Doing good — twice — via used clothing
Second Serve Resale platform directs 85% of its sales to nonprofits
A longtime thrift shopper, Amy Hebb has watched the recent boom of secondhand clothing stores and growth of online shops, and thought nonprofits deserve a cut. In November 2021, Hebb was working as an attorney when she founded Second Serve Resale, a new platform where she and a group of volunteers based in Westerly, R.I., work to lower the consumption of new clothing items while providing the majority of the sales to a nonprofit of the buyer’s choosing.
Q. What is Second Serve Resale, and how does it work?
Hebb: People donate clothing to us at Second Serve Resale, and we photograph the clothing, write the descriptions, take measurements, and post them online. When someone purchases items from our website, 85 percent of the sales go directly to one of our nonprofit partners — which will be chosen by the buyer. Each product page shows you how much will go to the cause of your choice, and what they can get with the money they receive from your purchase.
Q. What kinds of nonprofits are you partnering with, and how are these supporting them?
A. We’re a nonprofit ourselves, and have established partnerships with Meals on Wheels of Rhode Island, Save the Bay, the Tomorrow Fund for kids with cancer, Union Station Homeless Services, the Westerly College Club to promote fellowships among women in the Westerly area, the San Francisco-Marin Food Bank, New England Science & Sailing for their educational programs, Sojourner House [a nonprofit that helps with supportive services, shelter, and housing for victims and survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault], and other nonprofits.
[For example, a $50 wrap dress means $42.50 can go to the cause of your choice. That could mean four home meal deliveries from Meals on Wheels RI, two weeks’ worth of diapers for families served by Sojourner House, a theater workshop for local libraries served by the Center Theatre Group, and other efforts. All of these specifics are on each product page].
Q. How much has Second Serve Resale’s sales raised for nonprofits?
A. Almost $25,000 since we launched about two years ago.
Q. What do you do with the other 15 percent of sales that do not go to nonprofits?
A. It just goes to cover our costs, which it doesn’t always cover but we’re trying. I’ve prioritized giving to nonprofits. But we do have costs for storage, packaging, and for running the site.
Q. How did you come up with this idea?
A. There are a lot of reasons to shop resale. I started out just because it was cheaper and you could find cool things that no one else had. But it’s also much better for the environment to buy something that’s already out there than to buy something new. During the thick of the pandemic, it seemed like everyone was going through their closets and getting rid of their clothes. At the same time, I thought there was a way to support local nonprofits while promoting the benefits of buying secondhand clothing.
Q. Where are you sourcing these clothing items?
A. There are a few of us that are on the board, and I get help from volunteers. A lot of us source from our own closets. I was working at Rhode Island Legal Services when we first launched, and asked all the women in the office if they had clothes to donate. Today, we get a lot of people who send us donations through the mail. If someone wants to donate and they live in Rhode Island, southern Massachusetts, or northern Connecticut, we can arrange a pickup.
Q. What kinds of clothing are you accepting?
A. We accept designer and name-brand women’s clothing, shoes, handbags, and other accessories. Oftentimes, there are items that we receive that still have the price tag on them or are practically brand new and have only been worn a few times.
We do prioritize getting the more expensive items on the site simply because of the time and energy getting each product online takes and what is the most worth it for the nonprofits.
Q. What are your biggest challenges right now?
A. People give us all sorts of stuff. The problem, however, is that people clean out their closets and then buy all new stuff. What we want is for people to repopulate their closets with resale items. The donor and the buyer can be the same person, and should be the same person. If we, as a society, can build that ecosystem, then we can start to move away from fast fashion and such a disposable culture.
Q. What are your goals for the future?
A. Buying used clothing isn’t going to solve everything. But it really does solve some issues if we, collectively as a people, move to resale products. I’m hoping that if we can get this to work and scale it somehow, Second Serve Resale could work with anything — men’s clothing, books, radios, appliances, whatever other commodities people might buy used.
But also, we’d like to partner with some more nonprofits. All they have to do is help promote our platform. It’s in their best interest, and in the best interest of resale.