Donate
Buy someone a year of Thursdays.
We take no government contracts that would let a bureaucrat decide who deserves a visit. That means this work runs on people like you — and it means we can say yes on the first phone call.
Make a gift
Choose an amount to see what it does.
Love The Elderly is a registered 501(c)(3). Gifts are tax-deductible to the fullest extent allowed by law. EIN 00-0000000.
Where it goes
Costed honestly, to the dollar.
These are our real unit costs, recalculated every quarter and published in the annual report. Nothing here is rounded up for effect.
| Your gift | What it pays for |
|---|---|
| $25 | A week of hot meals, hand-delivered |
| $50 | A month of daily wellness calls |
| $100 | Four door-through-door rides to appointments |
| $250 | Grab bars and better lighting in one bathroom |
| $310 | Recruiting, screening and training one volunteer |
| $500 | A full year of weekly friendly visits for one person |
| $6,000 | One meal route — nine households, four nights a week, one year |
| $12,000 | Every programme, for every older adult on one block |
to programmes
administration
fundraising
The Thursday Club
Monthly giving is what makes a promise possible.
When we tell an 84-year-old that someone will come every Thursday, we are making a commitment that outlasts any single donation. Recurring gifts are what let us make it honestly.
Thursday Club members get a short note each quarter about the neighbourhood their giving supports, an invitation to the summer porch project, and nothing else. We will not call you at dinner.
$25 a month
A year of daily wellness calls, plus the weekend meal bag.
$50 a month
Keeps one neighbour visited, fed and driven for a full year.
$100 a month
Funds a Home Safety Squad Saturday every single month.
$250 a month
Underwrites an entire meal route, nine households, all year.
I set up twenty-five dollars a month after my father died in a hospital forty miles from anyone who knew him. It is not enough and I know it. But every month it goes out and I think about him, and somebody in Detroit gets a phone call.
Other ways to give
Not every gift is a card payment.
Several of these are more valuable to us — and more tax-efficient for you — than a straightforward donation.
Donor-advised fund
Recommend a grant through your DAF sponsor. We are searchable by our EIN, and DAF gifts reach us with no processing fee at all.
Stock & securities
Giving appreciated stock directly avoids capital gains tax and lets you deduct the full market value. Email us for transfer instructions.
IRA charitable distribution
If you are 70½ or older, a qualified charitable distribution counts toward your required minimum distribution without being taxed as income.
Employer matching
Thousands of employers match charitable gifts dollar for dollar, and most matches go unclaimed. Ask your HR team — it takes one form.
Tribute & memorial gifts
Give in honour of a parent, a birthday, or someone recently lost. We will send a handwritten card to whomever you name, with no amount mentioned.
A gift in your will
A bequest of any size joins the Alvin Pruitt Legacy Circle. Our development team will talk it through with you and your attorney, with no pressure.
Workplace giving
We can be designated through most payroll giving and United Way campaigns. Bring us your campaign code and we will do the paperwork.
In-kind donations
Tablets, grab bars, insulated meal carriers, stamps, gas cards. The current wish list is kept up to date on the Get Involved page.
Vehicle donation
A reliable van or estate car goes straight into the meal and ride rotation. Anything we cannot use, we sell and put the proceeds into fuel.
Give by cheque or by phone
Prefer not to give online? Perfectly reasonable.
A good number of our donors have never used a card online in their lives, and we are not about to make that a barrier.
By post
Make cheques payable to Love The Elderly and send to:
Love The Elderly1500 Woodward Avenue, Suite 210
Detroit, MI 48226
By phone
Call our development office and we will take a gift over the phone or answer anything you would rather ask a person.
We will never call you asking for card details. If someone claiming to be from Love The Elderly telephones and asks for your card, bank or Social Security number, please hang up and ring us on the number above.
Questions donors ask
Yes. Love The Elderly is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organisation, EIN 00-0000000. You will receive a written acknowledgement for every gift, and a consolidated statement each January for your tax return.
You can restrict a gift to a specific programme or a specific city, and we will honour it exactly. In practice we would gently encourage unrestricted giving: it is what lets us move quickly when a heat advisory lands or a neighbourhood suddenly loses its meal route.
Never. We do not sell, rent, swap or lend donor information to anyone, for any reason, including other nonprofits. You can ask to be removed from all mailings at any time and it takes effect the same day.
Email give@lovetheelderly.com or call the office. No forms, no retention script, no questions beyond making sure we have got it right. Circumstances change and we would far rather you came back later than felt trapped now.
Yes, all of them. Our audited financials, IRS Form 990 and quarterly budget are published on the impact page. If something in them is unclear, our finance team will walk you through it line by line.
Thank you. Genuinely.
Every dollar on this page turns into a knock on a door, a hot plate, a ride home, a light that works. That is the whole business model.