Donations to the Survival Center

The survival center is a non-profit organization, under section 501 3© of the Internal Revenue Code (our tax exempt number is 042-77-6526). Donors may deduct contributions of money, food, clothing or household items for tax purposes. We will accept donations throughout these hours as well. We have many contributors from the Franklin area community - See the list

Donate by Credit Card or Pay-Pal Now

Use our secure system to make a donation & to instantly print out a tax deductible receipt to file with you taxes.

Or .... Please mail monetary donations to:

Franklin Area Survival Center, 96 Fourth Street Turners Falls, MA 01376

Items For Pick-Up

The store can also accept donations of food for the pantry. If you have large items to donate, please call us to arrange a pick-up or drop off (to be sure that we can accept your item at that time). Our telephone number is 413-863-9549.

Guidelines for Thrift Store Donations

The Survival Center can always use donations of furniture, household items, and clothing for our thrift store. Please observe the following guidelines: We only accept donations during business hours. Please do not leave donations outside of the store during non-business hours. Please do not leave bags of clothing outside our doors--feral cats in the area cause us to lose the contents.

We are accepting working electronics (TV's, Stereos, etc). Televisions are tested and if not working will be refused. We accept donations of estates, close outs, etc. - Please contact Del to arrange pick up. Furniture should be in good condition (all drawers are functional, no missing knobs or shelves, no excessive scratches, cracks or breaks, or dents, etc).

Clothing should be free of rips, stains, holes, and be in good condition. They should not be faded or dirty. We do not have facilities to wash clothing at the Survival Center so please be sure that clothing is in Ready to Sell condition. Large items such as furniture (and large amounts of clothing) can be arranged to be picked up by our driver.

Please call the Survival Center at 413-863-9549 if you need to arrange a pickup. Our driver has the discretion of rejecting any items he feels are not acceptable for resale in our thrift store. Please call with any questions regarding donations to Del at 863-9549. Please remember our thrift store helps finance our food pantry and pay the bills.

Please No After Hour Dumping

We have had a few people dropping items off after hours. We appreciate your donations, but please do not leave them after hours. We have a problem with feral cats in the area. They spray the items and they are then useless to us and we have to pay to dispose of them. The higher costs of disposing of these items takes away from our food budget! Please, we have very needy people relying on us to provide them with food, so please bring your good, sellable, clean donations to us during our open hours. Illegal dumping has happened as well. Large items have been dropped off when we are closed. Most of the larger items are not sellable. They are dirty, ripped, water logged and smelly.

Our security cameras recently caught two women and a man in a mini-van leaving off a large couch in this condition. We had to pay to have it removed and the cost to do so was the equivalent of 270 pounds of food. A past board member who is now an employee took a snap shot of the offender off the security camera and placed it in the window. Many of our loyal neighbors and customers are not happy with the people who did this, and we agree with them.

Dumping is occurring at several other non-profits as well, and at businesses who have drop boxes to benefit the needy, the costs of removing the items is rising for them, too. We have our property posted asking people not to leave things after hours and for police to take notice. Please adhere to this policy. If costs to remove these items keep going up, I am afraid that we will have to raise prices in our thrift store to accommodate the costs and we do not want to have to do that with the economy the way it is. We have not raised our prices since May of 2006 accept for books and cards. So if you know someone, or if you are one who has dumped off these bad items, please stop doing it.

The Board of Directors thank you in advance for understanding about this. And we thank you for your support throughout the years.

A Special Thanks to Our Donors

The Franklin Area Survival Center's Board of Directors would like to thank the many wonderful community members who have donated to us on a regular basis during the past year (some on a regular basis for numerous years!). Without your continued contributions, whether it was monetary or food, we could not have continued to do the job that we do. We would also like to thank the following businesses and groups who have held food drives, donated produce and/or food items:

Aubuchon Hardware of Turners Falls
Barrs Farm, Diemond Egg Farm
Copper Angel Bakery
Nina Rossi Food Drive participants
BHS Ambulance
Antonio’s Pizza
Greenfield Center School Super Bowl Food Drive participants
Notion to Quilt
TFHS Alumni Food Drive
Union 28 Librarian Food Drive
Ladies Auxiliary of the Montague Elks
Pearl Rhodes Elementary School students/families and faculty
Town of Leverett Food Drive
Curves Food Drive
Hallmark Institute of Photography
YMCA-Greenfield Food Drive
Camp Kewanee
Nourse Farms
Bick House Farm
Bank of America-Turners Falls and Greenfield Branches
Christy Moore and the Recreation Department Camp Kids Food Drive
Fill the Belly Bus Food Drive community and business participants Community Action
Your Neighborhood Teens
Wormwood Festival Food Drive
Erving Elementary Kindergarten
Trader Joes-Hadley
Laurentitus Food Drive
Ciesluk Farms
Staff of Baystate Franklin Medical Center Food Drive
Gitards Farm
Northeast Foundation for Children Food Drive
Brownie Troop 295
Women of the Moose
Franklin County Tech School Students/Staff Food Drive
Franklin County Tech School Body Shop Students
Turners Falls High School Student Council
Great Falls Middle School
Sheffield School
Northfield Mount Hermon Library Food Drive
Farren Care Center Food Drive
Montague Elks and Ladies of the Montague Elks
Mill House residents
Heat Fab
Judd Wire
Center for Cultural Evolution
Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association
Peggy’s Beauty Shop
Cans Film Festival-Garden Theater
WHAI-AM/FM Radio Station
Greenfield Savings Bank
Northampton Savings Bank
St. Andrews Episcopal Church Turners Falls
First Congregational Church, S. Deerfield
Trinity Church of Shelburne Falls
First Congregational Church, Turners Falls
Trinity Women of Trinitarian Church, Northfield
Holy Name of Jesus Church, S. Deerfield
Second Congregational Church, Greenfield
First Congregational Church, Greenfield
United Church of Bernardston
Our Lady of Peace, Turners Falls
The Recorder Staff
Former Baptist Church; Greenfield
St. James Episcopal Church, Greenfield
YMCA Leader’s Group
First Church of Sunderland, Charlemont
Federated Church, Charlemont
Lions Club, Greenfield
DuMont, LLC, Greenfield
Rosenberg Committee, Amherst
AARP, Franklin County Chapter
Friends of Gill
Community Foundation of Western Massachusetts, Springfield (via Barker Family Trust)
Montague Ladies Benevolent Society, Montague
Greenfield Boy Scouts-Troops 5,10, and 16
Greenfield Cub Scouts, Packs 3 and 367
Greenfield High School Student Council
Greenfield Interfaith Youth Group
Girl Scout Troop 40050, Conway MA
Brookside Animal Hospital S. Deerfield
Elm Terrace Community Group
Millhouse Tenants Association, Greenfield
Greenfield Hi-Risers.

I would like to extend a very special thank you to an anonymous donator who has donated a large allotment of food every other week for the past few years. This individual donated 15, 814 pounds of food in 2009 and continues to support us this year. Words cannot express how much our clients have benefited from your continued support.