Does Animal Humane Thrift Shop in Albuquerque accept book donations?

Generally yes, though final acceptance is determined by on-site staff at the time of drop-off based on resale potential. The Animal Humane New Mexico Thrift Shop at 5341 Menaul Blvd NE accepts donations of gently used household goods including books, with the explicit exception list (mattresses, sofa sleepers, box-style TVs, printers, metal desks, broken or damaged items, and building or construction materials). Per their published policy, unsaleable items may not be accepted; that determination is made by staff on-site. Books in clean, resellable condition are generally welcomed because they sell well on the thrift floor; books that are water-damaged, moldy, broken-spine, ex-library with prominent stamps, or otherwise compromised will likely be declined. Drop-off hours are Monday-Saturday 10am-5pm and Sunday 11am-5pm. Donations may be tax-deductible since Animal Humane New Mexico is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit (EIN 85-0207652). NMLP accepts books in any condition without staff-discretion intake rejection.

Does Animal Humane Thrift pick up donations?

They offer a large-item pickup service through a partnership with PickUpMyDonation.com, structured primarily for furniture, large appliances, and bulk household items at the donor's home. Books alone are unlikely to qualify under their large-item pickup criteria — the program is built around the operational reality that picking up small donations (a single bag of clothes, a few boxes of books) is not cost-effective for a thrift store using a third-party hauling partner. Donors with a single-purpose book donation should plan to drop off at the store directly, mail to a national channel, or contact NMLP for free book-specific pickup. Donors with mixed donations that include large items (couch + several boxes of books + housewares) can request a pickup through the PickUpMyDonation.com partner program and add the books to the haul.

Is donation to Animal Humane Thrift tax-deductible?

Yes. The Animal Humane New Mexico Thrift Shop is operated by Animal Humane New Mexico, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization with EIN 85-0207652 (verifiable at the IRS Exempt Organizations Search at apps.irs.gov/app/eos). Donations of goods to a 501(c)(3) charity are generally tax-deductible to the extent allowed by IRS Publication 526; the donor is responsible for assigning fair market value to the donated items and obtaining a receipt at the time of drop-off if itemized deductions are being claimed. NMLP is a for-profit business; NMLP donations are not tax-deductible. For donors who specifically need a tax-deductible receipt, Animal Humane Thrift is one of the documented 501(c)(3) channels for Albuquerque book donations alongside Goodwill of New Mexico, the Friends of the Albuquerque Public Library Bookshop, Salvation Army Family Thrift Stores, and arc Thrift Store.

What does Animal Humane New Mexico do with thrift shop revenue?

Net proceeds from the Animal Humane Thrift Shop fund Animal Humane New Mexico's animal welfare operations across the Albuquerque area. The parent organization operates a veterinary clinic, spay-neuter and trap-neuter-return programs, a pet food pantry for low-income pet owners, vaccine and microchip clinics, lost-and-found pet services, behavior support including a behavior helpline, pet surrender intake, end-of-life decision support, education programming including Camp Humane and classroom presentations, and the Project Fetch program. The main campus is at 615 Virginia St SE in Albuquerque (87108), open Tuesday-Sunday 10am-6pm (closed Mondays), with no adoptions started after 5:30pm. The thrift shop is a primary unrestricted revenue source supporting all of these programs.

How does Animal Humane Thrift compare to other ABQ 501(c)(3) thrifts that take books?

Animal Humane Thrift is one of several 501(c)(3) thrift stores in Albuquerque that accept books. Goodwill of New Mexico funds workforce development; Salvation Army Family Thrift Stores fund the Salvation Army's adult rehabilitation centers, emergency services, food assistance, and church-affiliated programs; arc Thrift Stores fund programs for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities; Friends of the Albuquerque Public Library Bookshop funds the Albuquerque Public Library system; and Animal Humane Thrift funds animal welfare. All five issue 501(c)(3) tax-deductible receipts at intake. The donor's choice between them is primarily a mission-alignment decision — animal welfare vs library system vs workforce development vs disability services vs church-affiliated services. NMLP differs structurally from all of them: free pickup, any condition, statewide, but for-profit so no tax receipt.

