Please make sure that if you donate to young children or babies (like Project Linus) that it's new fabric. Shirts from Goodwill or wherever may be from smoke and pet homes. Hospitals providing quilts to the NICU cannot take those quilts. I get a lot of fabric from estate sales of quilters and one time from Craigslist, a woman had given up quilting (!) and gave away her entire stash for $10!

Try garage sales, estate sales, free cycle, goodwill or salvation army...all of these provide low cost materials. Our guild gets donations from all sorts of people. Once a year we have a auction among the members. All fabric not sold comes to the Charity Bee for donation quilts. I usually have one going all the time. Contact the local American Sewing Guild chapter and solicit left over fabric for charity quilts. Just keep looking...

if you live near a city with textile mills you can get lots of free samples...and in the 'big-cities' some of the companies will give you permission to (dumpster dive) they literally throw away thousands of dollars worth of great fabrics...every month.
also link up with your local 'free-cycle' another great place to find needed items for free. it is sad but there are numerous (quilters-seamstresses) out there who pass away every year, leaving behind rooms full of (stuff) their loved ones have no idea what to do with...some of them take the time to think about it and sell it...some give it away, some call someone in to clear it out...some just toss it all in a dumpster thinking no one would want all this 'stuff'...i always encourage people to get involved with free-cycle, it gives you a great resource and a place to -pass on- all the things you have no need of.
our local salvation army has a baler, and usually denim, (torn jeans) clothing that they consider to *used* to be sold they bale of and send away...when my mom was making denim quilts she went to them and got a whole bale (about 500 lbs worth) of jeans ... for $20!... back then we thought she had lost her mind! i can not even get my mind around how many quilts they made out of all that denim...and some of the jeans were, just fine...usable jeans too :thumbup:
also check with area churches and small groups in the area(like the senior center- sewing/knitting groups, they all usually have bags or boxes of extra they don't know what to do with.

A LQS in my area offers store credit $'s for every pound of donated fabric that customers bring in for charity groups to make quilts. They do this at least twice a year, and it gives us a chance to contribute, and donate fabric that we no longer want. There are a few restrictions such as size of fabric (no smaller than a FQ). I loved trading in fabric that I no longer wanted to buy newer fabric. It was like a discount for some great new fabric. I think the last time the LQS did this they collected over 3,000 pounds of fabric. This was a win-win for all.

Downy Quilts provide you with the fabric for one of their lap quilts. Search 'Quilts for Kids', promotion is by Downy fabric softener. Sign up for a kit, and they will send you the cut pieces for a quilt top, plus the backing fabric. All you have to provide is the batting. Send the finished quilt back to them and they distribute the quilts to those who need them.
This topic has been mentioned here on this board so you maybe able to 'search' and find more information on these quilts.

Don't know if shops give material, can't hurt to ask but they might give a discount on the fabric....and if you have someone do the quilting they might give a discount or just charge for materials....In either case, if you advertise that you and the shop or quilter did the work, it's advertising for them...Might give them more business...just a thought..

Our quilting group makes charity quilts. We ask friends who sew to think about donating thier scraps, we shop yard sales, Resale shops. At times I have bout a large bag of cottons for $3.oo. I got a lawn bag full at a fund raiser for the high school band for $3 and there were several 2 and 3 yd pieces. Just keep an eye out. You can also try making a raffle quilt and raise money. How about teaching a once a week beginners class in your home? I have done this and it works. Marvel

We do primarily Linus Project, nursing homes and church members. We get lots of donations of fabric. The hard part is washing and sorting, some have been stored stash for years. We also take advantage of any coupon sales to add solids to our stash. The church helps us out with batting when we buy a larage quantity, usually 50% off at Hobby Lobby. Thrift shops and garage sales are also good.

I donate to Project Linus too. Linus has many many chapters in all states. See if maybe there is one close to you. Here is the chapter listing.

http://www.projectlinus.org/chapter.php

Some of the Linus chapters can provide you with some of the fabric or batting. Our chapter was given 100 bolts of fabric from a quilt shop that was closing and we had quilting parties and used most of it for backings. The chapter also requested donations from the Warm Company, which has been kind enough to send us rolls of Warm & Natural batting for use in Linus quilts. I think it's easier for a charitable organization to get donations from businesses than for an individual to do so.

I do quilts for my church, we did 31 of them last year. We are very lucky, people have donated fabric, unfinished quilts and we use sheets for middles. I use some of my fabrics and sheets from the closet. We tie our quilts. I am also very lucky some of our thrift stores have fabric inexpensive.