Since the cost of living is getting more expensive these days, people are looking for ways to make extra money.
Some take on side hustles to make extra money. Some might take a job through a staffing agency, which typically offers work that pays weekly. (As of this writing, I even had to reach out to my previous staffing agency to supplement my writing income and am now working an office job involving typing decline letters.)
Others might look around their home and say, “Hmm, what can I donate to make money?”
Donating something doesn’t only earn you money; it brings other perks like:
- A cleaner, roomier home – If you can’t take two steps without tripping over something in your house or apartment, it’s likely time to get rid of whatever’s been blocking your walkway.
- Providing an object to someone who needs it more than you do – Many used items are practically a steal at marketplaces, so you’re granting someone a bargain deal if they decide to buy one or more of your donated possessions.
- Saving the environment – By giving away your stuff, you’re decreasing the amount of waste in landfills.
- An easier move – If you’re moving soon, you have to make it easier on yourself to pack and transport essentials and treasure items to your new home, and donating some unneeded items is one way to do that.
And I’m not only going to focus on items you might find lying around in your home; you can also earn money donating body parts to save or enrich someone’s life.
Read on to learn about things you can give away in exchange for money.
Table of Contents
Body Parts/Fluids You Can Donate for Money
Below are body parts and fluids you can give to patients and get paid for it, too.
1. Plasma
- Potential Earning: $20 to $50+ per donation
- Payment Method: Check, Prepaid Debit Card, Gift Cards, Cash
Donating plasma helps treat/cure patients with chronic medical conditions or who suffered serious injuries.
Plasma is a yellowish substance separated from the blood and transports enzymes, white blood, and red blood cells throughout the body.
The plasma collection process takes an hour or two to complete, and many centers allow you to donate twice a week.
To qualify, you need to be healthy, 18+, and weigh 110+ pounds.
Here are links to two well-known high paying plasma donation centers to help you get started: Octapharma and Grifols.
You can also search for the nearest facility near you through your favorite engine if there isn’t an Octapharma or Grifols location in your city.
2. Breast Milk
- Potential Earning: $1 to $5 per ounce
- Payment Method: Direct deposit; Escrow
Lactating mom or surrogate?
Assist other moms and babies by donating your breast milk!
You see, some moms have trouble producing breast milk due to giving birth to premature babies.
By donating breast milk, you’re helping to protect fragile infants from contracting diseases.
Before receiving payment, you have to undergo medical procedures like blood draws and DNA testing as well as take the temperature of your freezer to make sure it’s cold enough to freeze your milk prior to shipping it.
Fill out an application through the Tiny Treasures Milk Bank website or go to ConceiveAbilities.com if you’re interested in surrogacy. (ConceiveAbilities will pay you $350/week for supplying breast milk.)
3. Blood
- Potential Earning: Varies
- Payment Method: Varies; merchandise, gift cards
Most facilities don’t pay people to give blood, but I know about a couple of centers offering compensation for blood donations.
The first is Carter BloodCare, which has 25 locations across Central and North Texas.
It accepts prospective donors who are in general good health, weigh 110 or more pounds, and are at least 16 years of age. (Here’s a consent form you have to give to a parent or guardian to sign if you’re 16 years old.)
Once you make your first donation, Carter BloodCare will enroll you into its Dedicated Donor Rewards Program, which allows you to earn points for subsequent donations that you can exchange for merchandise and e-gift cards.
The second facility is Biological Specialty Company, a donation center with eight locations throughout Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, California, and Tennessee. (While it offers compensation, it doesn’t state how much it pays or the payment method(s) used, so you’ll need to call 833-GO-4-Cure for information.)
4. Hair
- Potential Earning: $100 to $1,000
- Payment Method: Varies
Consider donating your mane for money if you have long locks of hair.
Companies that buy human hair use it to make wigs, toupees, extensions, and other hairpieces for patrons like senior citizens, cancer patients, and those purchasing them for other reasons.
They typically accept hair at least five inches long, undamaged, and sent as a braid or ponytail.
HairSellon and BuyandSellHair are online marketplaces that buy and sell hair worldwide.
5. Sperm
- Potential Earning: $100 per donation
- Payment Method: Check; Direct Deposit; Gift cards
Are you a man between 18 and 39?
You can make money donating your sperm to help singles/couples start families.
All you have to do is produce a semen sample, go through medical exams and screenings, and upon approval, produce more semen in a private collection room before receiving payment.
Visit the Fairfax Cryobank Sperm Donor Program or California Cryobank websites to apply.
6. Bone Marrow
- Potential Earning: $250+ per donation; May cover lost wages or other expenses
- Payment Method: Debit Card; Check
Donating bone marrow aids people battling leukemia and other related diseases.
You can donate it in two ways: via PBSC (peripheral blood stem cell) collection through an IV in your arm or bone marrow harvest, where your bone marrow is removed from behind your pelvic bones.
That said, you can’t depend on this option as a regular source of income since you could be on a donation registry for months or years before a match is found.
If you don’t mind waiting long, you can start by registering through DKMS or Be The Match.
7. Eggs
- Potential Earning: $4,000 to $5,000+ per cycle
- Payment Method: Check; Escrow
If you’re a woman between 18 and 35, you can help individuals and couples create families (and make a pretty penny) by donating your eggs.
Though you earn thousands of dollars per cycle, you have to be willing to attend numerous medical appointments, inject fertility medications, and undergo the egg retrieval process.
Check out MyEggBank or Egg Donor America for more information and begin the application process.
8. Stool
- Potential Earning: $25 to $500+ per specimen
- Payment Method: Reloadable card; Check; Zelle; PayPal
Payment for poo?
Yep, that’s true.
