How to Donate Used Cellular Phones

Due to various environmental issues, finding a way to dispose of old, outdated or broken cellular phones and other communication devices can become a problem. There are, however, a lot of companies that specialize in recycling cell phones and provide ways for non-profit organizations to make a few dollars by collecting the phones and sending them into the recycling company. Two of the most popular non-profits that do this are domestic violence shelters and phones for soldiers programs.

Things You'll Need

• Old / used cell phones

Instructions

1. Find out if your company has a cell phone donation program. Many companies do. If yours doesn't, you can help start one. Get together with people in your place of business who are responsible for making decisions regarding charitable contributions, and decide what types of charities you want to focus on. There are many cell phone donation programs that give a small monetary consideration to various non-profit agencies and charitable programs for turning in cell phones. Others do direct revamping of used cell phones and provide them, free of charge, to a specific target population. If you are an individual and your company doesn't have a cell phone donation program, you can use the same process to find a way to donate your used cell phone. If you want to donate to a shelter program, ShelterAlliance.net (see Resources below) is a good place to start, or you can donate to our servicemen and women at CellPhoneForSoldiers.com (see Resources below).

2. Investigate several programs in the charitable area that you have chosen. Charitablerecycling.com and Recellular.com are good places to start. Narrow your choices down to two or three programs and then do some more research on a particular company or non-profit. If you are, or your company is, based in the United States, you'll want to make sure the final choice has a 501(c)(3) tax exemption, so you can get a receipt for the value of your donations. If the company is a legitimate 501(c)(3) and it has a web site, it should have its tax reports online. Call or email and ask where you can find its reports. This could give you a big break on your yearly corporate taxes, depending on how many phones you donate each year.

3. Work with the program that you select to get the supplies you need to send the donations in. Most programs offer a postage paid mailer that you write the selected non-profit's address or code on. Insert the cell phone in the mailer, and drop it off to be sent out with the day's mail.

Tips & Warnings

• You can find some very reputable programs on the Internet. Some links have been provided to help you with your search (see Resources below).

Resources

• The Shelter Alliance
• Guide to Wireless Recycling
• Cell Phones for Solders
• The Charitable Recycling Program
• Locate a Donation Center