Gift Your Best to Give Your Best

Aim

We need vital funding to maintain Give Your Best’s services during this festive season and into the new year.

Passion for Good: Fashion for All

Give Your Best is an award-winning social enterprise solving two critical problems: fashion waste and clothing poverty. Whilst £140 million worth of clothing gets sent to UK landfills every year, 5.5 million people cannot afford basic clothing. We bridge this gap through the UK's first digital platform and pay-it-forward store, where marginalised communities can shop donated clothes for free with dignity and choice they deserve, regardless of their immigration status or financial circumstances. Community-led and empowering, in just three years we've supported over 5,000 families and diverted 60,000 clothing items from landfill, whilst promoting fashion circularity, creating a lasting, positive impact for both people and the planet. 

Our Beginning: Born from Crisis, Built for Change

Give Your Best began in 2020 when our founder witnessed the intersection of two crises: thousands of items of clothing heading to landfill while refugee women and their families struggled to afford basic necessities. What started as a simple idea, connecting those who have clothes they no longer need with those who desperately need them, has evolved into a movement that's redefining circularity in the fashion industry.

In just three years, we've achieved what many said was impossible and proven that environmental solutions and social justice aren't competing priorities, they're intertwined.

Our Team: Led by Those We Serve

What makes Give Your Best unique is that we're not just serving marginalised communities, we're led by them. Thirty percent of our staff are from the communities we support, bringing lived experience that shapes everything we do.

Our Vision: Redistribution as a Mainstream Circularity Pathway

We envision a future where "redistribution to underserved communities" is recognised alongside resale and recycling as a primary avenue for fashion circularity. Where clothing poverty is eliminated not through charity, but through systemic change in how we value and circulate garments.

With clothing consumption expected to rise by 63% across Europe by 2030, the urgency couldn't be greater. We're not just managing waste, we're transforming the entire lifecycle of clothing garments. 

Our Proven Model:

We operate through three interconnected programmes:

• Our Digital Platform: The UK's first online space where marginalised communities shop donated clothes for free, with the dignity and choice they deserve. 
• Our Pay-it-Forward Thrift and Gift Store: Where every item purchased by the public funds free shopping for someone experiencing clothing poverty. 
• Our RePurpose Programme: Partnering with fashion brands to redirect their dead stock to communities who need these items most

In 2024 alone Give Your Best diverted an estimated 2,670 kg of textiles from landfill which is the equivalent to saving roughly 16,020 kg of CO₂ emissions.

Our model also surpasses other donation models in the UK: only 30% of items donated to charity shops are sold, while the rest end up in landfill or are sent overseas (Global South). In contrast, we keep all donated items in circulation in the UK and we promote circularity within the fashion industry. 

Our organisation also actively promotes circularity in the fashion industry. We collaborate with fashion brands willing to donate their dead stock, extending the life of their garments. A partnership with Give Your Best enables brands to advance their journey toward sustainability, influencing consumer behavior, and contributing to ESGs and Sustainable Development Goals addressing poverty and responsible consumption. We also campaign and advocate for stronger laws surrounding clothing waste in the UK. In 2024 in order to work with the government in its implementation of EPR legislation we hosted a Parliamentary Roundtable, and we have been invited to be a stakeholder in the roundtable consultations with DEFRA and the Circular Economy Taskforce.

Why This Matters Now:

We're at a critical juncture. The UK government is implementing Extended Producer Responsibility legislation for textiles, creating unprecedented opportunity to embed redistribution as a statutory requirement for fashion brands. European policy is moving in the same direction. The infrastructure we build now, the partnerships we forge, and the policy frameworks we influence will shape how millions of tonnes of textile waste are managed for decades to come.

But this isn't just about policy, it's about people. Every day we hear from women like Sarah, a trafficking survivor who told us: "Shopping at Give Your Best gave me back my dignity. I could choose clothes that made me feel like myself again, not just grateful for whatever I was given." Or Amira, an asylum seeker who now volunteers at our store: "When I came to the UK, I had nothing. Now I help others find what they need, and I'm learning skills that will help me get a job when I get my status."

Our Track Record:

In three years, we've been recognized by the British Fashion Council, selected for the eBay Circular Fashion Fund, invited into government policy consultations, and built partnerships with over 25 fashion brands. We've proven our model works, but we need funding to keep our services running. 

This funding ensures our services continue addressing both clothing poverty and the climate crisis simultaneously. By maintaining operations and expanding capacity, we'll divert thousands more clothing items from landfill, whilst serving our growing community. Our dual impact model proves environmental sustainability and social justice are inseparable, every garment we keep in circulation both protects the planet and restores dignity to someone experiencing clothing poverty, creating a virtuous cycle passion for good, results in fashion for all. 

More about us:

In 2023 GYB were selected by the British Fashion Council as one their Future of Fashion innovations of 2023.

In 2024 GYB was one of the winners of the Ebay Circular Fashion Fund.

GYB featured in The Guardian, British Vogue, Channel 4 and The BBC, you can also read Benita's story here.

GYB received several awards such as Drapers Ones To Watch, Social Enterprise Startup of The Year and Digital Innovation of The Year at the Third Sector Awards and was a finalist Nonprofit of the Year at the National Diversity Awards.

Funding method

Keep what you raise – this project will receive all pledges made