BB pal Orli Cotel, who by day works with Sierra Club on their radio show and other outreach, and Brianna Cayo Cotte launched a new non-profit called Swap For Good! Congrats! She says:
Swap for Good is a new non-profit project to encourage people to host clothing swaps as a way to help raise money for domestic violence shelters. People are swapping all kinds of things – clothes, gadgets, tools, books – you name it.It's a win-win situation – you get rid of your old stuff, get a new wardrobe or new books for free, and chip in some of the money you've saved on shopping to help a local domestic violence shelter. During the recession, funding for shelters has plummeted while requests for help have gone up. The National Network to End Domestic Violence did a study that showed that in just one day, over 9,000 requests for help went unmet, largely due to lack of funds.
October is National Domestic Violence Awareness month, so it's a great time to sign up to host a swap and raise some extra money for this important cause. (sign up here )
Swaps can be small private house-parties with friends in your living room, or a big event in a public venue. For folks who have never hosted a swap before, we've created a handy how-to guide that walks you through all the steps to put together a really successful swap. (how-to-guide is here)
Swap for Good parties are a great way to promote creative re-use, build community, and help a worthy cause. It is an all-volunteer project, with no paid staff, and no office – so there are no overhead costs and all the money raised by hosts goes directly to the cause. Swaps are already signed up for this fall in 13 states – you can check out the map of public events here: http://events.swapforgood.org/ (there are lots of other events that are private and don't show up on the map).
