Leftover Donations: Making the Most of Our Blessings

It's been a busy couple of weeks since the yard sale!! I've been returning borrowed tables and canopies and itemizing leftover donations. Because of our seriously generous friends who donated items for our sale, we had a TON of donations leftover, which I felt compelled/responsible/called to donate to organizations that are important to us and to ensure that we receive the tax deductions on our tax return. Our friends donated their items to us, giving up their own tax deductions, hoping it would help us adopt our baby, so I want as much of the donations going towards our adoption as possible. Tax savings = more money to adopt our baby!!

I spent a lot of time thoughtfully and prayerfully considering which non-profits our donations would go to, and in the process, I learned more about these wonderful organizations in our community! I feel so grateful that I was able to contribute to them! Read on to learn about the places who received all of our leftover donations and their important missions. Much more important than emptying my garage so I can park in it this winter, but that is a huge plus. :)

The Salvation Army is great because it's a Christian organization and they donate the items they can't sell to people who need them, rather than just throwing them away, like other organizations do. They received our furniture, household, and kitchen items.
>>>Check them out at https://www.facebook.com/pg/RiverValleyARC/about/?ref=page_internal.

Lakota Journey is an important mission we support at Cross Point Church. A group of ladies drove over to the Indian reservation in South Dakota recently to visit them and provide new coats and gently used clothing for the people this ministry serves, so I pulled some coats and cute/warm winter clothes out of our leftover donations for them to stuff in their mini van (pictured below).
>>>Check them out at https://www.lakotajourney.org/purpose.

Pregnancy Resources is an organization in Davenport that provides free resources to moms and dads to help them when they don't have what they need to raise their child. They provide so many different resources, including parenting training, diapers, and free ultrasounds! We donated baby items, stuffed animals, and clothes for ages 0-3T to them.
>>>Check them out at https://qcpregnancy.org/
or https://www.facebook.com/pg/PRQuadCities/about/?ref=page_internal.
>>>More info about the services they provide in this interview (both clips are very informative!!!): https://wqad.com/2019/02/12/coffee-break-how-pregnancy-resources-supports-the-qc-community/.

Life's Little Treasures is a thrift store with lots of cute stuff of all kinds on Brady St in Davenport which donates all proceeds to QC Right to Life. They received our kids' clothes and toys for ages 4T+ and some framed art. I bought my cute little "Welcome" pot holder for my front porch there!
>>>Check them out at https://www.facebook.com/pg/LifesLittleTreasuresResaleShop/about/?ref=page_internal

Closet 2 Closet is an organization in Rock Island that was built, in part, through the adoption of preteen foster children. They offer, free of charge, all-season clothing, accessories, and hygiene items exclusively for foster teens. They will be receiving our adult clothes, shoes, and bags from our leftover donations after I deliver them tomorrow (and then my garage will finally be empty!!). 
>>>Check them out at http://www.closet2closet.org/about.php
or https://www.facebook.com/QCCloset2Closet/.

Dress For Success is another awesome organization that provides professional work clothes and guidance to help women get jobs and support themselves. They received some very nice dresses, blazers, and dress shoes out of our leftover donations.
>>>Check them out at https://quadcities.dressforsuccess.org/about-us/
or https://www.facebook.com/pg/dfsqc/about/?ref=page_internal

Bettendorf Public Library is where my stepsons spent a lot of time after school before they got licenses and vehicles, so they received 10 boxes of books! Note: books are generally not deductible on your tax return, but a library is always a good cause! Another good cause is the Rock Island County Jail. A lady from work is collecting paperback books for a Christian ministry that supports this jail, so I pulled out 2 boxes of paperbacks to give her! Note: I did let my stepdad Dan who owns The Source Books used bookstore in downtown Davenport have first dibs on what he can sell at his store. This picture is what was left AFTER he picked out what he wanted!! We had TONS of books!! I built up some serious ab muscles hauling these boxes around, haha!

We also set aside several higher value donations that we thought would sell better online, so we're still working on getting prices set and pictures taken and loaded online. Expect to see lots of Facebook Marketplace posts from me soon! Planning to start on that next week! We're getting closer to bringing our baby home!!

Tips on Donations to Multiple Charities

1. If you have the time and desire, consider donating your leftover items to multiple nonprofit charities that are important to you or you know have the greatest needs. Google has a wealth of information as well as Facebook. It feels awesome when you can spread the love!
2. When boxing up leftovers from your garage sale, decide which types of items are going to which charity and write on top of the box which charity the items go to. Be sure to set boxes going to the same charity in the same spot and keep them separate from the boxes for other charities. This will make it helpful for when you are ready to itemize (write down the types of items and the number of each type) and then drop off donations.
3. Be sure to itemize the donations for your tax return at home or take pictures of the items to itemize later. There is often not enough time to itemize when you're at the site of donation.
4. Be sure to ask for a receipt for your donations just in case you were to ever get audited by the IRS someday. Keep your itemized list attached to your receipt in your taxes folder.
5. The highest value items for tax deductions would be clothing, shoes, bags, coats, bedding, rugs, lamps, TV's, and furniture. Books are not tax-deductible with a few exceptions, so be sure to do your research. Here are some tips on valuing donations:  https://www.bankrate.com/finance/taxes/valuation-guide-for-donated-goods.aspx  https://satruck.org/Home/DonationValueGuide
6. Turbo Tax has an online tool that helps you value and keep track of your donations throughout the year to make it easier to file your tax return: https://itsdeductibleonline.intuit.com/
7. After you've itemized the items in a box, place a yard sale sticker on the side (or some kind of sticker) so you'll know if you've already gone through the box. I went through my boxes in my living room over a couple of weeks while watching Grey's Anatomy. Highly recommend! Hehe