Animal Humane Thrift vs NMLP for book donation in Albuquerque

By Josh Eldred, owner-operator, NMLP · Published May 17, 2026 · ~2,700 words

The fast comparison: Animal Humane Thrift at 5341 Menaul Blvd NE is a 501(c)(3) thrift store funding pet rescue and veterinary care across Albuquerque. They accept books in resellable condition at drop-off (no individual book pickup), and they issue tax-deductible receipts. NMLP picks up any condition free, but is for-profit (no tax receipt).

If you have clean current books, want a tax receipt, and care about animal welfare specifically — Animal Humane Thrift is a strong match. If you have mixed-condition volume, an estate cleanout, or need pickup — call NMLP at 702-496-4214. Both donors win when each picks the channel that fits their books.

What Animal Humane Thrift is, exactly

The Animal Humane New Mexico Thrift Shop is located at 5341 Menaul Blvd NE in the Daskalos Shopping Center, Albuquerque, NM 87110. Phone (505) 938-7915. The shop operates as a fundraising arm of Animal Humane New Mexico, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization with EIN 85-0207652. The parent organization's main campus is at 615 Virginia St SE in Albuquerque (87108).

Animal Humane New Mexico is a substantial animal welfare operation. Their programs include a full veterinary clinic, spay-neuter and trap-neuter-return services, a pet food pantry for low-income pet owners, vaccine and microchip clinics including Pet Health Fairs and Companion Care Clinics, lost-and-found pet services, behavior support (including a behavior helpline and Train Humane classes), multiple pet-surrender pathways (including an end-of-life decision support service), adoption services, education programming (Camp Humane summer programs, Learn Humane classroom presentations, presentations and educational booths, facility tours), and the Project Fetch outreach program. The thrift shop is a primary unrestricted revenue source supporting all of those programs.

The thrift shop's hours are Monday through Saturday 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM for shopping, Sunday 11:00 AM to 6:00 PM for shopping. Donation drop-off hours are slightly tighter: Monday through Saturday 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM, Sunday 11:00 AM to 5:00 PM. The shop is widely well-reviewed in the Albuquerque thrift community for organization, cleanliness, and the curation work the staff does on incoming inventory.

What Animal Humane Thrift accepts (and doesn't)

Animal Humane's published donation policy: they accept gently used household items, clothing, furniture in good condition, books, kitchenware, decorative items, art, and similar resellable goods. The published can't-accept list is short but specific:

Mattresses
Sofa sleepers (sleeper sofas)
Box-style TVs (CRT televisions)
Printers
Metal desks
Broken or damaged items
Building or construction materials

Books are not on the can't-accept list, which means they're accepted in principle. The crucial qualifier from the donor policy: “unsaleable items may not be accepted and this determination will be made by Animal Humane's staff on-site at the time of donation.” So the practical floor for book donations is on-site staff discretion. Books in clean, current, resellable condition (mass-market fiction, recent nonfiction, current cookbooks, kids' books, gift books, holiday books) will essentially always be accepted. Books in poor condition (water-damaged, moldy, broken-spine paperbacks, encyclopedias, outdated reference, smoke-damaged) may be declined at the intake door.

This is the same intake floor used by every thrift store with a resale model — the staff's job is to keep saleable inventory flowing through and to avoid having to triage and dispose of unsaleable donations after the fact. It's a reasonable policy, and it's why a parallel channel like NMLP that accepts any condition is operationally useful in the Albuquerque ecosystem.

The pickup question

Animal Humane Thrift does offer pickup — through a partnership with PickUpMyDonation.com, a third-party donation-pickup network that coordinates with thrift stores nationally. The published framing on the Animal Humane page is “Offering large item pick-ups at your home!” with a link to the PickUpMyDonation.com scheduling form.

