Site facilitates donations to homeless shelters by letting consumers shop for a shelter

However much a consumer may want to help the homeless, the process of gathering and delivering a donation — not to mention making sure it’s something that’s actually needed — can sometimes feel prohibitive. Aiming to make that process easier than ever before, aptly named Easiest Give is a site that lets consumers shop online for any participating shelter and have much-needed goods delivered directly to the shelter’s door. Consumers begin by searching for shelters in their area. For each shelter that’s participating — for now, they’re mostly in Texas, Massachusetts, North Carolina and Oregon — they can then see what goods are currently needed there. Using Easiest Give, they can order the products of their choice off of that list, and Easiest Give will ship them directly to the shelter. Neither consumers nor shelters pay a fee for using Easiest Give. Rather, the for-profit company supports itself by buying products wholesale and then marking up its prices to the level of Target or Wal-Mart, it says. Easiest Give is currently focused on homeless shelters in the US, and it invites those not already participating to get involved. For other parts of the world, meanwhile, how about setting up something similar…? (Related: Method’s mobile laundry truck will facilitate clothing donations — Recycled parking meters collect donations for Montréal’s homeless — Newspaper jacket keeps homeless people warm.)