Run a clothing donation drive

A clothing donation drive is a brilliant way to lessen your environmental impact.
Each person in Australia buys around 15kg of clothing each year and most of it ends up in landfill, where it can take hundreds of years to break down. By taking the time to encourage your colleagues, teammates, friends, or classmates to donate their quality clothing, you’re doing a really good thing for the planet.

The best bit? The donations you collect on your drive will be sold in our Australian Red Cross shops where we raise funds for our humanitarian work in Australia and around the world.

Running a clothing donation drive is easy!

Steps to take action

1. Check out the list of accepted items that Red Cross Shops need and love.
2. Choose a start date and end date, two weeks is a good length of time to run a clothing donation drive.
3. Promote your clothing donation drive using the editable poster and email templates which you can share via email or print out. We suggest giving people at least two weeks’ notice before your donation drive begins, this gives your donors plenty of time to declutter.
4. Collect donations in a clearly signed and central location in your school, workplace, or club.
5. Drop donations off at your local Red Cross Shop. We recommend calling ahead if you have more than ten boxes so that they can prepare for your delivery.
6. You did it! Grab your loyalty card from our friendly staff and feel great about acting for humanity.

Helpful resources and tips

• Visit our donate clothing page for useful tips on what you can and can't donate as well as our downloadable donation guide which you can share with your fellow donors.
• Download our email templates for a Summer Clothing Drive or Winter Clothing Drive.
• Find your local Red Cross Shop using the Red Cross Shops store locator.
• Find out more about Red Cross Shops.
• Learn more about reuse and the circular economy Capacity Building – Charitable Recycling Australia.