If you have a blood glucose monitor in your possession, for which you no longer have a use, you can donate it on any number of platforms and help out other people.
Where to donate a blood glucose monitor ? It is possible to donate blood glucose monitors to a large variety of organizations, and on online platforms, including – State Assistive Technology Projects, state online equipment exchanges, reuse centers, community loan closets (state and local), bikur cholim, non-profit charities, thrift stores, medical equipment refurbishment projects, faith-based organizations, local churches, private individuals on classified websites and social media platforms with marketplaces, and senior centers and veterans centers.
Contents Overview & Quicklinks
Donating blood glucose monitors to State Assistive Technology Programs
Donating blood glucose monitors to refurbishing and reuse Centers
Donating blood glucose monitors to Centers for Independent Living
Donating blood glucose monitors to Loan Closets
National and international organizations which accept medical equipment donations
Online listing sites where you can donate blood glucose monitors near you
Donating blood glucose monitors in your neighborhood
Organizations near you which may know where to donate blood glucose monitors
Donating blood glucose monitors to State Assistive Technology Programs
State Assistive Technology Programs (AT Programs) – each state in the US, plus four territories and Puerto Rico, all receive a government grant to set up a program to promote accessibility within a state to assistive technology.
These programs will typically have equipment lending libraries, demonstration centers and a network of reuse and refurbishing centers, with which they coordinate to give access to the public to assistive technology devices, including durable medical equipment.
Your blood glucose monitor would make a generous gift to those who get their equipment through the program in your state.
If you find out more about donating your blood glucose monitor to your State AT Program, just click on your state in the list below.
Click on your state to go to your State AT Program website
Donating blood glucose monitors to Refurbishment and Reuse Centers
Medical equipment refurbishment and reuse centers are another good place to donate medical equipment to.
The centers will take your used blood glucose monitor, sanitize it, fix it (if need be) and then find a new home for it, generally speaking, with someone who has a low income, no health insurance, or an elderly person in need.
Non-profit organizations often run both types of centers, and they, in particular, will work to keep the costs as low as possible, in order that they may redistribute the equipment for free or at as low of a cost as possible, making them a great option for your donation.
To make sure that your donation is not being resold at a high price, you can always ask if they will resell your equipment or gift it to someone.
Donating blood glucose monitors to Centers for Independent Living
Centers for Independent Living very often operate durable medical equipment loan closets and appreciate donations of new or used equipment to help support the needs of their members.
“A Center for Independent Living are – Designed and operated by individuals with disabilities, Centers for Independent Living (CILs) provide independent living services for people with disabilities. CILs are at the core of ACL’s independent living programs, which work to support community living and independence for people with disabilities across the nation based on the belief that all people can live with dignity, make their own choices, and participate fully in society. These programs provide tools, resources, and supports for integrating people with disabilities fully into their communities to promote equal opportunities, self-determination, and respect.”
Source : https://acl.gov/programs/aging-and-disability-networks/centers-independent-living
To find the nearest center to you, check this website.
Donating blood glucose monitors to community Medical Equipment Loan Closets
Donating your blood glucose monitor to a medical equipment loan closet is something which can make a huge difference, and is highly recommended – the more people do this, the greater the impact can be. These closets play a key role in providing durable medical equipment to community members in need, particularly seniors and individuals with disabilities.
Your equipment, once donated, will be made available for borrowing, which is usually done free of charge. On occasion, with larger and more costly pieces of equipment, a deposit may be requested.
Loan closets can vary greatly in size, encompassing large-scale operations managed by non-profit organizations which can serve an entire state, down to small setups run by a few motivated local volunteers out of a small garage for just their neighborhood.
