Donate a Gift

The Connection's laundry washes people's clothes, so they can keep items which are special to them in clean condition

Thank you very much for thinking of The Connection for your gift donation. Covid-19 has presented challenges to accepting gifts in kind therefore we are limiting the amount of donations we are able to accept.

As part of our response to COVID-19 we’ve had to adapt our centre and minimise access of non-essential staff. Therefore we are extremely limited on the capacity to receive any Gifts-in-Kind donations. Please do not donate anything not on the list as it wastes time and resources having to dispose of items that we cannot use!

You can help people rough sleeping by donating NEW or decent quality items that they really want and need from the lists below. You can find out more here about how to raise money from pre-loved items through Ziffit and have the funds donated to us here.

Ideally have the gifts delivered to us addressed to: Donation, Paul Waite, The Connection, 12 Adelaide St, London, WC2N 4HW. If you are bringing them on site you must let us know first so please arrange this through paul.waite@cstm.org.uk and copy fundraising@cstm.org.uk.

The most useful items are retail vouchers as we can easily store them and people can make their own choices about their purchases. Please use the email address fundraising@Cstm.org.uk when purchasing an e-gift card or our Adelaide St address if sending physical cards.

The best vouchers are: Primark, Boots, Tesco, Argos, Waterstones.

Urgently needed

  • Mini Toiletries, such as: toothpaste, Shower gel, Shampoo, Body lotion
  • Razors
  • Toothbrushes
  • Luggage, such as: rucksacks, suitcases
  • Tech, such as: laptops, tablets, headphones, phone chargers, mobile phones

    • Individual items all year round

  • MP3 players, radios and headphones
  • Aftershave
  • Leather belts and watches
  • Socks, gloves, hats and scarves
  • Roughly 85% of people we see are men. We need Men’s and Women’s jumpers and jackets: sizes M, L & XL (sports-wear preferable, not too garish please)
    • Men’s and Women’s sports and casual wear: tracksuits, jeans, T-shirts, trainers (sizes 6-12), baseball caps.

  • LYNX for men, and mini toiletries
  • Activity Books, i.e. crosswords, puzzles
  • Rucksacks
  • Mobile Phones

    • We also have an Amazon Wish List with items we ask for all year round Amazon Wish List.

    We are also continuing to distribute food to clients, we will now only be accepting bulk food donations, and items to help with distribution. We are currently accepting UNOPENED packets of the following:

  • Tea/coffee
  • Sugar
  • Crisps
  • Biscuits/cereal bars
  • Chocolate
  • Pasta
  • Cereal
  • Tinned Tuna
  • Tinned Chickpeas

    • If you are a catering or hospitality business or wholesaler and would like to donate bulk stock or meals, please get in touch with ben.benton@cstm.org.uk

    Thank you for continuing to support The Connection, and for making a difference to people who are rough sleeping this Christmas

    If you have other items to donate that are not on the list above, there are many other charities that are also helping homeless people – you could donate to:
    Crisis
    Shelter
    St Mungo’s
    Salvation Army

    If we receive items which our clients cannot use, or our storage facilities become too full, we may sell donations in order to raise money for the centre. If items do not sell, we will recycle these or donate them to one of the charities named above.