Handmade for Charity
Shortcuts to: Charities Accepting Handmade Items, Other Lists of Charity Links, Charity Resources.
There are many organizations that are interested in receiving handmade items to be given to people in need of a bit of support. Anything you can contribute will be greatly appreciated. While your individual contribution may seem too small to matter, if many of us contribute in our own small way it adds up. And what we do does make a difference to someone.
You can probably find a number of organizations near you that would be willing recipients of your efforts.
- Contact your local hospital and ask for Volunteer Services.
- Look in the Yellow Pages under "Social Services Organizations" (for family and social services groups) and under "Crisis Intervention Services" (for women's shelters). Call and ask how you can help.
- Contact a local nursing home or hospice.
- Homeless shelters often need quilts, bedding, warm hats, clothing, and personal items for clients who may be male or female and any age.
- Ask friends and coworkers if they know of an organization that can use handmade items.
- Ask your minister/pastor/priest/rabbi/religous leader.
- Ask at the local school; some there will likely know of organizations that provide assistance to families in need.
- Ask your local police or sheriff's department or city hall.
For tips on choosing materials, assembling and finishing items, please visit my Tips on Making Items for Charity page.
If you know of a link that you think should be on this list or have any suggestions about this page, please contact SusanB.
Charities Accepting Handmade Items
- afghans for Afghans is a humanitarian and educational people-to-people project that is sending hand-knit and crocheted blankets and garments to the people of Afghanistan.
- American Hero Quilts wants each of our injured service members returning from war through a military hospital to receive a partiotic quilt.
- Bella's Babies supplies baby blankets and clothing to Southside Hospital in Bayshore, NY.
- Binky Patrol distributes handmade blankets to children who are sick, abused or in foster care.
- Bundles of Love is a nonprofit organization in Minnesota dedicated to helping infants and their families.
- Care Wear provides wearing apparel for premature and low birthweight infants in neonatal intensive care units.
- ChemoCaps - knit chemocaps and donate them to a cancer treatment center near you.
- Christmas-at-Sea seeks volunteers to knit seafarers caps, scarves and more. Sponsored by the Seamen's Church Institute of New York and New Jersey.
- Crochet for Cancer gives handmade chemo caps for patients with hair loss. There are chapters in the USA, Canada and Austrailia.
- Family Nurturing Center of Massachusetts needs handmade baby blankets for Welcome Baby gift bags.
- HeartStrings Quilt Project is a group of online quilters who make String Quilts and donate them to local charities.
- Holy Needles creates items for those in need in the Tucson, Arizona area. There is more info on the Holy Needles Facebook page. DONE UPDATING TO HERE
- Hope Quilts ships handmade quilts to the Democratic Republic of Congo to bring comfort to women who have had to have surgery as the result of traumatic incidents during the war.
- House of Dreams seeks donations of handcrafted articles for its' annual Pretty Kitty Holiday Craft Bazaar. House of Dreams is a non-profit, all volunteer, no-kill cat shelter in Portland, Oregon.
- Hugs for Homeless Animals, an organization dedicated to homeless and displaced animals. The H4HA Snuggles Project is devoted to providing blankets to make animals more comfortable in their cagess at animal shelters.
- Knit for Kids donates handmade sweaters to needy children around the world. Suggested knitting and crochet patterns are available on their website. Knit for Kids was started in 1996 by readers of Guideposts magazine.
- Knit Your Bit. Knit a scarf to help the National WWII Museum honor World War II veterans.
- Knots of Love volunteers crochet and knit caps for chemo patients and others facing life-threatening illness. Headquartered in Costa Mesa, CA, USA, Knots of Love has cap drop locations across the United States.
- Miracles Happen seeks crocheted, knit and sewn items for newborn babies.
- Mother Bear Project makes knitted and crocheted teddy bears to provide comfort and hope to children.
- Newborns in Need, Inc. Accepts handmade baby clothing, quilts, blankets and toys to distribute to needy families with newborn babies. The site has a few basic patterns and links to some others and guidelines for sewn baby clothing.
