If you are looking to donate used home medical equipment in good condition to help someone in need, in the Oakland area, I have put together a collection of all the different places and organizations, who can help you do that.
In Oakland, you can donate medical equipment to –
- the California Assistive Technology Program “Ability Tools”
- reuse centers, such as “Recares”
- recycling centers, such as “The Marin Medical Equipment Recyclers”
- the “Center for Independent Living, Inc. Berkeley”
- loan closets and lending libraries for medical equipment, such as “NorCal SCI”
- nonprofits helping the disabled in their communities, such as “Breathe California Bay Area”
- Thrift stores, such as “Mastick Senior Center Thrift Store”
- Salvation army stores
- Rotary Clubs
- Lyons Clubs
- nursing homes
- veteran centers
- senior centers
You can also donate used medical equipment person-to-person, in Oakland, using online platforms and social media sites such as –
- Craigslist.com
- usedHME.com
- Freecycle.org
- Facebook.com
- Nextdoor.com
- OfferUp.com
- ebay.com
Or
- Med-Eq.org, who will help you donate your equipment to a charity registered with them
You will find links to my guides on how to use each of these online platforms to donate your medical equipment.
The “Table of Contents” below has Quick links to all the different sections, so if there is one you prefer to investigate, you can jump straight to it.
Contents with Quick Links
Donate to Reuse Centers in Oakland
Donate to the Center for Independent Living in Oakland
Donate to Goodwill stores in Oakland
Donate to Salvation Army stores in Oakland
Donate to Thrift stores in Oakland
Donate to Loan Closets in Oakland
Donating used medical equipment to Senior Centers in Oakland
Donating used medical equipment to Veteran Centers in Oakland
Donate used Medical equipment in Oakland, using online listings
- Donate used medical equipment in Oakland, on Craigslist
- Donate used medical equipment in Oakland, on UsedHME
- Donate used medical equipment in Oakland, on Freecycle
- Donate used medical equipment in Oakland, on Facebook
- Donate used medical equipment in Oakland, on Nextdoor.com
- Donate used medical equipment in Oakland, on OfferUp.com
- Donate used medical equipment in Oakland, on Med-eq.org
Organizations who may know where to donate used medical equipment near me in Oakland
Donate used medical equipment to the California Assistive Technology Program
Ability Tools – the California Assistive Technology Program
Ability tools is the Assistive Technology Program in California – each state in the US receives a federal grant to rum a program to increase access to assistive technology devices, principally for the disabled and the elderly.
The term “assistive technology device” is pretty much synonymous with “durable medical equipment”, and home medical equipment.
The Ability Tools program accepts a huge amount of donations of gently used durable medical equipment, which it, and its partners, subsequently distributes to those in need.
Ability Tools runs an Assistive Technology Exchange website where all the available durable medical equipment is listed for loan, or donated for free.
Ability Tools also coordinates demonstration centers for the assistive technology devices, and device loan programs for equipment in California.
The Assistive Technology Exchange website is here – http://abilitytools.org/services/at-exchange-transition.php
Ability Tools, to run its programs and to list the available inventory, is partnered with a number of reuse organizations across California.
The inventory of equipment available is kept on the Assistive Technology Exchange website, from where it can be organized, distributed, and requested.
The reuse organizations, working with Ability Tools, have formed a coalition – The California Assistive Technology Reuse Coalition.
“The reuse programs accept assistive technology and medical devices, repair and sanitize them and offer them to people with disabilities for free or at low cost.” – Source here.
Donate used medical equipment to the reuse center working with Ability Tools in Oakland
If you have equipment to donate, you can call the center below, and work out how you can give them your donation.
The center will post your equipment on the AT Exchange, and also look for people in need in Oakland who will benefit from your donation.
ReCARES
ReCares (formerly Home Cares) is a reuse program to which you can donate gently used home medical equipment, and unused health care supplies.
The organization is part of The California Assistive Technology Reuse Coalition.
