I doubt I'm the first person to state that they give phones to the lesser fortunate here.

Donate a phone that can (in the least) keep a charge along with the charge and that can at least call 911. In some cases, while the lesser fortunate are rebuilding their lives, they do not even have a phone to accept calls for when they apply to jobs or talk to family privately.

Ask the local shelters what they will and will not accept. I know I gave my Samsung Captivate that was rooted and had a custom ROM on it. It still could join the Google Play Store so they would have been just okay.