Donations for Birthday Gift

call your local police dept. and seee if they are in need of stuffed animals for children in distress. i know some dept's use stuffed animal when children need to be removed from home or if a child has lost their home. what a neat idea for children to be involved in!!!

What about non-perishable food for a food pantry?

Or books for the library?

You could to a craft of O. of those fleece-tied blankets to donate to Project Linus after the party.

You could also check with a nursing home and have the kids make & decorate paper placemats for a nearby nursing home.

Or collect monetary donations (I know you were thinking about non-monetary) for a piece of livestock for Heifer International (www.heifer.org) and they could bring cat or dog food for a shelter as well.....

Hi B.! My son's birthday will be 4 in March. We do donations every year for his birthday instead of gifts. My son was born with a complex heart defect and spent the first month of his life at Children's Mercy (Kansas City). We stayed at the Ronald McDonald House. We were so grateful for the opportunity to be so close. We stayed there again during his 2nd surgery and will be there this summer when he has his 3rd surgery. We always have guests donate paper towels, toilet paper, cleaning supplies, etc. The Ronald McDonald House has a constant need and provide a wonderful service to families. You can go to the website to see the list of things they need. We take Jack with us to drop off the donations and take his picture at the house. Please consider this charity! It impacts people in our area!

Maybe bring toys to be donated to a shelter or something? Even used items from the kids attending. It would help them clear out toys (I'm sure their moms will be all for it!) and in turn give them to kids that will appreciate them. Good luck!!!

I have a client who does this with her kids every year. They collect for the local children's hospital. They have an account set up where people can go online and donate anonymously. Then the parents match whatever gets donated for the birthday. She said it took a few years for people to "get it" and stop insisting on a present as well. So she started doing swaps at the birthday. Last year it was a book swap. Everyone was supposed to bring a book they already read that was in good condition and swap with each other. She said when her kids were younger they did toy swaps.

We have a party every year and instead of people bringing food and such to our party we ask that they bring canned food for the local food bank. That would be relatively easy.

Call the school and see if they have a need. Maybe something simple like collecting mittens and gloves for kids in need. Or a coat drive.

Local hospitals could probably use books and/ or toys.

Most police departments accept teddy bears to give out to scared children. That would be easy to collect.

I volunteer with a non-profit called Soldiers' Angels. They send comfort supplies and care packages to deployed soldiers overseas. They are always looking for donations. Single serve food items. No pork.

There was a girl in the midwest that did the donations for her birthday and then shipped them to the TX warehouse. They are currently in need of many things. Favorites include beef jerky, cookies, candy, chips, drink mixes, books, word game magazines to name a few. I usually send items to the warehouse in the large flat rate boxes. All you can pack for $14.

They also LOVE to receive kid's homemade drawings, letters, cards, etc to send to the deployed soldiers
If you are interested, the website is www.soldiersangels.org.
There is a list of items under the Donate tab.

Why don't you ask your daughter where she'd like those donations to go?

Animal shelters are ALWAYS in need, but if you don't decide to donate to an animal shelter, please do consider keeping donations local. The local Salvation Army and Boys and Girls Clubs do a LOT of youth outreach. Helping local children might also be something to consider.

My daughter asked if we could help out the homeless. Maybe you could contact the homeless shelter and see what they need? Or bring food items for the local food pantry. Or call the local children's hospital and see what the kids there might need. And for a project at the party maybe make cards or art for residents at the local nursing or retire my home?

I had a penguin party for my youngest and I asked for people to make a donation to the Wildlife fund to Adopt-A-Penguin.

You could have people bring canned food for the food bank and your daughter could bring it herself which would be very rewarding. Or a toy or book drive for a shelter.

I think most charitable organizations would prefer money so they can decide how to use it, but you could gather food for a shelter (this would be economical for the guests) or you could gather new toys for next Christmas for the needy and have the kids wrap them in Xmas paper as an activity during the party.

If you have a local Ronald McDonald House that would be a great place to donate items. if you aren't familiar with the RMH you could look online but in a nutshell, they are a home away for home for families with sick and terminally I'll children. They generally have a wish list of items, big and small, that keep the house running on a day to day basis. the kids at the party could also make cards to be sent to the kids at the house and in the hospital. To have the gift of healthy children in a blessing and it's never to early to instill in our children how fortunate they are and even at their age they can make a difference. I encourage you to look into this wonderful organization. Happy Birthday to your little one!

We've done this a few times, and I love the idea (one of the reasons I don't want to have birthday parties is I don't want all the junk in my house). I do suggest you not ask for something your daughter would want, though your daughter is a bit older than the first time we did this. When my daughter was 5, giving up some of the things people brought was hard. Canned food, even gently used clothing, mittens/gloves/hats... I would definitely get your daughter's take on it!

K.

With Easter about the same time you could "adopt a child" who is in foster care or even an elderly person in a residential home. Have families buy inexpensive toiletries and during the party have the kids make “Easter baskets” with what is brought plus crafts to put in the basket. People tend to do this for Christmas but forget that this population is in need year around

I saw someone already posted this but, Ronald McDonald Houses are great places to give donations to. Also, think about doing a breakfast or Dinner there and taking the girls to serve and maybe cook the food. Contact them for information on this. Afterwards, have a burger and fries and your local McD's and cake. There are many shelters and food pantries that look for food, school supplies or other things. Look up local charity groups using google and see what you can find so many opportunities. Call a local hospital and ask if they have a child life advocate. They can tell you what they need donated for children there. Ours always need the small bubbles, nail polish, puzzle books or stickers... things that make kids smile while they are getting treatments. There are children's homes that are always looking for things like gloves, scarves, books, school supplies. Do a book drive and take them to a shelter or home. Local animal shelters also need things.... One other thing that might be fun relating to books. Each person brings a book or two and the children swap books. Might have to figure out a way to do this fairly but how fun is that. get rid of books you do not need and get a new book or 2 to read. hope this helps you.

pick a school or classroom. teacher always need more stuff. books, colors, anything

We did this for my son's first, second and third birthdays.

The first birthday we collected for Give What You Got - a local charity that puts together birthday care packages for KC area foster kids. The kids are anywhere from 1-18 and they take used items so guests didn't have to buy something new if they didn't want to. One thing they needed was bags/duffels/suitcases b/c many of the kids are schlepped from house to house with just a trash bag full of their things and if their possessions don't fit, they leave them behind. We had a great collection!

The second birthday was collecting for harvesters. Again, another way to give what you may already have but not using so no one had to spend money if they didn't want to.

The third birthday was an animal shelter! (Animal Haven/SPCA) Our dog had just passed away so we collected in his honor. Some people brought dog/cat stuff and some brought things the shelter needed like paper towels, cleaner, etc.

I'm looking forward to him turning 6 because then you can do a party AT Harvesters! Your daughter might really like it. Guests bring food to donate and then stay to fill packages for those in need. Harvesters provides a cake for the birthday celebration. I know three separate 7 year old boys that have recently volunteered or partied there and really enjoyed the experience.

Another idea would be to collect for Rose Brooks (battered women/children), Children's TLC or Big Brothers/Big Sisters.

New or gently used books or toys for the local library or women's shelter!

We have gone to parties as well with the donations to animal shelters and I think it's a really nice idea- just make sure you've run it by your daughter first! At one party, the child had SO many family members that gifts were a non-issue... tons from the family. The trend now is not to open gifts at the party (love this), so the child didn't notice or miss them. At another party, it seemed like the little boy was not completely aware that the gifts being brought were not for him... not good!