Where To Donate Used Medical Equipment In San Jose ?

Donate used medical equipment to the California Assistive Technology Program

Ability Tools – the California Assistive Technology Program

Ability tools is the program in charge of Assistive Technology in California.

Ability Tools runs an Assistive Technology Exchange website where durable medical equipment which is available is posted for loan, donation or for free.

The Assistive Technology Exchange website can be found by going here – http://abilitytools.org/services/at-exchange-transition.php

Ability Tools is also partnered with reuse programs to post their available inventory on the Assistive Technology Exchange website, and also to distribute equipment in their particular regions of California.

“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.

There is a coalition of the Reuse programs known as the California Assistive Technology Reuse Coalition, and they are the programs working in collaboration with the Ability Tools.

To find out a lot more about how all this works, who to contact, the reuse centers in the San Jose area you can go to my article – “The Ultimate Guide To Used Medical Equipment In California” and read about the AT Program, the Reuse Centers and Ability Tools AT Exchange.

Donate used medical equipment to reuse centers working with Ability Tools in San Jose

If you have equipment, you can call one of the centers listed below and work out how to donate your equipment to them.

These are reuse centers which will post the equipment on the AT Exchange and also look for people in need in the San Jose area who can use your donation.

Able People Foundation

The organization finds low income elderly, and individuals living with physical limitations, who are in need of medical equipment.

Items that the foundation is need of include –

• ambulatory devices: walkers
• manual wheelchairs in good condition
• rehab wheelchairs in good condition
• power wheelchairs with battery charger in working condition
• electric mobility scooters in good condition with battery charger
• transfer benches

To donate medical equipment you must go to their website here, where there is a quick form to fill out, and then submit it, so they may contact you.

Address:
552A Valley Way
Milpitas, CA 95035

Phone: 408 263 8000

Website: https://ablepeoplefoundation.org

Silicon Valley Independent Living Center (SVILC)

Here you can donate manual wheelchairs if they are less than 5 years old and in good condition.

Address:
25 N. 14th St. Suite 1000 (10th Floor)
San Jose, CA 95112

Phone: 408 894 9041 ext.204

Website: https://svilc.org

Donate used Medical equipment to Recycle Stuff

This is not part of the reuse coalition – the CATRC, and doesn’t just deal with used medical equipment.

The San Jose State University Center For Development Of Recycling runs the website runs the website Recycle Stuff along with the County of Santa Clara and the County of San Mateo.

On the website you can pick the category of medical equipment you wish to donate, and there will be a list of recyclers you can contact who will take the donation and place it with someone.

Website: https://www.recyclestuff.org/category/medical

Address:

San Jose State University
Center for Development of Recycling
One Washington Sq,
San Jose, CA 95192-0204

Phone: 800 533 8414

Donate used Medical equipment to Goodwill Stores in San Jose, California

Goodwill stores are run by a nonprofit organization, and give employment to people with disabilities, who may not otherwise be able to get employment.

Not all Goodwill stores and donation locations accept home medical equipment, so do call before take your medical equipment along.

Goodwill donation drop-off locations in Silicon Valley

Goodwill runs more than 35 donation sites across Santa Clara County and San Benito County.
To locate a site near you in San Jose, you can their locator here –

https://goodwillsv.org/donate-goods/?location

Donate used medical equipment to the Salvation Army in, San Jose, California

You can donate some home medical equipment to the Salvation Army, so long as it is in good condition.

To donate home medical equipment you will want to go to this page on their website and find  a drop-off location near you – https://satruck.org/

You will come to 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.

Donate used medical equipment to thrift stores in San Jose, California

Charity Cars for Kids Thrift Store

2725 Lafayette Street,

Santa Clara, CA 95050

Phone: 408 748 0081

____________

Savers Thrift Store

You can see photographs of  used medical equipment on the website for their stores, so you don’t need to worry about that. They are part of a chain of stores.

Address:

4950 Almaden Expy #20,

San Jose, CA 95118

Website: https://www.savers.com/

____________

Unicorn Thrift Shop

The website says to call before you take in a donation, to check that they are still taking the type of item you wish to donate.

