You may not get coal in your stocking this year. Community Collection is a new women’s online shopping website where 20 percent of each purchase goes to support specific charities, chosen individually by the featured designers. Besides helping the greater community, one of the other goals of the website is for the consumer to learn about the values of a specific label in order to create a more intimate relationship between the buyer and the designer. It lends an altruistic image to the designer that ultimately attributes benevolence to the label, which can help with marketing strategies. Essentially, the consumer can select from stylish clothing and accessories while simultaneously helping a charity. Now doesn’t this sound like a win-win?
Now onto the specifics: Each designer is paired with a different charity to create a charity campaign every week. At the end of each week, the amount of money raised is tallied and posted on the website and also sent to each buyer via email. The sum is not donated arbitrarily to the whole charity organization, but instead funds go to specific projects that are researched beforehand. The latest items get added each week according to the season’s collections and there are often limited edition products offered. Since its launch in 2011, Community Collection has raised $4,277 dollars supporting 15 causes.
The aim is to cover a large variety of local and global issues. Each charity has been examined and given approval by the website’s team of non-profit experts in order to guarantee the maximum levels of efficiency. Some of the featured designers include Current Elliot, which supports the charity Goods for Good; Diane Von Furstenberg, which teams up with Girls, Inc.; and Helmut Lang, which supports Flying Kites, among others. It sounds like Community Collection has solved a way to help everyone in one purchase. Good news: you will never feel guilty about shopping again!