Material Donations

Your surplus materials and supplies can make a difference!

Items that you’ve been discarding or recycling can become fascinating learning tools. With some imagination, your odds and ends can be incredibly useful.

Donating materials to RAFT benefits the education community, the environment, and your business.

  • Reduce the financial burden on local teachers and students by providing them with low-cost supplies and hands-on learning activities.

  • Help preserve our environment by contributing your reusable "waste" to RAFT, diverting it from landfills.

  • All materials donated to RAFT can be written off as a charitable contribution as allowed by law.

Request a Pick-Up

We offer free pick-ups of donated materials from Bay Area businesses of about 20 banker-sized boxes of materials. We may be able to schedule pick-ups of smaller quantities of donations.

Corporate/business donation pick-up hours are Monday through Friday, 9am-3pm. To request a pick-up, fill out the forms below.

At this time, we are unable to accept household donations. Please check back soon for any changes.

Items We Accept  

Materials must be new, in clean condition, and suitable for student use. Bulk quantities are preferred.

  • Old inventory and returned product
  • Manufacturing overruns and misprints
  • Swatches, samples, and end pieces
  • Functioning electronics
  • School/office supplies and furniture: Pens, pencils, erasers, highlighters, markers, paper and binder clips, staples and staplers, tape dispensers, adhesive tape, rubber bands, file folders, office organizers, calculators, hole punches, file cabinets, desks, office chairs
  • Arts and crafts supplies: Stretched canvases, colored cellophane, drawing materials, framing materials (matt board, frames), scrapbooking supplies, stickers
  • Manufacturing/packaging materials: Collapsible boxes, decorative gift boxes, end cuts and punch outs from manufacturing, foam pieces, mailers, misses or overruns
  • Science and lab equipment: Beakers, flasks, test tubes, funnels, Petri dishes, pipettes, tips and trays, vials, gloves. All items must be new and unused.
  • Promotional items/company swag: Corporate branded bags, mugs, caps, t-shirts, polo shirts, trade show gifts
  • Paper: Cardboard tubes, packaged cardstock and colored paper, packaged copy paper, foam core board, envelopes, poster board, cash register tape, paper or canvas bags, tissue paper
  • Holiday and party supplies: Balloons, seasonal party supplies, holiday decorations
  • Textiles: Carpet squares, large fabric pieces, sample books, string, yarn
  • Kitchen supplies: Coffee stirrers, food trays, drinking cups, strawberry baskets, plastic bottles, straws. All items must be new and unused.
  • Specialty items: Foil printing paper, corks, rubber goods, beads, dowels, scrap wood, plastic containers, film canisters with lids
  • Anything a teacher or classroom can use

All donations must be approved by RAFT prior to acceptance.

Items We Do Not Accept  

  • Soiled, hazardous, contaminated, or broken items
  • Containers that once held food or chemicals such as soap, bleach, or petroleum products
  • Sharp items, such as needles or metal/glass fragments
  • Teaching manuals, guidebooks, or lesson plans
  • Household items, such as clothes, infant items, or appliances
  • Household items, such as clothes, infant items, or appliances
  • Styrofoam, newspapers, pinecones, bark, or animal items

We reserve the right to refuse donations that may have been approved due to item condition and/or space constraints.

At this time, we are unable to accept household donations. Please check back soon for any changes.

Material Donations Form


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    Your Support Helps Educators

    We provide recycled and low-cost STEAM learning materials, makerspace support, and professional development workshops for over 8,000 educators and their 150,000 students in the Bay Area and nationwide.