Address:

1181 Redmond Ave,

San Jose, CA 95120

Phone: 408 997 9188

Website: https://unicornthriftshop.com/

Donating to Loan Closets which accept used medical equipment in the San Jose area

Avenidas Medical Equipment Loan Closet

Avenidas, previously known as the Senior Coordinating Council of Palo Alto, has a medical equipment loan closet for those who are ill or have an injury.

The loan closet says it has items such as –

• walkers
• shower chairs
• canes
• other equipment

The website page for the lending closet is here – https://www.avenidas.org/medical-equipment-loan-closet-now-open/

You can donate gently used medical equipment.

The program is part of the Health and Wellness Program.

To donate equipment, you can give them a call.

Address:

450 Bryant St,

Palo Alto, CA 94301

Website: https://www.avenidas.org/

Phone: 650 289 5400

____________

The Bridge Of Hope Foundation

(This is not really a community loan closet, the equipments is given to residents of the nursing home).

The Bridge Of Hope Foundation is a 200 bed nursing home, a non-profit organization that accepts charitable donations.

P.O. Box 576,

Soquel, CA 95073

Website: http://www.bridgeofhopefoundation.org

Donating used medical equipment to Senior Centers in the San Jose 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 San Jose area

You can usually find out about Veterans in need from The VA Services, or they will at least point you in the right direction to find someone who needs your equipment.

County of Santa Clara: Veterans Services Office

68 N Winchester Blvd,

Santa Clara, CA 95050

Phone: 408 918 4980

You may want to try some of the following as well, as they are treating veterans who may need equipment, and they are at the same location –

San Jose Veterans Affairs Clinic

5855 Silver Creek Vally Pl,

San Jose, CA 95138

Phone: 4o8 574 9100

San Jose Veterans Affairs Outpatient Clinic –

5855 Silver Creek Vally Pl,

San Jose, CA 95138

Phone: 408 363 3000

VA Outpatient Clinic

80 Great Oaks Blvd,

San Jose, CA 95119

Phone: 408 363 3000

Donate used medical equipment in San Jose using online listings

Online listings, and certain online social media platforms, are an easy way to offer your equipment for free, and to do it very close to home.

You can “create a posting” for very local areas, so you can make it easy to meet somewhere and drop off the item, without travelling.

A couple of points about pick-ups need to be made about using online listings –

1) The item you are offering is going to have to exchange hands somewhere, and I wouldn’t do that at your home.

This applies even more so if you are caring for an elderly, vulnerable person.

I would arrange the pickup at a coffee shop, a mall or somewhere else local, as you have no idea who may be picking stuff up, and the person may have other motives, so just be careful.

2) It is also a good idea, especially for women, to have another person go with them to the drop-off meeting to hand over the item.

3) You should create a throwaway email address for the online posting on Craigslist, as you can easily get inundated with spam in the email, want to ruin your regular private email for this.

Sites with listings where you can donate medical equipment –

• Craigslist.com
• Freecycle.org
• UsedHME.com
• Facebook Marketplace
• Nextdoor.com
• OfferUp.com
• Med-eq.org

Do be clear that when you post your listing, that the item you are giving away is done so “as is”, and that you accept no responsibility for any breakage or accidents when the new owner uses it.

Donate used medical equipment in San Jose, on Craigslist

Craigslist.com is an online listing where anyone can list an item for sale or for free, or buy and accept items.

It is a simple process, where you will create a listing of your item.

You are able to refine the area in which your listing can be seen, so you can reduce the distance to a minimum that you are going to travel to make the drop-off – you can even restrict it to certain neighborhoods in larger cities.

Craigslist is not a social media site, and as I said anyone can use it, so just be a little careful about giving out too much information, as there are a lot of creeps out there – users do not have a profile like they will have on Facebook or other sites, and you cannot check out who the person is you are meeting.

The site does have an enormous amount of listings and is everywhere.

