craftgrrl | Promo items for charity, donation drive?

So I came up with this idea to start a charity that would collect donations (monetary or tangible items) and give them to shelters around the area for homeless women & their families. Basically I would be a middle man between the public and the needy. I'm just trying to create awareness and draw people to donate and help out the communtiy.

Anyways, so what are some ideas I could use to draw people to make donations? Honestly there are many things I would like to do to get my idea off the ground and to do all of the nice things I would like for the shelter, but it costs money, and I'm sure we've all just walked right past someone at a table with a money bucket sitting in front of our local grocer or department store without dropping one red cent.

What are some inexpensive promo items I could create or customize as a gesture to "thank" those that donate, or give incentive to those who may think twice about doing so?

TIA!