To find a loan closet near you, start by doing some simple online searches, and contacting the following key places –
- I always start searching online with the following search terms “medical equipment loan closet + your location”, “medical equipment lending closet + your location”, “medical equipment lending bank + your location”, or “medical equipment bank + your location” – I do each search in the order listed above
- if you didn’t have any luck with the searches I suggested, I would contact your county Area Agency on Aging – such agencies are responsible for running services to assist the over 60s in accessing the community services available to them – use this locator tool to find your local county agency here
- make inquiries with your town, or city council, human resources or seniors department, to find out if they operate a medical loan closet for seniors, or the wider community, or know of any
- search out and make inquiries with any local reuse or medical equipment refurbishing centers – do these on your search engine of choice
- Lions Clubs, Rotary Clubs and American Legion Posts sometimes operate medical equipment loan closets for their local communities, so check in with them
To find Lions Clubs in your area, take a quick look at my guide here – How To Find A Lions Club Near Me ? A Very Quick Illustrated Guide
To find Rotary Clubs in your area, take a quick look at my guide here – How To Find A Rotary Club Near Me ? A Very Quick Illustrated Guide
Bikur Cholim or Medical Equipment Gemacht – (Jewish medical equipment loan closets) Run by, and for, members of the Jewish community, they will always be grateful for the gift of a blood glucose monitor.
You can search here for a loan closet on the Chesed Match website.
Great Lakes Loan Closets
In Michigan, Wisconsin, Northern Indiana or Northern Illinois, you will find that there is a comprehensive network of medical equipment loan closets. The network comprises several hundred loan closets, and they have all been very kindly listed on one website – loanclosets.org.
“Loan closets typically have durable medical equipment (DME) such as wheelchairs, shower chairs, bedside commodes, walkers, crutches, canes, and high-rise toilet seats. Some may also have hospital beds or electric wheelchairs available. Each loan closet is unique, with its own set of eligibility requirements, equipment, and loan period.” – Source – the Great Lakes Loan Closets website
If you are in one of the areas listed above, and you want to donate your blood glucose monitor to one of the loan closets, you can find one here – https://loanclosets.org/
National and International organizations which accept donations of blood glucose monitors
Goodwill
To donate your blood glucose monitor, locate a store near you and give them a call – https://www.goodwill.org/locator/
Salvation Army
To donate your blood glucose monitor, click on the following link – https://satruck.org/
EasterSeals
To locate your local affiliate to make your donation, use this link – https://www.easterseals.com/connect-locally/
The Partnership for Quality Medical Donations
Their website page for donating is here – http://www.pqmd.org/pillars/donation-guidelines/
Project Cure
Their website page for donating your blood glucose monitor is here – https://projectcure.org/donate-supplies-equipment
REMEDY – Recovered Medical Equipment for the developing World
To donate your blood glucose monitor to REMEDY, use this web page here – https://www.med-eq.org/Login/form.aspx?type=donate&quick=1
Advocates for World Health
The page for donating your blood glucose monitor is here – https://awhealth.org/donate-medical-equipment/
Esperenca
To donate your blood glucose monitor, go here – https://www.esperanca.org/donate-supplies/
MedShare
Got to the MedShare website to donate your blood glucose monitor here – https://www.medshare.org/
HERO Healthcare Equipment Recycling Organization
You can find about donating your blood glucose monitor on their website here – https://www.herofargo.org/wp-content/uploads/IndividualSupplies.pdf
MedWish
The page for donations is here on their website – https://www.medwish.org/give
Global Links
To donate your blood glucose monitor, go to this website page – https://www.globallinks.org/our-work/programs/medical-surplus-recovery-program/individual-and-community-surplus-recovery
Global Mobility USA
You can contact them and donate your blood glucose monitor at this web address – http://www.globalmobilityusa.org/equipment-and-in-kind-donations
Medical Bridges
This is the donation page on their website – http://www.medicalbridges.org/donate/medical-supplies-and-equipment
Online listing sites where you can donate a blood glucose monitor near you
Making your donation of a blood glucose monitor on online listings and social media platforms will allow you to donate to people as locally as you want – you are able to adjust the size of the area in which your donation advertisement is seen.
