Where to donate items
Looking to donate clothing? Ready to donate unwanted furniture? Here’s a guide to places where you can donate to Willen Hospice.
NO NEED TO BOOK!
There is no longer a need to pre-book an appointment to donate at Kiln Farm Distribution Centre.
- Large number of donations or bulky items? Please bring your items to our Kiln Farm Distribution Centre, 5 Burners Lane, Kiln Farm, Milton Keynes, MK11 3HA between 9am and 4pm Monday to Friday.
- Only a few small items? Please seal them in bags and drop them off at one of our high street shops. Please only drop off donations during opening hours. There may be times that our shops may not be able to accept donations due to space restrictions.
- In Central Milton Keynes? We are accepting donations of clothing, bric-a-brac and small items at The Point. We can’t unfortunately accept furniture donations.
- Sadly, we are not able to accept donations at our Midsummer Place shop.
- Don’t forget to download a Gift Aid form, and pop it in with your donation.
Boost your donation by 25p of Gift Aid for every £1 you donate!
Please sign up online for Gift Aid. Willen Hospice receives an extra 25p for every £1 you donate under the Gift Aid scheme, at no extra cost to you. As long as you are a UK taxpayer, we can reclaim the basic rate tax from HMRC.
Donations Guide
We’d be extremely grateful if you could sort and organise your donations prior to dropping them off. It really helps our volunteers.
- Please place all items neatly folded, in sealed bags or bin liners
- It will help us to process your donation quicker if you could label items into categories e.g. menswear, children’s clothing or ladieswear
- Designer wear and unworn clothes with tags should be bagged together and labelled if possible.
- If a shop is closed, please don’t leave any items outside.
Our waste bill is a an astonishing £64k to dispose of things that are damaged or unsaleable!
(Scroll down to see the list of items we are not able to accept)
What can you donate?
Furniture
If you have clean, good quality furniture to donate, please call the furniture shop closest to you to arrange a collection. All furniture needs to have fire safety labels attached, or we cannot resell it.
Olney shop: 01234 241725
Buckingham shop: 01280 823388
Bletchley shop: 01908 648377
Kiln Farm: 01908 578253
House Clearances
Please contact Paul Davis, our Lead Warehouse Operative & Driver, on 07729 047803 to find out about house clearances.
Items for our eBay store
Our eBay store helps us to raise funds from good quality items such as:
- Jewellery and watches
- Collectables e.g. porcelain, artwork, stamp & coin collections
- Vintage toys and games
- Unopened fragrances and gift sets
Music
We welcome all kinds of donations for our music shop, Off The Record:
- Vinyl
- CDs and DVDs
- Cassettes
- Music t-shirts
- Music collectables like gig or concert programmes or signed photographs
- Music characters and toys
- Film and TV
- Instruments
- Record players
- Gramophone cases
- Vintage or mid-century music cabinets
Books
All our shops sell books and these remain some of our most popular items, especially in our eBay shop. We can even accept books in an unsaleable condition as they can raise money for the Hospice by being recycled. Sorry, but we can’t resell or recycle magazines.
Bric-a-Brac
This could include vases, lamps, ornaments, pictures, bowls, pottery or any other decorative household items in good condition, that we can resell.
Textiles
This includes adult and children’s clothing, shoes and handbags. Even if your items are damaged or unsaleable for any reason, we can still generate income by recycling them. Please bag your items up and clearly label them ‘recycling’. (We regret we are not able to accept bedding items such as pillows, quilts, bed linen or towels).
Wedding dresses
Above our Leighton Buzzard shop we have a beautiful Bridal Boutique, and we are always looking for wedding dresses, party dresses and accessories. Donate these to any of our shops and mention that it is for the Bridal Boutique.
Toys
Donated toys must include their original packaging with instructions and safety notices.
Soft toys: We welcome brand new, unused soft toys still in their packaging, with their CE label attached. We will also accept used soft toys if they are clean and undamaged, as we use them as prizes in our tombola.
Electrical items
We welcome donations of electrical items in that are in good working order. Electrical items are PAT tested for health and safety purposes before resale.
Stamps
Each year we raise around £2,000 from used stamps, first day covers and stamp collections, which we sell in our ebay shop. Once you’ve collected a batch, please post them to:
Stamps, eBay
Off the Record
The Point
602 Midsummer Boulevard
Milton Keynes
MK9 3GN
Foreign coins
If you no longer have any use for your international currenncy, please donate it to us. Simply slip it into a bag or sealed envelope, and hand it in at any Willen Hosice shop, marked for ‘Finance Team’. Or drop it off at the main Hospice if you would like a receipt.
Phones and tech equipment
We accept mobile and home phones, used laptops and other tech gadgets.
Cutlery and saucepans
We accept cutlery and saucepans for metal recycling purposes.
“As new” White goods & Mattresses
We are not able to accept the following
homemade knitted items, coffee pods, Christmas decorations (unless they are boxed, new), Christmas trees, IKEA beds, mattresses (unless they are “as new”), used water bottles, reading glasses, video cassette tapes, used candles, kitchen utensils and appliances including cookers, kettles, toasters and microwaves; car seats, high chairs, prams, buggies, cots, helmets, plumbed goods such as dishwashers and washing machines; anything that is broken or dirty.
Donations from companies
If your organisation has any stock you are looking to rid of, we will be delighted to have a chat. We welcome new and demo, end of line and ex-stock items, which we resell to raise funds.
Please email corporate@willen-hospice.org.uk