ReCARES has a list of possible items for donations which includes the following –
- wheelchairs
- walkers
- canes
- adult briefs
- shower chairs
- tub/transfer benches
- chux
- and more
The main center is at –
2619 Broadway
Oakland, CA 94612
Phone: 510 251 2273
Give them a call to get the times that you can make a donation, as things will have changed with Covid-19, you need to check with them under what circumstances they are working.
Website: http://homecares.org
Thre are also satellite offices here –
The alleyway of 63 Dorland St
Dorland St
San Francisco,
CA 94110
Phone: 415 487-54053100
No website
Marin Medical Equipment Re-cyclers
3100 Kerner Blvd
San Rafael,
Ca 94901
Phone: 415 388 8198
Website: https://marinmer.org/
The Marin Medical Equipment Re-cyclers site accepts –
- wheelchairs
- companion chairs
- transfer benches
- shower chairs
- orthopedic supports
- blood pressure machines
- nebulizers
- canes
- crutches
- commodes
- walkers
- grabbers
- wedge pillows
- therapeutic cushions
You can also donate some medical supplies –
- diapers
- panty pads
- bed pads
- latex
- vinyl gloves
- wipes
- and more
To donate a large item such as a hospital bed, or a power scooter, you will need to call ReCARES, so they can match you with a recipient who can organize the pickup and transport for the item themselves.
The location has been closed at times during the pandemic, so do call before you go to make a donation.
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Donate used Medical equipment to Centers for Independent Living (CIL) in Oakland, California
Centers for Independent Living, or CIL’s, provide support and services to people with disabilities, so that they may live independently in the community.
CIL’s typically maintain free medical equipment loan closets for their members, so you can always contact the CIL in Oakland about donating your used medical equipment.
The CIL nearest to Oakland is –
Center for Independent Living, Inc.
1470 Fruitvale Avenue,
Oakland, CA 94601
Main Phone: 510 841 4776
Website page for medical equipment loan closet.
Donate used Medical equipment to Goodwill Stores in Oakland, California
Goodwill Greater East Bay is the organization running the Goodwill stores in and around Oakland – there are 32 donation sites, of which 28 are stores.
Goodwill stores and donation locations do not all accept home medical equipment, so you should always call before take your medical equipment along.
Goodwill donation drop-off locations in the Oakland area
To locate a site near you in the Oakland area, use their locator here – https://eastbaygoodwill.org/donation-centers
Donate used medical equipment to the Salvation Army in, Oakland, California
The Salvation Army accepts donations of some used home medical equipment, so long as it is in good condition.
To donate your items, you go to the following page on their website, to find a drop-off location near to you – https://satruck.org/
It will the page below.
Enter your zip code in the box for the service you require, and you will get a map with all the locations and a list of addresses and contact links, as you can see below.
You can choose a site from the map, or the list, and then contact them to find out about donating your equipment – as usual, don’t just show up as you could be wasting your time, as they don’t take all items, and some don’t take any at all.
Donate used medical equipment to thrift stores in Oakland, California
If you are not having a lot of luck donating your equipment, you can just donate to a thrift store. Do bear in mind that some thrift stores are no-profits, and others are simply for profit businesses – in both cases, though, someone should be able to purchase your equipment at a reduced price.
Thrift stores do tend to change the items they are accepting, so if a store accepted donations of certain items at the time of writing, it doesn’t mean they will when you want to donate your item – so call ahead and check !
Lastly, right now Covid is still with us, and the policies for donating items and mask wearing will fluctuate, so another reason to call ahead, and not just turn up.
ARF Thrift Store
1950 Market Street, Suite H,
Concord,
CA 94520
Phone: 925 685 0908
At present, they do not accept walkers and crutches, but they do not have a blanket policy on all types of home medical equipment. I would call them on the number above and ask if they are currently accepting any home medical equipment.
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Free Oakland Up
2809 MacArthur Blvd,
Oakland,
CA 94602
Website: http://freeup.us/free_oakland_up
Everyone can take one free item.
Phone – none, so contact them on the website contact page.
