a form on its website. Several sites that list free stuff and giveaways added that form to their pages, and the volume stopped being something a person could read. Real requests from people in genuine trouble were buried underneath it. The form had stopped working for exactly the people it existed for.
Moving to a mailed application changed that immediately. Every application that arrives now is read by a person.
Printing a form, filling it in and finding a stamp is harder than clicking a button. Someone without a printer at home has further to go than they did before, and there are people who could have been helped who will not get through. We are not going to pretend otherwise.
What the effort buys is this: your application is read rather than counted, and nothing about your situation is judged by a filter or a queue position. If a library, church, school or community center is nearby, most will let you print a form and many will have stamps. A case manager or social worker can also apply on your behalf.
What can be given depends entirely on what has been donated, so the honest answer is that it varies month to month. These are the requests the board reviews.
People who cannot meet a particular need on their own right now and who are working toward steadier ground. Students and job seekers. Seniors on fixed incomes. Families facing a sudden gap: a lost vehicle, a displacement, a household stripped bare. The application asks you to explain your circumstances and why the need is one you cannot currently meet yourself. That section is what the board actually reads.
Registered 501(c)(3) organizations, schools, shelters, food programs and community centers. Giving Center shares equipment, supplies, vehicles, facility space and program funding. Use the organization form rather than the individual one, and say what the request is for and who it reaches.
If you currently receive assistance from TANF, SSI, SSDI, welfare, food stamps or a similar program, accepting property, a financial gift or a service counts as additional income and may reduce or end those benefits. This catches people out and the consequences can be worse than the help was worth. Speak to your case manager before you apply, not after.
Three steps on your side. The mailing address is printed on the form itself.
1
One for individuals and families, one for organizations. Using the wrong one delays your review.
2
Every section, and sign it. An incomplete application cannot be reviewed, and there is no way to write back and ask.
3
Send it to the address on the form. Keep a copy of what you sent for your own records. Mail only.
Your application stays on active file for thirty days from the day it arrives. If something in the inventory matches your need in that window, someone will contact you directly. If you have not heard back after thirty days you are welcome to apply again, and it is worth doing, because what is held changes constantly.
Not every application can get a reply. Not hearing back usually means the thing you needed was not there during those thirty days. It is not a verdict on you or your circumstances, and we would rather say that plainly than leave you wondering what you did wrong.
If you are that person's case manager or assigned social worker, yes. Otherwise the application needs to come from the individual themselves, because it asks about circumstances only they can describe and it has to be signed.
Describe the need rather than naming an item, because only what has been donated can be given. It varies: household goods, furniture, equipment, a vehicle, occasionally funding toward a specific bill or program.
Sometimes. Depending on what you have asked for, financial details, references or documentation may be needed. For larger requests references are verified and background checks are run, which is how misleading requests are kept from taking resources meant for people in real need.
Up to thirty days, and often the full thirty. Volume is high and the checks take time. Please be patient rather than sending a second application inside the window, because duplicates slow the queue for everyone.
No. Mailed applications are the only ones reviewed, and that is deliberate. It is the whole reason a person is able to read yours. An emailed form will not enter the queue.
Everything given to the people above arrives as a donation from somebody else first. If you have property to give, start at property donations, or read our mission for where it goes.
Important
The phone lines exist to accept incoming donations, and the people who answer them cannot see applications, check a status or answer eligibility questions. There is nothing they can tell you.
Every call about an application is a call not spent bringing in the donations that make the help possible in the first place. Requests for assistance are only accepted on the mailed forms above.
