Wedding dresses carry sentimental value long past your wedding day. However, you only wear it once, and then you tuck it away in a closet. If you are ready to part with your wedding dress, then you have a number of options available to you. You can donate to any number of charities that accept wedding dresses.
Picking an Organization
Decide what kind of organization you want to support. That is, every charitable organization supports a different cause. When it comes to donating wedding dresses, you can support causes such as breast cancer, military wives, or just everyday people who can't afford wedding dresses, just to name a few.
Distinguish between types of donations. In some cases, your wedding dress will be sold, and the profits from the dress will be used by the organization to benefit the cause, such as Brides Against Breast Cancer. On the other hand, other organizations will collect dresses to give to people in need, such as Brides Across America Both are important. You should choose based on what's most important to you.
- You can get the best of both worlds, as many places that resell wedding dresses do so at reduced cost, benefiting low-income families.
Try a thrift store. Many thrift stores, such as Goodwill and Salvation Army, take donations of any type. They are happy to accept donations of wedding dresses, as many people cannot afford to shop at high-end stores for their weddings.
Look at national organizations. Many national organizations take wedding dresses for various causes. Often, these organizations resell the dresses to make a profit for the charity. You can try organizations such as Brides for a Cause.
Check for local stores. You may have a local store in your area that accepts wedding dresses as donations. Most of these will offer the dresses free or at a reduced costs for low-income people in your area.
Checking Up on Charitable Organizations
Check for nonprofit status. Most legitimate charities will have nonprofit status with the federal government. Look for the designation 501(c)(3), which is the designation given to nonprofits. However, sometimes, people will put together drives for a particular charity without having the designation themselves, which is still legitimate.
- One place you can look for this information is on the IRS's website. You can find out which organizations are allowed to receive charitable donations.
Ask a few questions. Legitimate charitable organizations will have no problem providing you with information about their mission, where any donations will go to, and the costs associated with the donation. If you ask a few questions and the staff seems unwilling to help, the organization your dealing with may not be a legitimate charity.
Research the charity online. If you're still not sure, take some time to look up the charity online. Try adding "scam" to the name of the charity, as that is more likely to bring up any negative information about the organization.
Preparing a Wedding Dress for Donation
Check the rules. Most organizations have a few rules about donations. For instance, most places prefer to have the dress dry cleaned first. In addition, many places have rules about how new the dress needs to be. As an example, Brides for a Cause generally accepts wedding dresses from the last 5 years.
Have it dry cleaned. While not all organizations require it, it's a good idea to have your wedding dress dry cleaned before you hand it over. That ensures that the organization has to do very little before it uses your donation.
- Check for major stains before you get it dry cleaned so you can point them out to the dry cleaner.
Check for tears. Before handing it over, make sure the dress doesn't have any major rips or tears. Most organizations prefer dresses in good repair. If you do find a rip and it's small enough, try having a seamstress repair the damage.
Realize that not every gown will be accepted. Some organizations have too many of one style, and they may not be able to accept yours due to space limits. The same goes for sizes. Therefore, you may want to line up a second place as an alternative place to donate your gown.
Drop off or mail your donation. Once your dress is ready for donation, simply drop it off at your charity. You can get a receipt for your dress to use for your taxes, though generally you will need to fill in the cost of the dress yourself. If your charity is not local, pack it up well and ship it in.
source : http://www.wikihow.com/Donate-a-Wedding-Dress
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