About us
Turn anything you own into a fresh start.
Most charities ask for money. We started by asking for everything else.
The work behind Giving Center began in 2005. The organization has changed shape and name since then; what it does has not.
It started from a straightforward observation: people hold enormous value in things they have stopped using. A car in the driveway. A house nobody in the family wants. Boxes of a collection somebody spent a lifetime building. Selling any of it is work, and most people never get around to it — so the value sits there, doing nothing for anyone.
We do the work instead. We collect it, handle the titles and the paperwork, place what can be used directly and sell the rest, and put the proceeds where they do the most good. The donor is spared months of listings and lowball offers, and takes a legitimate deduction. Somebody who needed help gets it. Nothing is wasted at either end.
Today we accept donations across every category on this site, work in all fifty states, and share funding, equipment and supplies with other 501(c)(3) organizations doing work we can’t do ourselves.
The essentials
How we work, and what we won’t do
Four commitments that shape every conversation we have with a donor.
We say no when we should
We are not a disposal service. If something would cost more to collect and sell than it could ever return, accepting it would mean spending donated money to get rid of donated goods. We tell people honestly and quickly.
We tell you the costs up front
Free towing for vehicles, collection at our cost for larger donations, and a plain explanation of the two things we cannot cover — appraisals above $5,000 and shipping on small items. Before you commit, not after.
Nobody is pressured
Plenty of people ask us questions and decide not to go ahead. That is a perfectly good outcome. There are no follow-up campaigns and no upgrade calls.
Use beats sale
Where something can serve directly — a working car for someone with a job and no way to reach it, computers for a classroom, furniture for a family with an empty apartment — that is better than selling it, and that is where it goes.
Where the value goes
Eight areas, chosen because they are where a modest amount of money changes an outcome rather than merely softening it.
Housing & shelter
Transitional housing and emergency shelter for families with nowhere else to go.
Direct family relief
Rent, utilities, a funeral, a car repair — the bill that turns one bad month into a crisis.
Medical assistance
Treatment costs, travel to hospital, and the expenses no household budget anticipates.
Children & youth
After-school and summer programs for kids whose families cannot cover them.
Education & the arts
Equipment, materials and access for schools, libraries and community programs.
Animal welfare & wildlife
Rescue, shelter and rehabilitation work that is chronically underfunded.
Urgent transportation
Getting people to work, to treatment, or away from a situation they need to leave.
Global nonprofit support
Funding, equipment and supplies shared with partner organizations here and abroad.
Specialist sites for the categories that need one
Some donations carry enough complexity to deserve a site of their own — property, vehicles, boats, aircraft, computers, collectibles and domain names each have one, covering titles, logistics and valuation in far more depth than a single page can. Every one of them routes back here, and you never need to visit them to donate.
The form on any donation page reaches the same team.
Have something and not sure whether it counts?
Ask. It costs nothing, commits you to nothing, and we will tell you honestly.