There's a new way to help moms in need while doing your spring cleaning this year. A new grassroots project called Swap for Good has recently launched, with the goal of getting women around the country to host clothing swaps this spring, and collect donations at the door to raise critical funds for local domestic violence shelters.
www.swapforgood.org

During the recession, requests for help from these shelters have gone up dramatically, while funding has plummeted. In California, Governor Schwarzenegger recently cut 100% of the state's funding for domestic violence shelters, and other states face funding crises as well.  According to the National Network to End Domestic Violence, in just one day in March at least 9,280 requests for services went unmet, largely due to lack of funding. This means thousands of women - many of them moms - who are looking to escape from abusive situations , and who currently have no where to go for help. These shelters want to protect women's safety - but they don't have the funding to do so.

Want to help? Here's how Swap for Good works: You sign up to host a swap and invite some friends to bring a bag of clothes (or books, gadgets, kids' clothes - anything goes!), and some money to chip in for your local shelter. Everyone gets new free stuff, saves money on shopping, and chips in some money to help the cause. Each host chooses the shelter that the swap will raise money for and sends the money directly to the shelter, so there are no overhead costs and 100% of the money raised goes to the cause. Sign up to host on our site at www.swapforgood.org so that the world can see how many people are taking action to help stop domestic violence.

Many moms already host swaps as money-saving measures to trade kids clothes or other stuff with their friends. If you already host or attend regular swaps, it's easy to add a  fundraising element to the swap.

Working together, we can make sure that there are swap events in every state, benefiting every shelter that needs help. Check out the map at http://events.swapforgood.org/ to see if there are events in your state, and if not, sign up to host!

Organizing an event is easy, and there is a how-to guide for hosts that makes it really simple at http://swapforgood.org/host/how-to-host-a-swap/

Tell your friends, and spread the word. Let's make this project a big success this spring.