Stuffed Animals
For
Emergencies
How to Donate
Other Organizations That Collect Stuffed Animals
As mentioned to the left, the most important mission SAFE has is to get your stuffed animal donations into the hands of children that really need some security and comfort. This is why I have also included alternatives to donating through SAFE if you so choose. These are all great organizations that have SAFE's mission in mind, helping children when they need it most. Please check out their websites for information and rules on how they take donations.
UPDATE
Beanies for Baghdad has just received over 1,000 boxes from TY Inc. of Beanies to send to our troops overseas. They need your help! Beanies are heavier in weight than most stuffed animals and can be expensive to ship. If you would like to ship a box overseas please go to their website by clicking on their logo above. They would really appreciate your help!
Now here is a great place to send your Beanies to! Most people don't know what to do with their Beanies anymore and Beanies for Baghdad has been sending Beanies overseas to Iraq and Afghanistan for seven years! The troops use the Beanies to help develop relationships with the people in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as to put a smile on the face of a child who probably has never had a stuffed animal of their own. Below is part of a letter I received from Afghanistan after making a donation:
Beanies for Baghdad has just received over 1,000 boxes from TY Inc. of Beanies to send to our troops overseas. They need your help! Beanies are heavier in weight than most stuffed animals and can be expensive to ship. If you would like to ship a box overseas please go to their website by clicking on their logo above. They would really appreciate your help!
Now here is a great place to send your Beanies to! Most people don't know what to do with their Beanies anymore and Beanies for Baghdad has been sending Beanies overseas to Iraq and Afghanistan for seven years! The troops use the Beanies to help develop relationships with the people in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as to put a smile on the face of a child who probably has never had a stuffed animal of their own. Below is part of a letter I received from Afghanistan after making a donation:
Jennifer~
Thank you so very much for the box of beanie babies you sent us, that was awesome and perfect because we were able to give them to the Afghans as Christmas presents!
Your packages help me a great deal in developing strong relationships with the Afghans, trust me. Because of your dedicated efforts, we're far more successful than before, thank you so much!
Phillip R.
MPRI
Afghanistan
Thank you so very much for the box of beanie babies you sent us, that was awesome and perfect because we were able to give them to the Afghans as Christmas presents!
Your packages help me a great deal in developing strong relationships with the Afghans, trust me. Because of your dedicated efforts, we're far more successful than before, thank you so much!
Phillip R.
MPRI
Afghanistan
If you would like to donate to Beanies for Baghdad, please click on the logo above. Beanies for Baghdad is located in Indiana.
Thank you so much for wanting to donate! I designed this page to help explain what SAFE does and also to give you other alternatives to donate your stuffed animals if there is not a location in your area and you cannot mail to another chapter location. The most important mission SAFE has is getting these stuffed animals into the hands of children who could really use them in times of great distress. I hope you find this page useful in helping you decide where you want to donate your new and gently used stuffed animals. Off to the right, you will see a list of other great organizations that accept stuffed animals and other items used to help children. Please visit each of their websites if you are interested. Note: Not all of these organizations accept 'gently used' stuffed animals, you will have to check their particular website for details on what they accept.
ATTENTION:
Please note that if you are donating gently used stuffed animals they need to be in good condition. If they are falling apart, have lots of stains, smells or rips or are old and well worn out, please do not donate those. These need to be thrown away. We cannot donate stuffed animals to an organization in this condition. Thank you!
How to donate to SAFE
The first thing you need to do is go to our chapter page which lists all the chapters we currently have. A chapter is basically a
volunteer who is willing to collect the new and gently used stuffed
animals, clean them up and then distribute them to organizations that
can use them. On this page the chapters are listed by country and then by state/province alphabetically. Please go the chapter closest to you and you will see under the volunteer's name it will list an e-mail and some chapters will list their phone number. If you click on the e-mail this will automatically take you to your e-mail account and it will bring up their e-mail address so you can contact them directly (if it does not work for you please just copy and paste their e-mail address into your e-mail message). Just send them a quick e-mail and let them know you would like to donate. Overall, the best alternative is to donate your new and gently used stuffed animals to our chapter members who can take care of cleaning them up and finding a good home for your donation. Unfortunately, we may not have a chapter in your area (although we are constantly growing!) so next I will explain your other options for donating.
If there is a chapter in your state/province but it is not close to you, you could still try to contact that chapter member because they may know of a place closer to you that you can donate to.
One important note though, if you are donating directly to an organization, the stuffed animals need to be cleaned up before they can be donated. Please download our guide to cleaning up stuffed animals below:
SAFE Guide to Cleaning Stuffed Animals
Also, if you are willing to mail your donation you can mail it to any chapter that is accepting, just contact them by e-mail to get their address.