The practical reality of PickUpMyDonation-style pickups is that they're structured around large household items — couches, dining sets, dressers, washing machines, large appliances — where the per-pickup economics work for the contracted hauler. A standalone donation of a few boxes of books typically does not qualify, because the pickup cost (driver time, fuel, truck) is the same whether the load is one couch or one box of books, and the resale margin on used books does not cover that cost.

Donors with a mixed-pickup situation (a couch + several boxes of books + housewares) can add the books to a large-item pickup and the partner program will haul the lot together. Donors with books-only and a need for pickup should plan around drop-off at the Menaul Blvd store, or contact NMLP — which does book-specific pickup statewide as the entire service.

Side-by-side comparison

Question	Animal Humane Thrift	NMLP
Tax-deductible receipt?	Yes — 501(c)(3), EIN 85-0207652	No (for-profit)
Mission funded by donations	Animal welfare: vet clinic, spay-neuter, food pantry, behavior support, adoption	Book pickup operations + APS Title I + UNM Children's Hospital + LFLs
Free pickup?	Large-item pickup via PickUpMyDonation.com (books typically don't qualify alone)	Yes — books specifically, free, statewide
Drop-off location	5341 Menaul Blvd NE, Daskalos Shopping Center	5445 Edith Blvd NE, Unit A (24/7 outdoor drop)
Drop-off hours	Mon-Sat 10am-5pm, Sun 11am-5pm	24/7 outdoor drop bin
Condition accepted	Resellable only — staff intake discretion	Any (water-damaged OK, moldy OK)
Lifting	Donor unloads at curb (staff helps for visible needs)	Josh loads
Mixed donation accepted	Yes — clothing, housewares, furniture, kitchen, decorative items, art	No — books and media only
Books accepted (categories)	Books per staff discretion	Books, magazines, encyclopedias, journals, sheet music, photo albums, VHS, DVDs, CDs, audio cassettes, vinyl
Volume capacity	Standard thrift intake; very large loads should call ahead	Any volume, including full estate cleanouts
Service area	ABQ metro at the drop-off store; pickup via partner program at home	ABQ metro + statewide NM pickup

When Animal Humane Thrift is the right call

One — you care about animal welfare specifically and want your books to fund it. The mission alignment matters. If you're a pet owner, animal lover, or have benefited from Animal Humane's services (spay-neuter, vet care, adoption), routing books to fund that work is a meaningful match. The thrift shop is a primary revenue stream for an organization that operates a vet clinic, food pantry, and adoption services on Virginia St SE.

Two — you have a mixed donation that includes books AND other household items. Animal Humane Thrift takes clothes, kitchenware, furniture in good condition, art, decorative items, gift items — the full breadth of a thrift inventory. If you're cleaning out and you have books-plus-everything-else, the Menaul Blvd store is a one-stop drop-off for all of it. NMLP is books-and-media-only.

Three — you need a 501(c)(3) tax receipt and your books are in resellable condition. If you itemize deductions and need a tax-deductible receipt, Animal Humane Thrift is one of the documented 501(c)(3) channels in Albuquerque. The thrift staff issues receipts at intake; the donor assigns fair market value per IRS Publication 526. NMLP cannot issue tax receipts (for-profit).

Four — your books are clean current titles likely to sell within their inventory-turn window. Animal Humane Thrift's staff are seasoned at sorting; current popular fiction, recent cookbooks, kids' books in good shape, and gift books will move through their floor quickly and fund the mission directly.