- Online Angels spreads love one box at a time by distributing a variety of items.
- Operation Toasty Toes sends hand knit and crocheted items to America's troups overseas. Only patterns supplied on the Operations Toasty Toes website should be used. There are patterns for machine knitters.
- Pathways to Spirit seeks knitted hats, booties and socks for newborn Lakota babies. (Click on projects and scroll down to One Heart One Mind.)
- Paula's Knit and Crochet Charity is making an afghan for a Project Linus chapter in each state and would like donations of yarn and afghan squares.
- Pine Ridge Reservation needs a variety of warm clothing, blankets and baby items. Website inclludes a variety of pattern links.
- Prayer Shawl Ministry. Make shawls for people needing comfort.
- Precious PalsTM program was begun by the Knitting Guild of America to provide immediate comfort to children in crisis. Stuffed animals with knitted outfits are provided to Police departments all over the United States.
- Preemie Prints fills gift bags with blankets, hats and NICU outfits for preemies in Texas hospitals. Handmade items are welcome.
- Project Linus provides security blankets to children who are seriously ill or who are in traumatic situations. The ideal blanket size is 40" x 60". There are many local chapters across the country.
- Quilts for Kids transforms fabric into quilts for children with life-threatening illnesses and children of abuse.
- Quilts from Caring Hands. This group in Oregon's Williamette Valley area meet in Corvallis, OR to make quilts for children at risk.
- Quilts of Valor - quilts for servicemen and veterans touched by war.
- Quilt Outreach makes quilts that are distributed to charitable organizations and homeless shelters in the greater Cincinatti, Ohio area.
- Sheila's Shawls and Paul's Scarves makes shawls and scarves for people affected by domestic violence.
- The Ships Project sends handmade hats, slippers, cool-ties and cool-heads to U.S. service men and women around the world.
- Socks For Soldiers knits socks for soldiers serving in the Middle East.
- Stitch for a Cause knits, crochets, sews, and quilts blankets and infant apparel for local children's agencies. Based in Louisville, KY, USA.
- Stitches From the Heart sends handmaded clothing and blankets to premature babies across the nation. Based in Santa Monica, CA, USA.
- Stitching Up The World knits, crochets and sews items to donate to a variety of organizations. Their main effort is items for chemotherapy patients in New Hampshire, Based in Candia, NH, USA.
- Threads of Love provides clothing, blankets and other handmade articles for premature and sick infants. Threads of Love has chapters in the United States, Canada and London, England.
- Tiny Stitches is based in Gwinnett County, Georgia and provides basic layettes to disadvantaged newborns and preemies in north Georgia. They also provide burial ensembles to families who lose an infant.
- Ugly Quilts for the Homeless, My Brothers' Keeper.
- Victoria's Quilts and Victoria's Quilts Canada. Quilts for cancer patients.
- Warm Up America (WUA) works with community service organizations and the American Red Cross to distribute warm, hand-made blankets to to those who need them. Warm Up America volunteers are encouraged to donate their finished blankets to a local organization (or a local chapter of a national organization) near where they live or work. Return to top of page
- Charities page at the Crochet Network, an Internet group.
- Crochet Cabana has preemie afghan patterns.
- Charity Crafting Links page at Bev's Country Cottage. A lot of charity listings and links to patterns.
- Charity Information at Annie's Attic.
- Crochet for Charities Links at StarGazer's World.
- Good Causes (crochet) and Knitting Charities at BellaOnline.
- Wool Works Resources - Charities lists organizations that accept donations of finished knitted goods or knitting supplies. Extensive list is organized by state and includes many groups with no web site. The Wool Works site also has patterns.
- Charitable Sewing page of the Home Sewing Association has some patterns for charity projects.
- Calming Seas has a list of pattern links organized by type of pattern (afghans, children's clothing, etc.). This is the new home of "C" is for Crochet (seafore.com).
- Patterns for Charity from p2 designs has a variety of free patterns.
- SLK Designs has original crochet patterns for infants.
- Tips on Making Items for Charity