Open Thursday to Sunday, 12-4pm
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Habitat For Humanity ReStore Oakland
9235 San Leandro St,
Oakland,
CA 94603
Phone: 510 777 1447
Some stores take donations of used home medical equipment, and others don’t so just give them a call.
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Kingdom Builders
7954 MacArthur Blvd,
Oakland,
CA 94605
Phone: 510 878 2477
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Mastick Senior center thrift store
1538 St Charles St,
Alameda,
CA 94501
Phone: (510) 747-7500
If the thrift store doesn’t want your item, the senior center can probably place it with someone for you !! As always, do call first and ask.
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St. Vincent de Paul Society Thrift Store
9235 San Leandro St,
Oakland,
CA 94603
Phone: 510 636 4252
Some of their locations take durable medical equipment, and others don’t, so you need to call and ask if they are currently accepting your type of item.
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Uhuru Furniture & Collectibles
3742 Grand Ave,
Oakland,
CA 94610
Phone: 510 763 3342
You should photograph your item and send it to the store by email, and they will tell you if they are interested in your donation.
I have put a link to the page for donating that you will need to look at on their blog.
https://uhurufurniture.blogspot.com/p/donate-furniture.html
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Urban University/urban furniture & boutique
3237 Grand Ave,
Oakland, CA 94610
Phone: 510 835 3165
Donation page – https://urbanuniv.org/support-us/donate-goods/
On their list of items “not accepted”, they do not mention any durable medical equipment, but I would give them a call and check first.
The store supports various charitable initiatives.
Donating to Loan Closets which accept used medical equipment in the Oakland area
Medical equipment loan closets are usually run by community volunteers and non-profit organizations. Very often your local Area Agency on Aging will know of any in your area.
Breathe California of the Bay Area
Breathe California accepts working –
- CPAP
- Bi-PAP
- auto-PAP
“We accept all machines in a working condition and redistribute them free of charge on a first-come, first-served basis to those in need”
To donate equipment, you need to go to this website page here.
You can contact Breathe by email – info@lungsrus.org
Address:
1469 Park Ave,
San Jose,
Ca 95126
Phone: 408 998 5865
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NorCal SCI (Northern California Spinal Injury)
Here you will find used medical equipment which includes –
- power wheelchairs (no older than 3 yrs)
- manual wheelchairs
- walkers
NorCal SCI posts donated medical equipment in their online gallery of
free equipment here, and also gives equipment to individuals who have made a request for particular items, and are in need.
To request equipment, you need to go to this website page here.
You can contact NorCal SCI by email – info@norcalsci.org .
Website: https://norcalsci.org/
Phone: 408 458 9863
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Donating used medical equipment to Senior Centers in the Oakland area
You may want to see if a senior center near you has a loan closet for its members, needs equipment in the center to assist its members while they are at the center, or simply knows of elderly members who need equipment but cannot afford it.
Donating used medical equipment to Veteran Centers in the Oakland area
If you wish to donate your used home medical equipment to a veteran, you can usually find out about Veterans in need from The VA Services.
Give the organization of your choice a call, I would not go there in person with a donation, as they may need to do a little research first.
Alameda County Veterans Services
6955 Foothill Blvd, 300
Oakland,
CA 94605
Phone: 510 577 3547
Disabled American Veterans
200 Grand Avenue, 205
Oakland,
CA 94610
Phone: 510 893 1666
Vietnam Veterans of America
200 Grand Avenue, 208
Oakland,
CA 94610
Phone: 510 444 5235
Donate used medical equipment in Oakland near me, online
Possibly the easiest way to donate equipment is online, and doing close to home is not a problem.
On the following sites, platforms I am discussing, you have the tools to donate to people who live right near you.
Before I get to the different choices, I have to make a few points.
If your item is not in good working order, I wouldn’t donate it on a listing. Giving the item to a local refurbishment center, which can either fix it, or use it for spare parts, is probably a better idea.
Pick-ups and drop-offs –
1) It isn’t a great idea to have strangers come to pick up items at your home, especially if you are caring for an elderly, vulnerable person – you don’t know if the person has other motives.
