True. The best thing you could do is take the largest (50 pound) bag of cat/dog food down to your local shelter. They will go through that like a hot knife through butter in a day.
Also go to the Dollar Tree and buy bleach by the case and take that to them. As many cases of bleach as you can afford.
cat litter. Does not need to be expensive just the biggest bag you can find.
also at Dollar tree leashes, collars for dogs they can always use. If you can afford it go to a pet store and buy dog muzzles in all sizes, the dog warden will love you for it.
My next door neighbor always did those things for no-kill animal shelters. We just wrote checks for him to give his preferred shelters. Also wanted him to look good bringing in donations. My other charity was the nuns at our high school’s pension fund. When the last of our teachers died, I stopped those contributions so the pups did better.