How One Retail Executive Turned Excess Inventory Into Millions for Charity | Jeannie Barsam

Welcome to the Legacy All-Stars Podcast. We feature inspirational stories from people who dedicate themselves to helping others. Here is your host, Alan Pavlosky.

Welcome back, everybody. This is the Legacy All-Stars Podcast, where we celebrate remarkable people who are using their success to make the world a better place. I'm your host, Alan Pavlosky. Today's guest spent 30 years climbing to the top of some of America's most iconic retail brands: Gap, Michaels, Talbots, and Signet Jewelers. She had every reason to simply enjoy retirement. Instead, she spotted a massive problem hiding in plain sight: mountains of perfectly good excess inventory headed for the landfills of destruction while nonprofits struggled to find their missions. So what she did is what great entrepreneurs do— she built the solution. Jeanne Barsom is the founder and CEO of Gifting Brands, a nonprofit e-commerce marketplace that turns excess brand inventory into real measurable impact for women, children, and families in need. Jeanne, welcome to Legacy All-Stars. Great to have you.

Thank you so much. I'm thrilled to be here.

Yeah, let's get into the questions. You spent over 30 years at the top of the retail world, and I know you had a, a path to get there. You were at Gap, Michaels, Talbots, Signet Jewelers, which purchased Zales. What does that career path look like and what kept you in retail for so long?

Actually, I started out, I just kind of happened into it. It wasn't on my radar. I thought I wanted to be a teacher when I was young. And my senior year of high school, I had the opportunity to just have a job during Christmas. And it was a Santa's helper at Christmas at a big department store in Fresno, California. It was called Gottschalk's. And I had so much fun. That when I graduated, I actually went and applied for a job there and they hired me and that I was in the, what was called the gift wrapping department. So I actually spent 15 years there working my way up at that department store in their corporate office, started on the sales floor, became the manager, then worked my way up to become an assistant buyer and then a buyer. And then from a career path, back then, a lot of women didn't get promoted beyond being a buyer or a merchant. Buyers purchase the products that go in the stores. So I actually had the opportunity and was recruited by Limited Brands, which owned Lane Bryant at the time, and became a buyer there. And all of the executives were women. So that really gave me that confidence that there is a bigger career path for me. And so from there I worked my way up and worked at some really great brands throughout my career. And I loved what I was doing. I mean, who doesn't love shopping? I mean, you get to shop while we're working. And then I also transitioned into what's called inventory management, which is the team that buys all the products. So the merchants decide what to buy, and then my team would decide how much would go to each of the 1,000 stores that we had. And how much we were going to buy. So that's kind of my journey in a nutshell.

That's great. Take us back to the moment at Zales when you were tasked with finding a home for $1 million worth of excess inventory. It was jewelry specifically.

Exactly.

What happened when you started searching for a nonprofit that could take it?

Actually, back then, Cash for Cars was really big. So in my head I thought, gosh, there's got to be a way that we can donate the jewelry to an organization and that they could sell it and raise money for charity. And you could pick the charity. That it would go to, but there wasn't anything out there like that. I worked with our legal team. We looked and we just couldn't find anything. So we ended up not donating it. And then down the road is where I came up with that idea.

Got it. At that time, you couldn't find a single organization to set up and accept that kind of inventory. And most people would've moved on. What made you decide later after having that experience to find a solution for that?

So my journey through that was I retired from Zales after Signet bought us. I stayed on for a couple of years at Signet, and when I retired, I started my own jewelry company called Christy Jean. I was a closet jewelry designer all through my career, and my goal was not to raise money for myself. It was to raise money for charity. So I started doing jewelry events and pop-up events at charity events. To raise money. And through that process, I loved it. I loved, you know, being part of the fashion industry and designing jewelry was really where my passion was. But I really had a heart to give back. All my life I was climbing the ladder. I didn't mention my husband was a stay-at-home dad. We had 2 children. I was the one with a career, so I really didn't have time to volunteer and give back. And, you know, faith is important. My family's important, but also service and giving back is very important in my life. And I wasn't able to do that as much as I wanted into while I was, you know, going through the corporate ladder. And so when I retired, I knew that that's what I wanted to do. I wanted to do something where I could give back. So I started the jewelry company and it was, you know, small, doing well at local charity events. And I knew there had to be a bigger way that we could help more charities. So that's where I came up with the idea, why don't I work with brands, jewelry brands, to donate inventory to us. And then we could at that time sell it on our website and give all the proceeds back to charities. And we had 8 local charities that we supported. That was back in 2020. It all happened during the pandemic. So that's how I came up with the idea and got started. And then we pivoted into our new model as it relates to today.