As well as items for sale and free, it has a garage or yard sale section, if you are looking for anything yourself, and you can see what is going to be at the sales, by checking out the photographs that are posted – I know that that is not related to donating your equipment, but it is very useful if you want to get more stuff, or just go and drop the equipment off at a garage sale.

You can find my 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”

Donate used medical equipment in San Jose, on UsedHME.com

Used Home Medical Equipment is an online “free listing service where people can, buy, sell or donate.”

The service works by zip code, so that people near to you will be shown your listing, and you will be given the option of adding more zip codes around you to widen the catchment area, if you want to.

If you do this, remember to not give your main private email, it’s better to create a new one just for this to avoid you getting loads of spam mail.

The listing is dedicated to used home medical equipment and helps keep working equipment available for those who cannot afford expensive new items.

There is a lot of free equipment on the listings, and it also makes it easy for people who are looking for free items, like yours, to find them.

Do remember that if your item is not safe or in good working order, don’t give it away on this kind of listing, you would do better to give it to a local refurbishment center who can either fix it or use it for spare parts.

The transaction on this site is entirely between yourself and the person who wants the equipment, and the website does not come in between you.

You can find my illustrated guide on donating used home medical equipment on UsedHME.com here – “How To Donate Used Medical Equipment Near Me On UsedHME ? An illustrated Guide”

Donate used medical equipment in San Jose, on Freecycle.org

Freecycle.org is a very good option for those looking to find a new home for their no longer needed home medical equipment.

Freecycle.org says about itself –

“The Freecycle Network (TFN, or Freecycle) is a private, nonprofit organization registered in Arizona ….. TFN coordinates a worldwide network of “gifting” groups to divert reusable goods from landfills.”

I took this directly from Wikepedia.org, as it says it all.

This network is really about a shared philosophy of gifting and reusing, and stopping still usable items from going into landfill.

Unlike the online listings, you have to join to be able to offer your items, but it is free and simple enough to do.

You can check your area for groups before you join, and take a look at the other stuff that people in your area are offering.

You can visit the sight, find a group in your area, join the group, and then gift whatever you would like, keeping it in circulation for others to reuse.

As with the other sites, only give away equipment which is safe and in working order.

Do make sure that the person you are gifting it to understands that you accept no responsibility if there is a problem afterwards, they are accepting it “as is”, and that there is no guarantee for the item.

You can find my illustrated article on 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”

Donate used medical equipment in San Jose, on Facebook

It is relatively simple to donate items to people in your local area, and for those who are already Facebook users, it should be a piece of cake.

If you have a Facebook account, you’ll have two options –

• join local “buy and sell” groups
• place listed ads on the Facebook Marketplace

Many categories of items are sold and donated in “buy and sell” groups, and also on the Facebook Marketplace.

If you don’t have a Facebook account, you can join for free.

Don’t give away equipment which is in bad condition, unless it is for spares.

Remember to be careful in your dealings with strangers, and do make it clear, that the equipment is donated “as is” and comes with no guarantees, that you are not to be held responsible if the new owner has an accident using the item.

You can find my illustrated guide on how to donate used home medical equipment on Facebook, here – “How To Donate Used Medical Equipment Near Me On Facebook ? An Illustrated Guide”

Donate used medical equipment in San Jose, on Nextdoor.com

Nextdoor.com is a local community online platform, where you can do anything from get alerts about bear sightings in your neighborhood, traffic accidents, and  also buy, sell and giveaway stuff.

Businesses who are in your area will list their services and run ads, and you can check out what people thought of the work they did.

It is all done on a neighborhood level, so it is a great place to buy, sell or give away free items, very locally.

You have to be a member to do this, but it is free.

When you join, Nextdoor uses your address to put you in the right neighborhood, so it is a little more difficult than on other sites for fake identities.

Do not be lulled into a false sense of security, there are scammers and fraudsters on all platforms, and just because someone lives nearby does not mean they are a safer person to deal with.

As with the other sites, don’t give away equipment which is in a crappy condition.

