Donations Guidelines

http://www.daltonredcross.com

Dalton / Whitfield Chapter

Guidelines for Donations

Donating Clothing

Unfortunately, the Red Cross is not set up to sort and distribute clothing on a disaster operation. Normally we refer people to some agencies that work with us and are set up to do this.

Donating Canned Food

The Red Cross concentrates on feeding large groups and mostly uses food packaged in institutional or bulk sizes. We recommend that donations of canned foods be made to food banks in your local community. During times of disaster, food banks support thru relief operations by pulling resources from the most available food banks, who in turn pull from the next available food banks, who in turn pull from the next community and so on. Community food banks are a valuable resource during times of disaster.

Collected goods to send to victims

The American Red Cross is not set up to handle this type of donation. It is very difficult to sort collections on a disaster site as it requires lots of money, time and personnel. These are valuable resources that are needed for emergency activities and other aspects of our relief operation. There are other agencies, however, that are set up to handle this type of donation. These agencies often prefer that you make these donations to their local branch. This gives these agencies the opportunity to clean, repair and sort these items.

Bulk donations of goods

Goods are in bulk quantities, palletized and shrink-wrapped. The estimated time of arrival matches the needs of the operation. Generally goods must be available for immediate delivery. The donor is willing to wait for acceptance from the job. Once the In-Kind Donations Office at National receives an offer, it may talked a couple of days to determine the needs of the job and to receive approval for the gift. The product is of good quality. Transportation is provided by the donor.