(WBBM NEWSRADIO) — A north suburban organization is connecting surplus supplies with the nonprofits that need them.
Executive Director Emily Petway describes GiveNKind as the "Costco of nonprofits."
It helps businesses donate surplus, out of season, or slightly used goods to organizations that need them.
Petway, a Chicago-area native, was working as a teacher in Atlanta 15 years ago when she got the idea for a prom dress bank for high schools girls who could not afford one.
"That was missing from our community," she recalls.
It ballooned into a brick-and-mortar establishment that helped thousands of high school students. But she said she learned that nonprofits need more than just financial donations to get by.
"The prom dress bank also needed a vacuum, a lawnmower, curtains, Post It notes, and a whole variety of other materials," Petway said.
She started GiveNKind when she moved to Mundelein 10 years ago.
"I thought if I'm struggling to get this as a small, growing nonprofit organization, and there's 1.5 million other nonprofits in the country, I bet that this is something that other organizations are struggling to get as well," Petway said.
In the past year, Petway said, her organization has found homes for all sorts of materials, from bathing suits to surplus travel supplies from the airline industry.
Said Petway: "They don't belong in a Dumpster, they belong in people's hands but they're not in the right place at the right time."