Make sure that you specify that it is used, and that the item offered comes with no guarantees, and that you accept no responsibility if it breaks or the new user hurts themselves with it – it comes “as is”.

You can find my illustrated guide on how to donate used home medical equipment on Nextdoor.com, here –  “How To Donate Used Medical Equipment Near Me On Nextdoor ? An Illustrated Guide”

Donate used medical equipment in San Jose, on OfferUp

OfferUp is a “mobile first” platform, for selling and buying used goods – it is though present on desktop.

It has been designed to be very quick to use, but first you have to download the free app to your mobile.

You keep your listing as local as you want by setting the area that you want your listing to be shown in, and  items to pick-ups only.

Offerup bought the app Letgo and combined the two services.

I haven’t done an article on how to post a donation on OfferUp, because there is a very good video on the subject which you can see below.

Donate used medical equipment in San Jose 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 enter 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 San Jose

Most of the following places, if you have one in your neighborhood, should know of local groups or places which are in need of medical equipment –

• Your local Area Agency on Aging
• Social services office
• Local church communities
• Local town hall or chamber of commerce
• Local hospitals
• Emergency rooms
• Private clinics

I have listed some in San Jose below.

San Jose Area Agency on Aging

The agency in San Jose is the one for Santa Clara County which is –

Sourcewise

Adresses:

Main Office

3100 De La Cruz Blvd, Suite 310

Santa Clara, CA 95054

Phone: 408 350 3200

South County Office

16340 Monterey Rd,

Morgan Hill, CA 95037

Phone: 408 762 7362

Website: https://www.mysourcewise.com/

Santa Clara County Department of Aging and Adult Services (DAAS)

This is part of the Santa Clara County Social Services Department, and you will be able to get more information on where you can make donations of used medical equipment.

You can use the contact information below.

Address:

333West Julian Street,

San Jose, CA 95110

Phone: 408 755 7600

Website: https://socialservices.sccgov.org/about-us/department-aging-and-adult-services

The resource page for elder adults may also be very helpful to you –

https://socialservices.sccgov.org/about-us/department-aging-and-adult-services/resources-for-older-adults

Lions Clubs

The Lions have lots of charitable programs, some even running community loan closets for medical equipment.

Their locator tool will help you find clubs near you, where you can inquire if they have a loan closet, or can if they can point you in the direction of a club in your area which does.

I have an illustrated guide explaining how to very quickly find a Lions Club near you, which you can read here.

Rotary Clubs

As with the Lions, the Rotary organization runs lots of different programs through its clubs.

To locate a club near you and find out if clubs in your area are taking donations of used medical equipment, you can use their locator tool.

I have an illustrated guide on how to very quickly locate a Rotary Club near you, that you can read here.

The Catholic Charities of Santa Clara County

The Catholic Charities run and provide a wide range of services and programs to help individuals in need.

The organization have housing, food and health programs, and should know of loan closets and also individuals who are in need of help.

You can contact them and find out if they know where you can donate your equipment.

Their website is here –

https://www.catholiccharitiesscc.org/?locale=en

Society of St. Vincent de Paul Santa Clara County

Often the society has thrift stores, but they also provide many other services, and in Santa Clara the Council is now located in San Jose with over 750 volunteers.

You can contact them to get more ideas for donating your used medical equipment, even if they can’t take it, they will often have ideas of who will.

Their website is here –

https://www.svdp.org/about-us/

The Jewish Family Service of Silicon Valley

Quite a number of programs are run for older adults by the Jewish Family Service of Silicon Valley, and you can see those here on their website – https://www.jfssv.org/aging-with-dignity-services.html

Their programs have seniors who have need of the particular equipment that you wish to donate, so just give them a call.

Phone: 408 556 0600

Address:

Jewish Family Service of Silicon Valley

14855 Oka Rd, Suite 202,

Los Gatos

CA 95032

Tax deductions on donations

If you make a donation to a registered charity, keep the receipts  if you are hoping to get a tax deduction.

The IRS will require a receipt for the item.