Handing over your donation is best done in public places – like a local coffee shop, a mall, or grocery car park.
2) If you think you are at all vulnerable, take another person with you to the drop-off meeting, to hand over the item.
3) Use a throwaway email address for online listing sites – your regular private email can sometimes get inundated with spam, which can happen.
4) In the description of your listing, do be clear that the item you are giving away is done so “as is”, that it comes with no guarantees, and that you accept no responsibility for any future breakage or accidents. Repeat this when you hand over the item.
On the following sites, you will be able to donate used home medical equipment –
- Craigslist.com
- Freecycle.org
- UsedHME.com
- Facebook Marketplace
- Nextdoor.com
- OfferUp.com
- Med-eq.org
Donate used medical equipment in Oakland near me, on Craigslist
Craigslist.com is a website of listed ads where anyone can list an item for sale, or for free, or to buy and accept items.
There is no required membership, or need to open an account, before creating a listing for an item.
The tools are available, so that you can advertise locally.
There is also a garage or yard sale section, which may be of interest as well.
I have another post which is a quick illustrated guide on donating used home medical equipment on Craigslist.com here – “How To Donate Used Medical Equipment Near Me On Craigslist ? An Illustrated Guide”
Screenshot of Craigslist listings page
Screenshot example of a Craigslist garage sale page
Donate used medical equipment in Oakland near me, on UsedHME.com
UsedHME.com is another listing website, for buying, selling and donating only items of used home medical equipment, which makes it easy to find equipment, and avoids wading through a lot of listings of all kinds of different items which have nothing to do with what you are looking for.
Like with Craigslist, you have the tools on the site to set the area in which your advertisement is seen, making it easy to advertise where you live.
I have another quick illustrated guide on how to donate used home medical equipment on UsedHME.com, here – “How To Donate Used Medical Equipment Near Me On UsedHME ? An illustrated Guide”
Screenshot of UsedHME.com’s equipment categories page
Donate used medical equipment in Oakland near me, on Freecycle.org
Freecycle.org is a platform for gifting items to one another – everything is free.
It is based on a network of groups, with the members of the groups posting their items for free, for anyone else in the group – there are groups all over the US and Europe.
It does involve joining, which is free, and you can check the groups in your area, before doing that.
If you want to know how to do this, I have a quick, illustrated article showing how to donate used home medical equipment near you on Freecycle.org, here – “How To Donate Used Medical Equipment Near Me on Freecycle.org ? A Very Quick Illustrated Guide”
Screenshot of Freecyle.org page
Donate used medical equipment in Oakland near me, on Facebook
On Facebook.com, you have two options to buy, sell or offer items for free –
- by joining local “buy and sell” groups
- by posting ads on the Facebook Marketplace
Anyone can have a Facebook account, you can join for free.
I have another quick illustrated guide on how to donate used home medical equipment on Facebook – “How To Donate Used Medical Equipment Near Me On Facebook ? An Illustrated Guide”
Screenshot of Facebook Marketplace page
Donate used medical equipment in Oakland near me, on Nextdoor.com
Nextdoor.com is an online platform, which places you in a community of those members who live in your locality, making it very easy to give your item to someone very near you.
You can buy, sell and giveaway stuff on Nextdoor.com.
To do this you have to join, but it is easy and free.
Nextdoor uses your address to put you in the right neighborhood.
If you want to know more, you can read my quick illustrated guide – “How To Donate Used Medical Equipment Near Me On Nextdoor ? An Illustrated Guide”
Screenshot of Nextdoor.com “All Listings” page
Donate used medical equipment in Oakland near me, on OfferUp
OfferUp is a “mobile first” platform, to sell and buy, and donate used home medical equipment in Oakland, near you -also available on desktop.
It was designed to make it very quick to use.
On mobile, you just download the free app, and you are ready to go.
To use it on desktop, you go to offerup.com and then join etc.
You keep your listing local, by using the tools to keep it to pickups only.