When NMLP is the right call instead

Pickup is required. Books-only donations don't qualify under the Animal Humane large-item pickup. NMLP does book-specific pickup as the entire service.
Mixed condition. Animal Humane staff will decline at intake the categories that don't move on a thrift floor: water-damaged, moldy, broken-spine, ex-library, encyclopedias, outdated textbooks. NMLP takes all of those.
Volume that exceeds standard thrift intake. A bankers box of books is normal; ten boxes is the edge of what a thrift store will gracefully process at a curb; estate-cleanout volume (50+ boxes) overwhelms standard intake. NMLP handles full estates routinely.
Out-of-Albuquerque donor location. The Animal Humane Thrift Shop is one location on Menaul; donors in Rio Rancho, Santa Fe, Bernalillo, Las Cruces, Farmington, or the rural NM corridors don't have a drop-off equivalent. NMLP picks up in all of those areas.
The donor whose back doesn't work right now. Loading a car, driving to Menaul, unloading at the curb — the workload is real. NMLP brings the labor.

The hybrid play

If you're cleaning out a household with mixed donation material and the books happen to be a small subset, drive the whole donation to Animal Humane Thrift in one trip. The clothes, kitchenware, furniture, and books all go together; one tax-deductible receipt covers the lot; the mission is animal welfare. If, on the other hand, your situation is books-heavy — an estate library, a downsize that turned out to be mostly books, a deceased parent's collection — the math reverses: NMLP picks up the book volume free, and you take the smaller clothing-and-housewares portion to Animal Humane Thrift in your car at your convenience. Both channels stay in their lane; both Albuquerque organizations get what fits their model.

A note on mission and respect

Comparison pages on this site exist to help donors choose the right channel for their specific situation, not to compete with the organizations I'm describing. Animal Humane New Mexico does work that matters. The veterinary clinic, the spay-neuter program, the pet food pantry, the behavior helpline, the adoption services, the trap-neuter-return work — these are real, sustained, life-saving operations that depend on the unrestricted revenue the thrift shop provides. A donor whose books would do well on the Animal Humane thrift floor should give them there with a clean conscience and a tax receipt.

A donor whose books wouldn't move on the thrift floor — mixed condition, large volume, encyclopedias, textbooks — isn't doing Animal Humane any favors by leaving those books at their door. The thrift staff has to triage, sort, and ultimately dispose of unsaleable donations, and that process costs the organization labor and disposal fees. Better that the donor route those books to NMLP for free pickup, and route a smaller cleaner donation to Animal Humane Thrift for the part that fits. Both organizations win.

Why I wrote this page

I'm Josh Eldred. I drive the van. I cross paths with Animal Humane volunteers and donors at La Vida Llena and at neighborhood events around Albuquerque. The two organizations don't compete; I serve different donor situations. This page exists so donors know in advance which one fits their books, which one fits their mission preference, and how to use both channels in tandem when the donation has both books and other goods in it.

Sources

Animal Humane New Mexico Thrift Shop page — address, hours, donation policies, can't-accept list, large-item pickup partnership
Animal Humane New Mexico homepage — programs, main campus address
Candid (GuideStar) profile for Animal Humane Association of New Mexico, Inc. — 501(c)(3) status, EIN 85-0207652
Animal Humane Thrift Shop Yelp listing — donor reviews and operational notes
PickUpMyDonation.com — the third-party donation-pickup partner Animal Humane Thrift uses for large-item home pickup

Complete guide: 18 Albuquerque book donation channels compared
Goodwill vs NMLP — sibling 501(c)(3) workforce-development thrift
Salvation Army vs NMLP — sibling 501(c)(3) church-affiliated thrift
arc Thrift Stores vs NMLP — sibling 501(c)(3) IDD-supporting thrift
Albuquerque Public Library vs NMLP — library system + Friends Bookshop
Savers vs NMLP
Tax-deductible book donation in Albuquerque — the honest map of which channels issue receipts
Lifecycle of a donated book in Albuquerque

Last reviewed 2026-05-17. NMLP is a for-profit New Mexico business; donations are not tax-deductible. Animal Humane New Mexico is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit (EIN 85-0207652, verifiable at apps.irs.gov/app/eos); donations to Animal Humane Thrift may be tax-deductible per IRS Publication 526. Donation acceptance is at the discretion of on-site Animal Humane Thrift staff; calling (505) 938-7915 before bringing a borderline donation is recommended. Corrections: [email protected].