San Francisco, CA (PRWEB) October 11, 2013
Today, philanthropic fashion company VivaDressUp (http://www.Vivadressup.com) is announcing the launch of an online charitable giving platform – the first of its kind – in celebration of the UN’s International Day of the Girl. Creating an entirely new way to give back, the platform’s first sales kick off today, with dresses donated from a series of dress drives from a growing network of community-based partners raising funds for charitable causes in towns, high schools and college campuses across the United States. Individual celebrity donations have also come in from Katy Perry, Kristen Bell and Colbie Callait, among others.
Shoppers will discover amazing finds on new and gently worn women’s dresses priced at up to 80% off retail and featured in themed sales for a limited time only with a large portion of the proceeds donated to charity. Prices range from $40 to over $500 with brands ranging from Urban Outfitters to Ralph Lauren and evening gowns from Carolina Herrera and Badgley Mischka.
“VivaDressUp is a new approach to charitable fundraising that makes it easy to impact the lives of those in need by digging into your closet – not your wallet,” said founder Layne Gray. “We believe anyone can start creating change in the world – one dress at a time.”
VivaDressUp’s platform allows anyone to donate or purchase gently used dresses and will soon expand to other apparel categories. The platform’s main function to support dress drives is an easy and fun way for organizations and groups to raise funds through dress donations without the extensive volunteer hours or financial burden of producing a fundraising event.
For every VivaDressDrive, VivaDressUp sends out tools to help organizations complete successful drives, from collecting the dresses and securing shipping boxes to donor forms and labels, all for free. Groups receive 60% of all proceeds from drives for the charity of their choice. Additionally, individuals who consign dresses on the platform receive 50% the proceeds, while another 10% benefits non-profit partners chosen by VivaDressUp for their unique ability to help empower women by offering education and career skills to help them lead their best lives. VivaDressUp’s inaugural non-profit partners are Girl Up and buildOn.
Partners such as Procter & Gamble’s feminine products division (including the Always and Tampax brands), Newell Rubbermaid’s Goody brand, Sephora and designers Tracy Reese, Elle MacPherson Intimates and EVA NYC have signed on to provide further support via donations, communications to their users or other unique incentives to encourage and foster pride in giving back and creating change – one dress at a time.
For more information, visit http://www.Vivadressup.com.
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About Layne Gray
Gray is a seasoned charitable fund-raiser who has generated millions of dollars for Bay Area charities through events she has chaired. Along with the money she has raised for these organizations, she also prides herself on being a mentor to charitable organizations’ younger volunteers.
Before launching VivaDressUp and Vivanista, Gray was the founder of LKE Productions, a global technology industry conference management company. Previously, Ms. Gray was an early employee at Oracle Corporation who rose to the position of Director of UNIX Product Line Marketing.
Gray is a sustaining member of the Junior League of San Francisco and the San Ballet Auxiliary, as well as an Emeritus member of the San Francisco Zoological Society. She lives in San Francisco with her three pugs who form the composite VivaDressUp site mascot, BooBoo.