Another option would be to open a chapter in your area. We are always looking for new chapters! By opening a chapter in your area you are not only helping yourself to take care of your donation but you will be helping a lot of other people as well with theirs. Chapter members are responsible for collecting the stuffed animals, cleaning them up if needed and then distributing them to emergency organizations and many other types of organizations that deal with children in distress. Some of the duties a chapter member has involves answering e-mails from people wanting to donate (must be able to answer e-mails at least once a week), cleaning of the stuffed animals and they are responsible for finding locations to donate to in their area/state/province. SAFE provides assistance to the chapter members through two pages on this site, one being a chapter forum for chapter members to be able to share ideas, offer assistance, etc. and also a chapter supplies page which gives a lot of information, ideas and supplies necessary to take care of and market a chapter (including spreadsheets to keep track of places donated to and totals and marketing materials that you can personalize for your chapter in order to get the word out about SAFE and what you are doing in your own community). If opening a chapter sounds like something you would like to do, please contact the Director of SAFE (Jennifer Alloy) by clicking here.
The last option is to try and find a location on your own to donate to in your area. On our stuffed animal drives page I go into great detail explaining how to find a place to donate to, what to say, what to look for and how to clean the stuffed animals on your own. Please check the stuffed animal drives page for detailed information that can help you find a location to donate to on your own.
I hope this information has been helpful to you! If you still have questions though, please feel free to contact Jennifer by clicking here.
If there is a chapter in your state/province but it is not close to you, you could still try to contact that chapter member because they may know of a place closer to you that you can donate to.
One important note though, if you are donating directly to an organization, the stuffed animals need to be cleaned up before they can be donated. Please download our guide to cleaning up stuffed animals below:
SAFE Guide to Cleaning Stuffed Animals
Also, if you are willing to mail your donation you can mail it to any chapter that is accepting, just contact them by e-mail to get their address.
Another option would be to open a chapter in your area. We are always looking for new chapters! By opening a chapter in your area you are not only helping yourself to take care of your donation but you will be helping a lot of other people as well with theirs. Chapter members are responsible for collecting the stuffed animals, cleaning them up if needed and then distributing them to emergency organizations and many other types of organizations that deal with children in distress. Some of the duties a chapter member has involves answering e-mails from people wanting to donate (must be able to answer e-mails at least once a week), cleaning of the stuffed animals and they are responsible for finding locations to donate to in their area/state/province. SAFE provides assistance to the chapter members through two pages on this site, one being a chapter forum for chapter members to be able to share ideas, offer assistance, etc. and also a chapter supplies page which gives a lot of information, ideas and supplies necessary to take care of and market a chapter (including spreadsheets to keep track of places donated to and totals and marketing materials that you can personalize for your chapter in order to get the word out about SAFE and what you are doing in your own community). If opening a chapter sounds like something you would like to do, please contact the Director of SAFE (Jennifer Alloy) by clicking here.
The last option is to try and find a location on your own to donate to in your area. On our stuffed animal drives page I go into great detail explaining how to find a place to donate to, what to say, what to look for and how to clean the stuffed animals on your own. Please check the stuffed animal drives page for detailed information that can help you find a location to donate to on your own.
I hope this information has been helpful to you! If you still have questions though, please feel free to contact Jennifer by clicking here.
Thank you so much for wanting to donate, you really are making a difference!
Other organizations that collect stuffed animals
Cradles to Crayons has a mission to provide free of charge, low-income and homeless children basic essentials so they are warm, safe, valued and ready to learn. They accept new stuffed animals only (with tags). Please click on their logo for more info. Cradles to Crayons has two locations:
Conshohocken, Pennsylvania
Quincy, Massachusetts
SAFE is happy to be donating small stuffed animals to AdoptaPlatoon in their Operation Crayon program which assists U.S. deployed troops with their humanitarian missions in both Afghanistan and Iraq. If you would be interested in helping this program by donating your small stuffed animals (less than 10 inches in height and you cannot send any religious/holiday stuffed animals such as Christmas, Easter or angel stuffed animals) please contact Jennifer by clicking here. If you are interested in finding out more about AdoptaPlatoon and Operation Crayon, please click on the AdoptaPlatoon logo above to go to their site.
SAFE is currently assisting Loving Hugs, Inc. in donating stuffed animals to Haiti. Loving Hugs Inc. is a nonprofit organization that collects and donates stuffed animals (they call them "hugs") to give to children suffering around the world. Loving Hugs is making a big difference in Haiti right now so if you would like to help please click on the logo to go to their site. Loving Hugs is located in Littleton, Colorado.
Project Smile is a nonprofit organization which donates stuffed animals, coloring books/crayons, small toys and children's reading books to children in traumatic situations. Their mission is very similar to SAFE so if you are located in Massachusetts please check them out by clicking on the logo!
Project Night Night helps homeless children have sweeter dreams by donating a security blanket, a book and a stuffed animal to children in need. Please click on their logo for more info.
