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Cleaning Out Your Closet for a Cause with the Fashion Project

This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Fairfield chapter.

It’s never too early to start your spring-cleaning, which usually involves sorting out your closest. The next time you go to toss out that dress you wore once or your pair of jeans you never took the tags off send them to Fashion Project.

Two Harvard graduates, Anna Palmer and Christine Rizk, established Fashion Project in 2012 (Fashion Project). FP allows people to donate their gently worn or never worn clothes, handbags, shoes, and other accessories. However FP is not like any ordinary consignment store. Every time a person donates an item, he or she can choose a charity to which 55% of the net sales will be donated. Donors get to experience that “feel-good” sensation by partnering in a philanthropic enterprise while also benefitting from a tax allowance for donating.

Not only can you support this cause by donating, but you can also help by shopping! Dress yourself in a Free People top, Michael Kors jeans and Tory Burch shoes for a fraction of the store prices.

So far Fashion Project has had 279,336 items donated, 1,695 charities have been supported, and $551,514 has been raised for charity. The following are just some of the charities that have benefitted from FP: Boys & Girls Clubs of America, National Children’s Advocacy Center, and The Breast Cancer Research Foundation.

This thriving start-up has already created a large footprint on the fashion landscape, considering it has teamed up with numerous designers and stores including Helmut Lang, Elie Tahari, and Nordstrom.

Who would have predicted that FP could have such an impact in such a short time? One cannot help but admire the creative entrepreneurship of FP, which has so wonderfully combined social consciousness with a successful business model.

Do your part by supporting Fashion Project at www.fashionproject.com featuring amazing prices on designer clothes. 

Amanda McKelvey is a Co-Campus Correspondent and a senior at Fairfield University. She is a Journalism major with minors in Psychology and Communications. In addition to being a CC she has held internships with Michael Kors, CollegeFashionista.com and the Rockville Centre and Baldwin Heralds. In her free time, Amanda enjoys days on the beaches of Long Island, watching Scandal, Chicago Fire and the Bachelorette, eating anything sweet (chocolate, ice cream, cupcakes—you name it!) and reading a good book. She’s excited to spend her senior year living at Fairfield Beach with her best friends including fellow CC Danielle Tullo! You can follow her on Twitter @theAMANDAshowww or on Instagram @ammckelvey.