If supporting good causes with your purchases is important to you, then here’s a list of cloth diaper brands and companies that “give back” in some way. This includes profit sharing, diaper donations, and volunterring.

Lighthouse Diapers: Partners with Jake’s Diapers to provide reusable cloth diapers to impoverished families.

Bebeboo Diapers: This WAHM company supports both the Nevada Childhood Cancer Foundation and The Cloth Option.

Lil’ Helper: Their Baby Do Good program gives 1 brand new cloth diaper to a family in need for every 3 diapers they sell. They also partner with The Cloth Option (see below).

Bambino Mio: Partners with local charities and advocacy groups around the world to make cloth diapers more available. They are member of the UK’s Nappy Alliance which works with local governments to reduce waste and encourage cloth diapering.

Cotton Babies: Through it’s Share the Love program, Cotton Babies (makers of Flip, bumGenius, Elemental Joy and Econobum) distributes resources to local families in need.

GroVia: GroVia Gives is a US-based cloth diaper lending program intended to help families with temporary or long term financial struggles diaper their babies.

Mama Koala: Invites cloth diaper charities to apply for a collaboration.

Smart Bottoms: This company partners with the cloth diaper charity, Jake’s Diapers. Recently, they released an exclusive print called Jake’s Purpose to aid victims of the volcano in Guatemala.

Petite Crown: For every product purchased, Petite Crown donates one cloth diaper to a family in need through the Fluff and Beyond program. Petite Crown also partners with cloth diaper charity, Jake’s Diapers.

Sweetbottoms Baby Boutique: 1% of product cost will be donated to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Blessings in a Backpack, and Thorn: Digital Defenders Of Children with no caps or end dates.

AppleCheeks Diapers: This company has released exclusive prints to support charity, such as the Believe diaper cover for autism advocacy. And a portion of the proceeds from size 3 and size 4 diaper sales goes to the Canadian Down Syndrome Society.

KangaCare/Rumparooz: This company partners with the cloth diaper charity, Jake’s Diapers. Recently, they released an exclusive print called Freshavocado in honor of storm victims in Puerto Rico.

Diaper Lab: Online and brick-and-mortar shop that runs its own cloth diaper lending bank on the side.

Charlie Banana: Partners with charity The Cloth Option in the form of cloth diaper donations. Gives a portion of sale proceeds to Operation Smile, an international medical charity that provides free reconstructive surgeries to children suffering from cleft lip, cleft palate, and other facial deformities.

Now that I’ve shared with you some companies that give back, it’s time to address diaper need itself.

Are You Experiencing Economic Hardship?

• Financial hardship
• Lost job
• No washer/dryer

There is help!

Need Free Diapers?

1. Check out my free diaper resource page for how to find them at little or not cost to you.
2. Check out this list of diaper charities that give or loan packages at little or no cost to you.
3. Consider adding cloth diapers to your registry during pregnancy. You can find prefolds (and sometimes covers, pockets and hybrids) at Wal-Mart and BabiesRUs and Target. You can also buy diapers on Amazon.
4. Please enter my giveaways, and come back for the daily entries. If you are expecting, please sign up for my monthly drawing.

Need Cheap/Discounted Diapers?

1. Cheap covers are not hard to come by. You can buy them secondhand on Facebook swap groups and Craigslist. At Nicki’s Diapers you can find brand new covers for under $10 and shipping is free.
2. Stuff your cover with almost anything in your house that absorbs liquid and you have a workable diaper. Some ideas: old cotton towels, receiving blankets, cotton or flannel sheets or tablecloths, etc. Cut them into 27×27 inch squares. You can also fold an old t-shirt into a soft and absorbent diaper.
3. Cut a fleece blanket or fleece fabric scraps into a simple cover. Try my no-sew super simple fleece diaper cover. It’s cute and it works! Fleece covers will do in a pinch, but without elastics and a fully waterproof material like wool or PUL you’ll want to be extra careful about the diaper you’re using underneath.
4. Some of the best diapers are also the cheapest.  High-quality cotton prefolds start at are $1.83 each in packs of 6 at  Nicki’s, and you get free shipping. Imagine birdseye flat diapers are $2.25 each at Nicki’s. Two packs (12 total) of “old school” cotton flour sack towels can be found at Wal-Mart. 

Have no way to wash diapers?

1. You can hand wash your diapers at home using this method. If the idea of washing by hand seems gross, wear a sturdy pair of gloves
2. Cloth diapers can be washed at the laundromat. Check out the RDA’s cloth diaper “Laundromat Challenge” for help and support. You can save all your extra quarters in a jar labeled “diapers.” To save faster, sell some stuff or sacrifice little things like coffee at Starbucks or that can of Pepsi you drink every day. Every time you get change back from any purchase, hold back the dimes and quarters for your jar and it will add up quickly. Make sure your spouse is dropping spare quarters in the jar, too.
3. Save up and invest in a Wonder Wash, which you can use at home to launder 5 pounds of diapers at a time. It’s small enough to fit on a countertop or in your tub and is less than $45 dollars.
4. Use flat diapers, which are the cheapest to buy and the easiest/quickest to clean, whether by hand or at the laundromat. You can even pre-rinse them at home before taking your load to the coin laundry.
5.  If you have no dryer, it’s very easy and cheap to set up a simple clothesline either outside or in your house or apartment. A drying rack also works well.
6. Do the numbers and compare the costs. Due to the varying cost of living in different places, it could very well be that doing 2 or 3 more loads of laundry will cost as much as, or more, than disposables. In that case, your best bet might be to slowly start building up a stash of cloth diapers for future use, or if you are anticipating owning a washer at some point in time. 

Getting Started with Cloth is NOT Expensive

Many families mistakenly think that you’ve got to make an investment of $100 or more to have a “real” diaper stash. Not so! Check out my ideas for 3 cheap starter diaper systems: start small and spend anywhere from $20 to $50.

You don’t have to jump in full time. Phase in the cloth diapers slowly as you add to your stash. Ditch the disposables for good when you’ve got 2 days worth of diapers. And pat yourself on the back for a job well done!

This post contains affiliate links.