The beginner’s guide to getting donations from companies

In our work with mutual aid organizations from Lebanon to Los Angeles, there’s one skill that’s extremely valuable (and learnable) regardless of the circumstances: the ability to source physical supplies from companies.

These are known as “in-kind donations.” They come in an endless variety of forms—e.g. diapers, furniture, canned vegetables, bandaids, boots—and can be donated by everyone from multinational conglomerates to local mom-and-pop shops. 

The open-ended nature of the quest for in-kind donations can make it feel overwhelming at first, like trying to find a wristwatch that was dropped into the sea. The good news is that many people have faced similar problems before, and they’ve developed strategies to give the quest more structure (much like how scuba divers use specific search patterns to find lost objects).

Adele MacLean is one of those people. A 25-year veteran of the mutual aid world, Adele currently runs Gulf Coast operations for Distribute Aid, and she’s played a major role in expanding our network across the United States. She’s also a key part of the Atlanta Survival Program—and today, we’re sharing her tips for how you can request in-kind donations for your community.

Tip #1: Assess your needs (and be concrete about it)

“We’ll take anything you can send!” is how you end up with 500 winter coats on a balmy island in the middle of summer. To ensure you’re requesting the items that your community actually needs, you need to do a little research first.

That means asking people directly, “What do you need?” When possible, it’s also helpful to gather basic demographic data (e.g. total population size, age and gender splits, cultural preferences, etc.) when possible. 

Trial-and-error is an unavoidable part of this process, because you can’t be 100% sure of what people will need or want most until you’ve seen the results of several distributions. That’s why it’s best to request stuff that won’t be a nightmare to store or dispose of (like perishable food or chemical products) if you get stuck with it.

If other groups are doing similar work in your area, you can ask them for tips. In most cases they’ll be happy to help. 

As for seeking advice from national or other geographically distant organizations, Adele says, “Sometimes groups outside of your community can offer helpful insights as well for needs that are pretty universal, but they will not know your local context.” To give a specific example: “They can probably tell you roughly how many of each type of baby item you need per baby, but they're not going to know which neighborhoods have a lot of young families." 

Tip #2: Having tax exempt status helps a lot for persuading bigger orgs to donate

Your local bakery probably doesn’t need a tax incentive to give you their leftover bagels. However, if you’re asking a larger company like Home Depot to donate, being able to offer tax relief greatly increases your chances of success.

In the United States, this usually means submitting an IRS application for 501c3 status (other countries have their own credentials). However, there’s also an alternative option—getting a fiscal sponsor.

To oversimplify for the sake of brevity, a fiscal sponsor is an organization that lets you use their nonprofit status. You can seek a fiscal sponsor via informal or formal routes.

The informal way to get a fiscal sponsor is to ask someone you know, like a church or other nonprofit, to sponsor you. The formal way is to apply for a slot with an organization like Omprakash (the fiscal sponsor for Distribute Aid USA).

Tip #3: Make your ask as specific as possible (and highlight the potential impact)

Here are two common types of asks:

1. We’re seeking clothes for people in need, and we’re wondering if Company X has anything you’d like to donate. Any contribution would be greatly appreciated! 

2. We’re seeking 200 children’s T-shirts to distribute among families displaced by the recent floods. Since Company X has such a strong history of supporting kids, we wanted to ask for your help with this project. Your support would bring joy to hundreds of children who’ve lost everything.

You can probably guess which tends to be more effective. There’s no single “key” to a good ask, but it should incorporate:

• Hard numbers

• Specific people being helped

• Connection to the donor company’s values or reputation

• Description of what the donation will accomplish

P.S. If you work at a company that would like to make an in-kind donation but you don’t know where to start, drop us a line at [email protected] and our team will be happy to help you through the process!

P.P.S. These items in particular are always in high demand:

• camping gear 

• shelf-stable food and water 

• tools

• hygiene products 

• first aid supplies

Tip #4: Don’t neglect the transportation paperwork

Once you’ve secured a donation, it’s tempting to think the hard part is over. And if you’re lucky enough to secure a donor whose warehouse is right down the street, you might be right! But if your donation has to travel longer distances, especially if it has to cross borders of any kind, you’re probably going to need to fill out a lot of forms.

A shipment that doesn’t have the proper paperwork can quickly become an expensive nightmare, wracking up demurrage fees and other penalties while its contents sit uselessly in a warehouse. Some shipments need special inspections; others need fumigation. All of them need to be well documented, always.

In some cases, Distribute Aid may be able to help with this if the work is within our scope. We’re also happy to connect you with other groups who are willing to help. Another option is to seek donations directly from a wholesaler (like Ali Baba) that handles all the paperwork themselves.

Whatever you do, though, remember Adele’s words: “Customs is a ninth level wizard skill, don’t try it on your own!”

For more practical guidance on sourcing in-kind donations (and distributing them successfully) check out Distribute Aid’s aid sourcing deck and step-by-step guide. Or, drop us a line at [email protected]! 

Quick hits

Here are a few more things you might find interesting:

• Hungary’s far-right government banned Pride celebrations in March, which didn’t stop 100,000 people from marching in Budapest’s largest-ever Pride parade in a strong critique of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s crackdown on LGBTQ rights.

• Some mutual aid projects focus on helping their local communities, while others seek to build international connections—and others, like Sydney’s Mutual Aid Market to benefit Palestinian and First Nations groups, do both at once.

• Migration away from the United States is becoming increasingly common as the country becomes more unstable and inhospitable to South Americans seeking refuge.

• Ms. Rachel, the popular children’s YouTuber whose vocal defense of human rights has earned worldwide respect as well as harsh criticism from pro-Israel groups, has announced she’ll be donating 200,000 meals for malnourished children as part of her new focus on combatting global hunger.