
Swap for Good aims to…
encourage people to host clothing swaps as a way to build community, and raise money for local domestic violence shelters.
The idea came …
organizing clothing swaps for friends and realizing that if we were all saving money on new clothes, that money could go to a good cause instead.
The easiest way to explain Swap for Good is…
Swap stuff. Save lives. You get rid of the stuff you don’t want, get great new clothes, books, or other things for free, and donate some of the money you’ve saved on shopping to a cause that really needs your help.
The biggest misperception about Swap for Good is…
that organizing a swap is complicated or hard. Organizing a swap is easy - just invite over some friends to your living room with a few bags of stuff they don’t want anymore - and pass the hat so everyone chips in to their local domestic violence shelter.
A success story with Swap for Good so far is…
when a group called SPARK in San Francisco organized a great event where they got a local salon to donate space so that they could invite lots of people to participate. The event was really fun and engaging, and they raised lots of money for a local shelter that is protecting victims of trafficking.
The biggest challenge to overcome is…
domestic violence shelters in the U.S. are facing a real funding crisis right now. The National Network to End Domestic Violence shows that in just one day, over 9,000 requests for help went unmet, largely due to lack of funds. Money raised from swaps alone will not be able to fill the huge funding gap, but right now every dollar really helps.
Another example of Collaborative Consumption I admire…
Freecycle is great, and I think AirBnB is a great idea. I also love my local farmer’s market and I feel it could be an example of collaborative consumption because it’s more of a peer-to-peer sale - farmers selling directly to families without having to go through a store.
What goal do you hope to achieve through Swap for Good?…
We hope to help raise both money and awareness to help stop domestic violence. We want to show that by swapping instead of shopping, people can cut back on the environmental impact of buying new clothes, and money saved from consuming new goods can go to help save lives instead.
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Ella T. Gorgla, Founder of I-ELLA
Cathy Tao, co-founder of Tourboarding
Mike Karnjanaprakorn, cofounder of Skillshare
Juha Koponen, Founder of Netcycler
Michelle Shearer, Founder of MamaBake
Leah Busque, Founder and CEO of TaskRabbit
Ron J. Williams, founder of SnapGoods
Stephen Rapoport, founder of Crashpadder
Anthony Eskinazi, founder of ParkatmyHouse
Drummond Gilbert, founder of goCarShare
David Mahfouda, Founder of Weeels
Andreas Randow, Founder of StudioShare.org
Emma Jamvold, Founder of SwapItBaby
Dave Llorens, CEO of One Block Off The Grid
Orli Cotel, co-founder of Swap for Good
Owen Rees-Hayward, Co-founder of Thingloop
Juliette Anich, Co-founder of The Clothing Exchange
Keara Schwartz, Founder of Share Some Sugar
Hans Schoenburg, co-founder of GiftFlow
Meriel Lenfestey, Co-founder of Ecomodo
Steve Sammartino, Founder of rentoid.com
Micki Krimmel, Founder of NeighborGoods
Shelby Clark, Founder of RelayRides
James Reinhart, Founder of thredUp
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