Do I need a permit to collect donations for charitable causes?

In many states you need a "permit" if you're representing yourself as "soliciting for charity." They just want to prevent people from falsely claiming to be doing good when they're really keeping it all for themselves. You may also want a charitable tax exemption if your "gross income" from donations is more than a few hundred dollars per year.

It's not that hard to get a "charitable tax-exemption", meaning you don't pay any income taxes on things you receive and that the donors may take a tax deduction for the value of gifts they give you. It's a lot of paperwork, but much easier if you take care of it at the beginning.

You may need to incorporate a non-profit association or corporation in your state, register with state charitable trust officials and then file for the IRS tax exemption and charitable status. There are websites, manuals and lots of people out there to help you do things like this.

If you want the donations to be tax deductible for the people donating you will have to go through a approval for 501C(3) tax status. You would find it very hard, trust me.

But if you want to get toys and school supplies and take them to poor kids without concern for tax issues then no authorization is required.