Car Camping

Does anyone know what is the best way to get sleeping bags donated or for a low prices need for a homeless?

Quarterly my church does a outreach to the homless in downtown ATL. We get a lot of donations in house, but we fell short of sleeping bags and coats. Looking for ideas to get donations or buy at low cost.

Public Comments

1. when we did fundraisers while i was in school for things like these, there were always two ways to do this: #1.. newspaper and flyer the hell out of it! make people aware that this is going on, some people would donate if they knew it was happening but usually what happens is that they just dont know or dont have the time to do it. offer if someone wants to donate but doesnt have the chance to drop it off that a member of your church whos close to them will pick it up for them when that person as the time.. making things effortless for people makes them more interested in that ( sadly) and #2, Walmart. lol now by walmart, what i mean is, that if we ever needed to get something in bulk or relatively cheap, we went to walmart ( since it was the only real store in our town with things like coats or clothes) and ask them for help! if they hesitated wed offer a thank you page in the local newspaper for them, so that the whole town knows what they did ( to butter them up, they usually accepted at that point. in which case, we also contacted the local paper to see if we could get the ad's and thank yous ran free of charge or at low cost as their donation, which they also accepted to). Of course you can ask any local store, but the smaller ones are the better ones.. where people know the owners and are friendly people.. naturally. usually these stores donate or they discount them. sometimes they gave us returns or ones that were brought back with minor damage ( like a little hole that could be stitched up. ) we have a bargain center for clothes and things in our local area too ( where you can get blankets for 4 bucks or something.. the kinda place where you want to wash everything before you wear it, but can still find good things). we never went there but im more then likely they'd bargain with you too. and of course the only other thing i can think of is just keeping an eye out for discounts. maybe talk to stores and see if they could run a promo if your church organized it and if they brought a ticket or flyer then a coat or sleeping bag dealie would be discounted to what they offered to discount it, and they could collect them at the store.. anywho. im ran out of ideas! but i hope that everything works out for you and your church. good luck, and happy holidays :)