We exist to build resilient communities where our true wealth is the connections forged between neighbors.
The Buy Nothing Project is a Benefit Corporation, tasked by legally-binding charter with performing a public good.
We provide free global Buy Nothing gift economy access, community resources, and personal support to Buy Nothing participants via our app, website, and support forums. This is currently made possible thanks to charitable donations to our fiscal sponsor, Angels for Angels.
We're developing new features and functions that expand and deepen the impact we have together. Our free app already has custom-built features that enable Give-Ask-Gratitude connections around the world. We're excited to create new tools that enable all of us to take other gift economy actions.
Buy Nothing communities are already a global reuse economy with immense social and environmental impact. Our future development will also empower each of us to keep even more items in use, while we build strong communities and sustainable livelihoods for the makers, fixers, and others who transform old into new, over and over again.
We provide free global Buy Nothing gift economy access, community resources, and personal support to Buy Nothing participants via our app, website, and support forums. This is currently made possible thanks to charitable donations to our fiscal sponsor, Angels for Angels.
We're developing new features and functions that expand and deepen the impact we have together. Our free app already has custom-built features that enable Give-Ask-Gratitude connections around the world. We're excited to create new tools that enable all of us to take other gift economy actions.
Buy Nothing communities are already a global reuse economy with immense social and environmental impact. Our future development will also empower each of us to keep even more items in use, while we build strong communities and sustainable livelihoods for the makers, fixers, and others who transform old into new, over and over again.
We are Grateful to Everyone Who Supports Buy Nothing
We are powered by YOU
Thank you!
Thank you!
Our foundational resources, support for participants and Community Builders, and BuyNothing app are operated as a non-profit gift to the world, currently supported by your tax-deductible contributions to our fiscal sponsor, Angels for Angels, and by contributions from the founding team and their friends and families. Together, this voluntary support provides the world access to strong local gift economies that change lives for the better every day. We are more grateful for your support than we can say.
By the numbers
7.5
Million
Million
Buy Nothing community members
13 Thousand
Amazing Buy Nothing community builders
128 Thousand
Buy Nothing communities around the world
850 Thousand
BuyNothing app downloads, worldwide
Buy Nothing 101
In a nutshell:
BuyNothing offers people a way to give and receive, share, lend, and express gratitude through a worldwide gift economy network in which the true wealth is the web of connections formed between people. We believe that communities are more resilient, sustainable, equitable, and joyful when they have functional gift economies.
Principles:
- We believe our hyper-local groups strengthen the social fabric of their communities, and ensure the health and vitality of each member.
- We come from a place of abundance ~ not scarcity.
- We believe in abundance, we give, we ask, we share, we lend and we express gratitude.
- We are a gift economy, not a charity. We see no difference between want and need, waste and treasure.
- We do not buy, sell, trade, barter, or otherwise exchange money for items or services.
- We measure wealth by the personal connections made and trust between people.
- We value people and their stories and narratives above the ‘stuff.’
- We are inclusive at our core.
- We value honesty and integrity in all our interactions.
- We view all gifts as equal; the human connection is the value.
- We believe every community has the same wealth of generosity and abundance.
Looking for Buy Nothing 101 in your language? Click here.
Why we built our own platform
Here are four reasons we (finally) decided to invest in and build our own Buy Nothing platform.
- 1Reaching a Broader AudienceLet's face it. There are many many people that choose not to use FB. We need a place where everyone is welcome. We have gathered together leaders in the industry who can provide quality and value to our participants who come from all 18+ age brackets. So many of are looking for ways to make a difference. Buying Nothing is one of those ways.
- 2Purpose-Built for Buy Nothing SharingWe have built the BuyNothing app from the ground up, with input from participants who all want to see a purpose-led app that is crafted specifically for hyperlocal sharing.
- 3Dynamic BoundariesYou will now be the center of your sharing circle and can adjust it according to your needs. Relocating, traveling, sharing for a friend/family member, is now easy and seamless. Come learn how you can dynamically change your sharing settings from Hyperlocal (within ~1 mi/km) to Neighborhood+ (within ~3 mi/km) or to Surrounding Areas (within ~6 mi/km). Each setting is customized for your specific needs.
- 4Scaling to Support our Global PlatformThe BuyNothing app enables us to scale this social movement so anyone can start sharing in their community immediately. We respect and value your time. There is no longer an approval queue, no need for referrals, no delays. And features in the app encourage anyone to start Building Community as soon as they download the app.
Our origins story
We made a discovery that changed our lives.
We started as two friends, Rebecca and Liesl, with our kids on a Pacific Northwest beach where we realized that much of the beachscape around us was washed-up plastic, plastics of every shape, color and size. We spent years collecting and inventorying those plastics and learned that they come from each of us, from our homes, our cars, our workplaces. They wash down our watersheds into our oceans. We started the Buy Nothing Project in an effort to stave off pervasive plastics in every ecosystem on Earth by encouraging each of us to Buy Less and share more.
A community-building social movement was born.
A community-building social movement was born.
From the Newsroom
The latest Buy Nothing Project news coverage: