DonorsChoose for nonprofits: where the idea came from

DonorsChoose helps public school teachers get classroom materials funded,^[1] and it's the reason Aid Registry exists. We watched it make giving concrete: a donor funds a set of books, and the teacher can post a photo of the class reading them.

DonorsChoose is built for teachers. Its eligibility rules cover full-time educators at public schools, public charter schools and Head Start programs. If you're one of them, it's where you should go for classroom supplies.

We built Aid Registry to bring the same kind of giving to other nonprofits: shelters, food banks, animal rescues, churches and faith groups, housing programs, PTAs and more.

How item-based giving works on Aid Registry

1. A charity lists what it needs. It searches Amazon, Home Depot or Walmart, or pastes a link to any product, from socks to a commercial washer. Each item gets a quantity and a priority.
2. It picks a campaign or an ongoing wishlist. A campaign has a goal and can have a deadline: good for a drive or a big purchase. An ongoing wishlist is for things the charity always needs, like diapers or pet food, and never ends.
3. Donors fund the items. They pick specific items, or give any amount toward the list. Donors cover their share of shipping, sales tax and a 3% card processing fee, all itemized before they pay. Every donor gets an emailed tax acknowledgment.
4. Aid Registry buys and ships them. A campaign is ordered once it's fully funded, or at its deadline if the charity chose to buy what was raised. A wishlist is ordered every two weeks, highest priority first. The items are shipped to the charity.
5. The charity says thank you. It posts photos and a thank-you when a campaign is fulfilled, or when each wishlist order arrives, and the donors whose gifts paid for them are emailed.

Who buys and ships the items

Aid Registry does. Donations go to Aid Registry, Inc., a 501(c)(3), and we use them to buy the exact items on the list. Donors don't check out on a retailer's site, and the charity never has to handle the money and place the orders itself.

Because a campaign's items are ordered together, the charity gets them in one delivery instead of a box from every donor. (Here's why retail wish lists arrive in 40 boxes.) A wishlist arrives every two weeks instead. Each order comes with an email listing what we bought and what it cost, a typical delivery window, and an itemized in-kind statement the charity can use to record the donation in its books. If an item is out of stock, we check with the charity about an equivalent.

What happens if a campaign doesn't fully fund

The charity decides when it creates the campaign. At the deadline, Aid Registry can either:

• buy as much as the funds cover, starting with items donors picked, then in the charity's priority order, or
• extend the deadline to give the campaign more time.

A campaign can also run with no deadline. Either way, we email the charity a few days before any deadline, so there's time to change course.

Why fund items instead of giving cash

Unrestricted cash is still the most flexible gift a charity can get, and item-based giving isn't meant to replace it. It reaches donors who want to give something specific:

• Donors see what their gift became. A sleeping bag or a month of cat food is easier to picture, and to share, than a dollar amount.
• Charities get what they asked for. The items on the list, in the sizes and quantities the charity chose.
• The thank-you is real. A photo of the new beds says more than a receipt.

Charities that already use a retail wish list will recognize the appeal. We wrote about where an Amazon wish list falls short, and what item-based giving adds.

Who can use Aid Registry

IRS-verified nonprofits, from a two-person food pantry to a regional shelter network. We match each charity against IRS records, and a person on our team reviews it before its page goes public. It's free for charities: donors cover the item costs, their share of shipping and sales tax, and card processing. To start, register your charity, or read how to build a campaign first.

Aid Registry is an independent nonprofit. We aren't affiliated with or endorsed by DonorsChoose; we just admire what it built.

Ten holiday donation drive ideas

1. A holiday meal drive. Ask for the staples of a holiday meal, or complete meal boxes, for families you serve. Plan the quantities around how many families you expect to serve in November and December, not an average month. More ideas for food banks and pantries.
2. A toy drive by age group. List toys for each age range you serve, so a 14-year-old doesn't end up with a toddler's gift. Name the ages in the list so donors can choose.
3. A warm clothing drive. Coats, hats, gloves, thermal layers and new socks, in the sizes you actually need. New socks are an easy ask: cheap, light to ship, and worn every day. More ideas for emergency shelters.
4. A hygiene kit drive. Toothbrushes, deodorant, shampoo and razors, packed into kits by volunteers. Cheap per item, easy to fund, and needed all winter.
5. A blankets and bedding drive. Blankets, sleeping bags, pillows and sheets for shelters, warming centers and families moving into housing.
6. A Giving Tuesday supply drive. Pick a single item with a clear total, like 40 sleeping bags or 200 winter hats, and make December 1 the day to fund it. More on this below.
7. An animal shelter holiday wish list. Food, litter, beds and toys, plus the cleaning supplies nobody thinks to give. More ideas for animal shelters.
8. A "big item" drive. Some needs are one large purchase: a chest freezer for the pantry, a washer for the shelter, new beds. The holidays are a good time to ask a community to fund one thing together.
9. A congregation giving drive. A church, synagogue or mosque adopts your list for Advent, Hanukkah, Christmas or the new year, and members fund items from it. See how this works for faith communities.
10. A winter break drive for school families. If your families rely on school meals, plan food for the weeks school is closed, plus coats and school supplies for January. A good fit for a PTA or PTO.

If you can only run one, pick the drive closest to what you already hand out every week. Donors understand it, and you already know the sizes and quantities.

A 2026 timeline that works back from Giving Tuesday

• Mid-October: pick one drive and build the list. One focused drive beats three half-finished ones. Price your items and set a goal.
• Early November: launch. Share it in your newsletter, on social media and with volunteers, while people are planning their giving.
• December 1, Giving Tuesday: push hard. Send a reminder, post an update on how far you've come, and thank the first donors by name if they agreed to share it.
• Mid-December: set your deadline. Leave a couple of weeks between the deadline and your distribution day, and check current delivery estimates. December is a busy month for every carrier.
• After the holidays: say thank you. Post photos of the items in use. Donors who see where their gift went have a reason to come back next year.

How to tie your drive into Giving Tuesday

On Giving Tuesday your supporters will hear from many causes in one day, so a small team does best with a single, concrete ask. "Help us buy 40 sleeping bags for the shelter" is easier to act on, and to share, than "support our work this season". Show the number, show progress as it fills, and post the moment it's funded.

If a local business or a board member wants to help, ask them to fund the first few items that morning, so the drive doesn't start at zero. A drive that is already a quarter funded looks like one worth joining.

Christmas and winter drive ideas that keep going into January

Need doesn't end on December 25. A Christmas donation drive gets attention, but January and February are cold and quiet, and many supporters have moved on. Two ways to keep going:

• Stagger the drives. Run the toy or meal drive for Christmas, then a warm clothing or bedding drive with a late-January deadline.
• Save something for the new year. Hold back a "big item" ask, like a freezer or washer, for January, when there is less competing for attention.

Run a holiday drive without collection bins

A drive of donated goods means bins, sorting, and whatever people happen to bring. On Aid Registry, donors fund the exact items on your list instead, and Aid Registry buys them and ships them straight to your charity. That's item-based giving:

• List the items from Amazon, Home Depot or Walmart, or paste a link to any product.
• Set a deadline before your distribution day, and choose what happens if the drive falls short: buy what was raised, or extend the deadline.
• Get one delivery. Everything is ordered together once the drive is funded, so you don't get a box from every donor.
• Thank donors by name. Donors can choose to share their name and email with your charity.

Next year, duplicate the campaign and start from the same list. See how to build a campaign step by step. Aid Registry is free for charities: register your charity and launch your holiday campaign.

Why every gift ships on its own

A wish list looks like one list, but it isn't one order. Every donor who buys from it places their own order, with their own payment, on their own day. Forty donors means up to forty separate orders, and each one ships as soon as it's placed.

Even a single donor's order can split. Retailers ship from whichever warehouse has each item, so an order with three things in it can arrive as three packages. Items from marketplace sellers ship from the seller, and bulky items often travel on their own.

Donors also give when they see your post, not when it suits you. A newsletter or a social media share brings a burst of orders, and then a trickle for weeks after. If you run lists at more than one store, say an Amazon list and a Walmart list, all of this happens twice.

What all those boxes cost your team

Each box is small. Together they add up to real staff and volunteer time:

• Receiving. Someone has to watch for packages, sign for them and bring them in before they sit outside.
• Unpacking. Opening, breaking down and recycling a box for every item, sometimes for a single small thing.
• Tracking. Checking each item against the list, updating what's still needed, and noting it for thank-yous.
• Planning. It's hard to schedule a distribution day, or know what to buy yourself, when you can't tell what's coming or when.
• Thanking. Many boxes arrive with no clear sender, so the work of finding out who gave often goes nowhere.

How to get fewer deliveries

Some habits help, whatever tool you use:

1. Ask in bursts. Share your list for a set window, like a two-week drive, instead of all year. Orders cluster together, and you can plan a receiving day around the end of it.
2. Keep lists short and quantities current. Duplicates are deliveries you didn't need. On Amazon, the Needs and Has fields help. Our guide on setting up an Amazon wish list for your nonprofit shows where they are.
3. Set a receiving spot and a weekly routine. Collect packages in one place and process them once a week, rather than as each one lands.
4. Ask for money toward specific items, and buy them yourself. One order you place is far fewer boxes than fifty placed by donors. The catch is that most donors like to give something concrete, and you take on the buying.

How Aid Registry gets you fewer boxes

Aid Registry does the fourth option for you, without losing what donors like about a wish list. You list the exact items you need, from Amazon, Home Depot or Walmart. Donors fund those items, or give any amount toward the list, and their gifts pool together. Then Aid Registry orders everything at once, on a schedule:

• For a campaign, when it's fully funded, or at its deadline if you chose to buy as much as the gifts cover.
• For an ongoing wishlist, every other Monday, highest-priority items first.

Each store still ships its own packages, and a large order can come in more than one box. But instead of one delivery for every donor, you get a handful of deliveries after an order date you know in advance.

When the items arrive, you post a photo and a thank-you, and it goes to the donors whose gifts paid for them. Every donor also gets a tax receipt by email. It's free for charities.

Fewer boxes, the same generosity

Donors who buy from a wish list want to help, and a trickle of boxes is a sign that they do. The goal isn't fewer gifts: it's fewer deliveries, on a schedule your team can plan around. If you keep a retail wish list for some things, keep the habits above in mind. For your everyday needs, try an ongoing wishlist on Aid Registry: register your charity free, or see how to build a campaign step by step.

Want the donors, not just the items? An Amazon wish list gets things to your door, but you rarely learn who sent them. Aid Registry is a free wish list built for charities: donors can share their name and email with you, every donor gets a tax receipt, and everything arrives together. There's a side-by-side comparison at the end of this guide.

Before you start: use an account that belongs to your organization

Sign in with an Amazon account that belongs to your nonprofit, using a shared email address your team can get into, not a staff member's personal account. The list and its order history then stay with your organization when people move on.

A note if you remember AmazonSmile: Amazon ended AmazonSmile in 2023, and its charity lists went with it. Today a nonprofit's list on Amazon is a regular wish list, set up the way described below.

Step 1: Create the list

On Amazon, go to Account & Lists, choose Your Lists, then Create a List. In the box that opens, give it a name under List name and choose Create. Name it after your organization, for example "Harbor Street Shelter wish list", so donors who search for you can find it.

Skip the Create a Registry or Gift List link in the same box. That's for weddings, babies and birthdays; a regular list is the right kind for a charity. Every new list starts out private, and the next step changes that.

Step 2: Set it up for your organization

Open the list's menu and choose Manage list. Amazon's defaults are set for a personal gift list, so a few need changing:

• List is for. Change it from You to An organization.
• Recipient. Amazon notes that "people who access your list will see your recipient name", and it starts out as the account holder's own name. Change it to your organization's name.
• Privacy. New lists start as Private. Change it so donors can open the list: Shared lets anyone with the link see it, and Public also lets people find it by searching.
• Description. Write a sentence about your organization and what the list is for. Amazon says this helps people find your list.
• Shipping address. Choose your organization's delivery address, so donors' orders come straight to you. Amazon doesn't show the address to donors directly, but it can become visible to them through delivery updates and tracking, so use your organization's address, never someone's home.
• Keep purchased items on this list. Leave this unticked, the default, so items drop off once they're bought and donors only see what's still needed.
• Don't spoil my surprises. This is ticked by default, which hides from you what donors have bought. Untick it, so you can see what's on its way.

Step 3: Add items, and say what each is for

Add products from their own pages. On any Amazon product page, the list button is labelled with your default list, such as Add to Shopping List. Open its dropdown, pick your organization's list, and Amazon confirms the item was added. Don't use the Add item button on the list itself. That adds a plain-text note, like "Blanket", which donors can't buy.

Then, on the list, choose Add a note on each item. It has four settings:

• Needs. How many you need. It starts at 1, so change it: without it, donors can't tell whether you need one or fifty, and you risk getting far more of one thing than you can use.
• Has. How many you already have, starting at 0.
• Priority. It starts at Medium. Raise it for urgent needs and lower it for nice-to-haves.
• Comment. Up to 250 characters on what it's for, such as "Replaces the worn mattresses in our family rooms." Donors give to people, not products.

Keeping Needs and Has accurate takes upkeep, and Amazon won't reset them when you need the same things again next month. On an Aid Registry ongoing wishlist, each item's monthly quantity resets on the 1st by itself.

A few habits help a list get funded. Be specific: "twin-size waterproof mattress protector" beats "bedding". Mix prices, so a donor with $10 and a donor with $150 both find something. And check that items will ship to your address before you add them.

Step 4: Share the link

On your list, choose Invite, then View only: "anyone with a link can view your list without making edits". Copy that link. Don't use View and edit, which lets anyone you send it to add or remove items.

Put the link on your website's donate page, in your newsletter and on social media, with a sentence about what the items are for and who they help.

Step 5: Keep it current

A list is only as good as its last update. Remove items you no longer need, update quantities as donations arrive, and add seasonal needs ahead of time. An out-of-date list brings in things you can't use.

Where an Amazon wish list falls short

An Amazon wish list gets items to your door. It was built for gifts between friends, though, so it leaves charities with gaps: you often don't know who gave, items arrive one package at a time, and receipts and thank-yous are left to you. Here's how it compares with Aid Registry, a wish list built for nonprofits.

Try a wish list built for nonprofits

You don't have to give up your Amazon list to try Aid Registry. Plenty of charities keep one and use Aid Registry for the needs where knowing your donors, and getting one delivery, matter most. Register your charity free, or see how to build an ongoing wishlist step by step.