There is a very good video below on how to do all of this on OfferUp.
Donate used medical equipment in Oakland near me, with Med-eq.org
Med-eq.org is another online platform where you can donate your equipment, although it does it a bit differently, from the other sites above.
Private individuals can fill out a form on the website, and provide photographs of their medical equipment donation.
You list where you live, and you can state that you want the equipment to be picked up.
Shipping, if used, is assumed by the recipient of the equipment.
The information about your equipment is listed on the site.
Non-profit organizations which are members of Med-eq, and are interested in your donation, will contact you.
The Page for donations is here.
Organizations who may know where to donate used medical equipment near me in Oakland
If you have one of the following places, administrations or organizations in your neighborhood in Oakland, they may know of local groups or administrations in need of donations of used home medical equipment –
- Your local Area Agency on Aging
- Social Services Department
- Local church communities
- Local town hall or chamber of commerce
- Local hospitals
- Emergency rooms
- Private clinics
- Lions Clubs
- Rotary Clubs
- Faith based organizations
Area Agency on Aging in Oakland
Your local area agency on aging provide many services to the elderly and programs –
“These services include but are not limited to Adult Day Care, Family Caregiver Support programs, Food and Nutrition programs, Legal Assistance, Senior Information and Assistance, Long Term Care Ombudsman Services, Senior Center Services and Visiting.”
If you are struggling to finds somewhere near you to donate your equipment, you can call the agency and ask them if they know of groups who may need your donation. The phone number is listed below.
The agency in Oakland is –
Alameda County Area Agency On Aging
Address:
6955 Foothill Blvd, Ste 300
Oakland,
CA 94605
Phone: 510 577 1907
Thomas L. Berkley Square(North Oakland)
2000 San Pablo Avenue,
Oakland, 94612
Phone: 510 891 0700
Edgewater Drive
7751 Edgewater Drive,
Oakland,
CA 94621
Phone: 510 208 0995
Alameda County Social Services Agency website – here.
Lions Clubs
The Lions Clubs run a lot of charitable programs, and I have found many running community loan closets for used, and new, durable medical equipment.
They have a club locator tool, which will help you find clubs near you, where you can inquire about clubs in your area with a medical equipment loan closet.
I have a very quick-to-read illustrated guide explaining how to find a Lions Club near you, which you can read here.
Rotary Clubs
Many Rotary Clubs runs different charitable programs, and some may run medical loan closets.
To locate a club near you, so that you can ask if there is a club in your area running a medical equipment loan closet, you can use the Rotary club locator tool.
You can check my short illustrated guide on how to very quickly locate a Rotary Club near you, here.
Catholic Charities East Bay
Catholic Charities East Bay have a wide range of services and programs to help individuals and families in need, for –
- housing
- food
- education
- immigration legal services
- health
- family preservation
The organization should know of families and individuals of who could use donations of used durable medical equipment.
You can contact them and find out if they know where you can donate your equipment – phone – 510 768 3100
Their website is here –
https://www.scd.org/catholic-charities-and-social-concerns/catholic-charities
Society of St. Vincent de Paul of Alameda County
The Society runs a number of programs in Oakland, helping those in need.
Contact the society to get more ideas for donating your used medical equipment, and even if they can’t take it, they may know who will.
Their website is here –
Address:
2272 San Pablo Avenue,
Oakland,
CA94612
Phone: 510 638 7600
The Jewish Family and Community Services East Bay
Quite a number of programs are run for older adults by the Jewish Family and Community Services, and you can see those here on their website – https://jfcs-eastbay.org/services/
You can call and ask if anyone has need of the particular equipment that you wish to donate.
Alameda County Office
2484 Shattuck Ave, Ste 210,
Berkeley,
CA 94704
Phone: 510 704 7475
Home Care for Seniors
Phone: 510 684 6009
Tax deductions on donations
If you make a donation to a registered charity (this includes non-profit organizations), keep the receipts to get a tax deduction.
The IRS will require a receipt from a registered charity 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.