Stool is one of the weirdest things you can donate for money, but they’re essential for researchers to find treatments for chronic diseases and fecal microbiota transplants (FMT).
While donating poop seems like a simple money-maker, there’s a catch.
For example, Human Microbes accepts candidates under 30, including minors, as long as they get permission from a parent or guardian. (Plus, only 0.1 percent of candidates possess the required health markers.)
GoodNature accepts applicants between 18 and 50.
You also have to possess a healthy weight, be an individual with no history of gastrointestinal disease, and be a non-smoker.
If you’re local to Tustin or Irvine, California, apply through GoodNature. (Human Microbes accepts prospective donors worldwide.)
Things You can Donate for Money
When you find yourself saying, “What can I donate to make money,” start by looking around your garage, attic, basement, closet, or anywhere else in your home.
9. Clothing
- Potential Earning: Varies
- Payment Method: Cash; PayPal; Stripe; Store credit
Have gently used Gap, Old Navy, or other brand-name clothes lying around?
Bring them to your nearest Plato’s Closet, and you’ll receive cash as long as your items don’t have excessive wear or stains.
No Plato’s Closet in your town?
Then consider ThredUP, which will give you a clothes kit to pack your clothes and ship them via USPS or FedEx.
If accepted, you’ll receive your pay via store credit, PayPal, or Stripe. (Consult this selling guide before shipping your apparel.)
10. Gold/Silver Jewelry
- Potential Earning: Varies
- Payment Method: Varies
Your gold/silver necklace, bracelet, or ring (assuming you have these things) could be worth more than you think.
Take them to your local pawn shop, jewelry store, or use an online service like Cash for Gold USA to see how much you can get for your trinket(s).
11. Checkbooks/Debit Cards
- Potential Earning: Up to $25 per checkbook or debit card
- Payment Method: Cash
Some banks buy back unused checkbooks and debit cards you might have from other banks when you open a new checking account. (What an easy way to earn cash while providing a place to store it.)
12. Bottles/Cans
- Potential Earning: $0.02 to $0.15 per container
- Payment Method: Cash
Gather empty drink cans or bottles from your recycle bin and donate them to your local recycling center.
However, you can only make money with this method if you live in the following states or territories with a beverage container deposit law. (And it’s illegal to travel to another state to redeem bottles/cans for cash.):
- California
- Connecticut
- Guam
- Hawaii
- Iowa
- Maine
- Massachusetts
- Michigan
- New York
- Oregon
- Vermont
13. Cars
- Potential Earning: Varies
- Payment Method: Varies
If you possess an old (or new) car you don’t want anymore, give it away and get some money in return.
Take it to your local auto shop or contact a place like CarBrain to receive a quote.
14. Electronics
- Potential Earning: Varies
- Payment Method: Check, Cash, PayPal
Donating a gently used laptop, phone, or other gadget benefits you monetarily and helps protect the environment by decreasing the amount of trash in landfills.
You can locate an eco-ATM by entering your city or zip code through the ecoATM website.
If there isn’t an eco-ATM in your town or city, visit Gadget Salvation to find a quote for your gadget. (I highly recommend this site because I’ve been its customer for a few years.)
15. Motorcycles
- Potential Earning: Varies
- Payment Method: Varies
Have a Harley or other kind of bike you want to remove from your garage?
Then trade your motorcycle for money at your local dealer or have someone from Sell Us Your Bike pick it up and pay you after agreeing on an offer.
16. CDs/DVDs/VHS
- Potential Earning: Varies
- Payment Method: Cash
Due to the ubiquity of streaming platforms like Amazon Prime Video, Spotify, and Netflix, hardly anyone uses video tapes/DVDs or listens to CDs these days.
Nevertheless, some fans still collect them for nostalgic purposes or to have them on hand in case they can’t find a digital version online.
If you have any old CDs, VHS tapes, or DVDs you haven’t played for years, bring them to your local pawn shop to earn cash and help a potential customer grow their physical media collection.
17. Textbooks
- Potential Earning: Varies
- Payment Method: Cash
Are you a college student dropping a course or finishing it for the semester?
Go to your school’s bookstore and exchange it for a fraction of its original price.
Donating Things for Money FAQ
Read the Q&A below to learn more about cashing in on donating stuff.
What can you donate medically for money?
Some fluids or body parts you can donate for compensation include eggs, sperm, fecal matter, plasma, breast milk, hair, and blood.
Since you can donate stool for money, can you do the same for urine?
Technically, yes, but I wouldn’t recommend it, and not because of the gross factor.
Many people sell urine to aid others in cheating drug tests.
In some states — such as South Carolina — selling urine is illegal for this reason alone.
Therefore, if you want to sell something, make sure it doesn’t involve shielding someone from the consequences of their actions or risking jail time for you.
Are there other things I can donate for money?
Sure; you can donate antique furniture and golf clubs you might have in your possession.
You can even donate your time by completing paid surveys on sites like InboxDollars and Survey Junkie.
Is it possible to make a business or side hustle from donating stuff or body parts/fluids?
Yes, it is.
It’s possible to donate all of the listed fluids/body parts as much or as little as you want, providing you meet facility qualifications. (Some facilities may impose donation limits, though.)
If you want to make a side income/business out of donating objects like clothes or physical media, you can buy cheap ones and resell them through platforms like eBay or your own site, aka flipping.
Turning Clutter into Cash: Donate Items and Make Money Today!
When money’s at stake, it’s not always feasible for someone to get a second job to supplement their income.
So it’s great that you can give up a valuable object (or a part of your body) for cash to aid someone medically or purchase something at a fraction of its original price.
Next time you ask yourself, “What can I donate for money?” begin by searching your apartment or house for any of the items I listed or apply to your nearest medical facility to donate plasma, blood, or anything else that patients desperately need.
