Donate

FOPAL’S Popular Monthly Sales

Depend On Your Generous Donations!

Please Bring Us Your Books, DVDs, Games, Puzzles, and Software

At our monthly book sales, Friends of the Palo Alto Library finds new readers/users for your donated items and contributes net proceeds to purchase new materials, technology, and furniture for the Palo Alto libraries. During 2000-2018, FOPAL contributed over $3 million!

ITEMS WE ARE TEMPORARILY NOT ACCEPTING:

Art (framed or unframed or frames)
Electronics
Commercial Ephemera: posters, travel brochures, greeting and blank cards
Plushies/Stuffed Animals
Records (45s, 78s, LPs)
Commercially recorded Music CDs
Commercially recorded video tapes (VHS/Betamax)

FOPAL gladly accepts:

Fiction and nonfiction books
Textbooks and computer books
Commercially recorded items: audio books on CDs or cassettes, movies on DVD, Blu-ray
Software and manuals
Printed Ephemera: black and white photos and all handwritten items (journals, letters, diaries, envelopes with stamps, postcards, historical and unusual material)
Maps (folded or rolled) except AAA maps of the United States
Puzzles, games, and toys
Sheet music

Sorry, we cannot take:

Soiled, moldy, water damaged, or partial books (General Guideline: if you would not give it to a friend, please don’t give it to the Friends!)
Magazines or newspapers
Reader’s Digest condensed books
Encyclopedias
Photo albums
Small collectibles (figurines, bookends, souvenirs, etc.)
Linens
Clothing
Sports equipment
Home copied/burned or non-commercially recorded audio-visual materials
Legal statutes or codes
Large ephemera such as furniture, lamps, suitcases, etc.
American Automobile Association maps of the United States

Drop-off Location/Hours:

Beginning Monday, June 14th 2021, FOPAL will be opening up for drop-off donations no appointment needed. Anyone who wants to donate can drop by Monday-Saturday 3-5pm at our Main Room to deliver items!

Due to facility maintenance and repairs at Cubberley Community Center (and the recent generosity of our donors) we are having to suspend donations for Wednesday July 20 through Friday July 22. We’ll be open on Saturday July 23.

FOPAL is pausing donations the 2nd week of each month as we prepare for the monthly sale. For August 2022 NO donations will be accepted Sunday August 7 through Sunday August 14.

If you have a large donation (more than six bags or boxes), please call Janette Herceg, FOPAL Volunteer & Sales Manager at (650) 494-1266 to make an appointment for delivery of a large donation.

Pickup Donations

We do pick up some donations. Our pickup team is volunteers driving their own trucks, minivans, and cars, and their availability and effort are limited. We pick up from Palo Alto, East Palo Alto, Menlo Park, Stanford, Atherton, Woodside, and Mountain View. You need to have at least seven boxes for us to pick up, and they need to be of manageable size and weight, like 10″ x 12″ x 15″ banker/file boxes or copier paper boxes. We have flattened empty banker/file boxes available for you, just ask! We need to have places to park our vehicles for loading, and a clear path that doesn’t involve a lot of stairs or other obstructions. We also need at least a week to schedule a pickup, and no pickups will be scheduled in the week before our monthly sale or on the days of our monthly sale (second Saturday of the month and the following Sunday). If you can meet those requirements, call (650) 308-8469 and leave a message for our pickup team. They will get back to you to schedule a pickup.

Your donations are tax-deductible. Be sure to ask for a receipt.