Looking to declutter your home and make a positive impact in your community? Donating your gently used items is a great way to help those in need while keeping your space organized.
Whether you have clothes, furniture, household goods, or electronics, Kansas City offers numerous donation centers and organizations that welcome your contributions. In this guide, we’ll highlight the best places to donate items in Kansas City, making it easy for you to give back and support local charities.
Craft and School Supplies
Scraps KC
Located in KCMO, Scraps KC accepts art, craft, scrapbooking, and sewing supplies, office goods, and a wide variety of miscellany that can be used by teachers, groups, and the community for art and classroom projects. They offer food, community, and meaningful volunteer opportunities for homeless people in the area; teachers can purchase items at a deep discount.
Clothing and General Home Items
City Thrift
City Thrift is a nonprofit thrift store owned by City Union Mission. They have four KC metro locations. City Union Mission offers separate emergency shelters for men, for women, and for families; long-term recovery programs for men, women, and families; after-school and summer programs for youth.
Dress For Success Kansas City
Donate your gently used, nearly-new professional attire here. The mission of Dress for Success is to empower women to achieve economic independence by providing a network of support, professional attire and the development tools to help women thrive in work and in life. They have two locations, one on Linwood Boulevard in KCMO and the other on 8th Street in KCK.
Hillcrest Thrift Stores
With locations in Lee’s Summit and Lenexa, Hillcrest shops are supported by thousands of volunteers annually. Stores are stocked daily with donated items from friends and supporters in the community. Proceeds from the thrift stores support the operations of the Hillcrest Transitional Housing program. Hillcrest’s primary objective is to move clients from homelessness to self-sufficiency.
Uplift
Uplift is a homeless outreach program. Uplift’s goal is to deliver those basic human needs, care and compassion that are not usually received from other organizations. They currently have urgent needs for winter gear.
Household Materials
Habitat for Humanity ReStore
Habitat for Humanity ReStore accepts small and large donations of new or gently used furniture, appliances, housewares, building materials and more. Proceeds from the sales of these items help Habitat’s work in the local community and around the world. Check their website for all the KC metro locations.
Operation Breakthrough
Operation Breakthrough provides a safe, loving and educational environment for children in poverty and empowers their families through advocacy, emergency aid and education. Operation Breakthrough accepts donations that are used to help families meet the basic needs for food, hygiene items, children’s books, gently used children’s clothing.
Blessings Abound KC
Located in Overland Park, Blessings Abound accepts clothing, household goods, furniture, etc. They work with several local charities (including Operation Breakthrough, Safehome, and Habitat ReStore) to first distribute the donations they receive to those who most need them. Anything that is not needed by one of their partner agencies is sold in their thrift store and 100% of the net proceeds go to local nonprofits working toward poverty relief.
Uzazi Village
In KCMO, Uzazi Village is a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving health inequities in the community. Their mission is to increase maternal and infant health equities in the urban core. They accept children’s and women’s clothing in good condition, especially maternity. They also take disposable (open packages are fine) and cloth diapers, as well as hygiene products. They also have a lending library so birth, breastfeeding and parenting books are welcome.
Heart-n-Hand Thrift Store
Heart-n-Hand is located at 305 N. Scott. Belton, Mo. and accepts donations Monday-Saturday 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. Heart-n-Hand, by Heart-n-Hand Ministries, is a mostly volunteer run thrift store and all proceeds go right back into the local community.
Book Donations
Book Drive KC
Books donated to Book Drive KC are re-donated locally to churches, schools, youth groups, and more. Schedule a pick-up on their website.
Friends of the Johnson County Library
Do you have gently used books to donate to the Friends? We hold our Drive-up Donation Events every Saturday (except during inclement weather or on holidays). Volunteers will be available to accept your donations on Saturdays from 9-11 a.m. at Friends Headquarters – 8279 Melrose Dr., Lenexa, KS 66214.
What to Consider Before You Donate
- Always check with an organization to make sure your donation fits their needs.
- Make sure to take the time to clean and organize your items as best you can prior to donation.
- Trash is trash. Don’t donate something better suited to be recycled or disposed of. A great site for figuring out your recycling options is Recycle Spot.
Great article! I founded Re.Use.Full, a free website that connects people with gently used items with nonprofit organizations, schools and churches that can put them to good use, in August 2020. It’s 100% FREE for everyone to use and are honored to have Scraps KC and Habitat ReStore as two of our more than 50 charity partners. You can check it out at reusefull.org.
I would also suggest Savers. They are a fantastic company and have an exclusive partnership with Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Kansas City. They donate cash to the organization for every pound of product collected. Donations make a huge difference in helping pair Bigs with Littles who need a positive, supportive mentor here in the Kansas City area 🙂