If you donate online, there are a few things to be aware of –
- if you are caring for an elderly person at home, you want to keep them safe and to respect their privacy, so I wouldn’t have individuals come directly to and into your home for the pick-up
- I would arrange a meeting with the recipient in a public place to gift them your blood glucose monitor – a mall or a car park
- for larger and more valuable items, you can have the equipment delivered to the recipient’s home at their cost – they will still be making a huge saving
- with posting donations online on classified listings, use a throwaway email address to prevent your own personal email from being flooded with spam
- donating items on Facebook, Nextdoor, Freecycle and OfferUp, you shouldn’t be having any problems with spam, but for pick-ups etc., you still need to be careful if you are caring for an elderly person in your home
- do remember that when you are donating your item person to person, you need to state that you are donating it “as is”, and that you accept no liability if the new user has any sort of accident or problem with the equipment – you can write this in the description of your item in your posting
Online platforms where you can donate items –
- Craigslist.com
- UsedHME.com
- Nextdoor.com
- Facebook.com
- Freecycle.org
- OfferUp.com
If you have never donated an item on the platforms I listed, I have short illustrated guides on how to donate new, or used, medical, equipment on each one –
Craigslist.com – “How To Donate Used Medical Equipment Near Me On Craigslist ? An Illustrated Guide”
UsedHME.com – “How To Donate Used Medical Equipment Near Me On UsedHME ? An illustrated Guide”
Facebook.com – “How To Donate Used Medical Equipment Near Me On Facebook ? An Illustrated Guide”
Freecycle.org – “How To Donate Used Medical Equipment Near Me on Freecycle.org ? A Very Quick Illustrated Guide”
Nextdoor.com – “How To Get Free Medical Equipment Near Me On Nextdoor.com ? A Quick Illustrated Guide”
OfferUp.com – No need for an article on this, as there is a very good video showing how to use OfferUp, see below.
Donating a blood glucose monitor in your neighborhood
If you like to do things in person rather than online, you could go to some of the following places in your neighborhood to see if they need a blood glucose monitor –
- Local Hospitals
- Emergency rooms
- Thrift stores
- Senior Centers or Elderly Day Care Centers
- Veterans Centers
- Local Retirement Homes
- Churches
- Ask if your local council Seniors’ department know where there is a medical equipment loan closet in your community
Organizations near you who may know where to donate a blood glucose monitor
If all has failed so far, here are a few organizations who may be able to give you advice about where you can offer your equipment –
Area Agency On Aging
Area Agencies on Aging deal with helping the elderly gain access to services which are available to them in their community, and as such should have the greatest amount of knowledge for you to tap into.
Use this link to find your Area Agency on Aging – click here.
Social Services
Any Social Services department should know of charities running programs that may need durable medical equipment in their area.
Faith-based Charities
Large faith-based charities, which run multiple programs for individuals in need, across the whole of the US, are a mine of information. Two such charities are –
The Catholic Charities and Society of St Vincent de Paul both have chapters across the US with programs which offer multiple services to the homeless, refugees, and victims of abuse.
Contact them as they may know of any loan closets, or individuals who would appreciate your donation.
You can find the chapter and its progarms in your area by searching for “name of the charity + where you live”, in the web browser of your choice.
Local Town Hall or Chamber of Commerce
Ask your Town Hall or Chamber of Commerce for the records of nonprofit organizations, charities refurbishing and redistributing durable medical equipment in your area.
Why isn’t your blood glucose monitor donation being accepted ?
Some of the reasons that your donation isn’t being accepted could be –
- it may be too old or a bit too roughed up
- most used equipment will need to be sanitized, and a lot of organizations are not equipped for this
- organizations and businesses may not want to handle used equipment, as it has no warranty
- state laws governing the reuse of medical equipment
Tax deductions on donations
Keep your receipt for any donations that you make to any charities, if you are hoping to get a tax deduction – the IRS will require the receipt for the item.
I’m Gareth, the author and owner of Looking After Mom and Dad.com
I have been a caregiver for over 10 yrs and share all my tips here.