I've been dying to talk about the new model and how that works. So that was going to be my next question. So let's go right into that. Explain the model. How does it work? And how does it make impact?

Great. So the new model is— I came up with the idea because we were donating items to charities for their events when I wasn't able to physically be there for the pop-up. And that was so successful that I decided to pivot to a donation-only model for charities. So what we do is we curate beautiful packages of jewelry, up to $3,000 to $4,000 worth of jewelry. That goes directly to a charity for their big gala or event, either as a silent auction, live auction, or raffle. And we just tested it last year and it was so successful. And so we're 100% moved to this new model. We're no longer selling our inventory on our website. It all goes to charity and it's been doing really well. We've already supported over 250 charity events and we've raised more delivered over half a million dollars in jewelry.

That's amazing. You kind of coined a little term, inventory philanthropy. What does that mean and why is it important to name it?

Well, for me, because we're working with big retail companies and brands, they're trying to be much more sustainable with their inventory. You know, the two paths were either mark it down. If you have excess inventory, mark it down as low as you can. But that hurts a brand's image. And a lot of the luxury brands or more upscale brands really don't want to do that. And the second way was they were destroying the inventory, and that was really big prior to 2020. A lot of companies were literally destroying millions and millions of dollars worth of jewelry, accessories, and clothing. And, you know, customers pushed back. So now donating has become one of the third ways that they can really utilize that inventory. And so that's why we coined inventory philanthropy, really for brands. To understand that they can do good with their inventory.

That's so cool. One of your biggest donors, early donors, was Baccarat, a true luxury brand. They donated $1 million worth of inventory. Yeah. How did that breakthrough happen and what did it mean for gifting brands?

You know, honestly, the breakthrough happened during the pandemic when no one could do big meetings. There was a fashion conference for retail brands and it was over Zoom. And I was one of the panelists talking about sustainability. It was in the early days of us launching Gifting Brands. And actually a person named Jodi Austin, who used to be in retail as well, she heard it and said, called me and said, how can I help? And she's the one that made the connection with Baccarat and they loved the idea and had excess inventory and said, hey, we'd love to help you. And that's how it got started. It's all about connections and people who have a heart. To do good and give back.

Hey, Jeannie, we talked about Baccarat and their amazing donation that they made. Tell me about some of the other brands that have supported Gifting Brands and stepped up to make large donations.

Yeah, we've had some really great brands. Some of the bigger brands that people would know are Kay Jewelers, Rocksbox, Talbots, Ann Taylor Loft, and the most recent one we just received is Lucky Brand. So those are some of the great jewelry brands. We've also had some smaller brands like Care Beauty, Have Some Fun Today, Planet Art, and many more. So I just want to say a heartfelt thank you to those brands. We could not be in this situation where we can donate over a million dollars to charity events without them. So thank you, and we'd love to talk to any other brands who might be interested.

Yeah, for sure. We definitely would love to see that kind of support. Result from our conversation for sure. You know, dovetailing into the next kind of phase of this, you also work with emerging brands and startups who want exposure, not just legacy brands with excess inventory. Can you talk about that side of the equation as well?

Yeah. So what's great about the auction path is that charities need inventory. You know, they want really great brands that can help them raise money. And for brands, it's a great avenue because they've got a wonderful audience who are willing to spend money. And so I'll use an example of Care Beauty. That's one of the beauty brands that I actually use myself. And I met the founder and she was trying to find ways to get her brand noticed. And I said, look, if you donate to Gifting Brands, it's a tax write-off for you, but you get in front of wonderful charities. So she, as a brand, actually selected the charities that she wanted her product to be in front of and because she had a heart for giving back as well. So she selected the charities that she wanted and it was a win-win.

Yeah, that's great. Let's talk about the pivot and what the new model created. You know, you made the major pivot from pop-ups to a platform called Donation Match. What was the insight that drove that decision?

So actually, one of my board members who I also worked with for many years at different companies, her name is Stacy Johnson Williams. She also has a family foundation, and that was one of the foundations that we supported in our old model. And she was doing charity, you know, she would run a couple events a year and we would donate inventory to her events. And she was using DonationMatch. And so she said, look, and you're, you know, you should try them out and see what would happen. And I actually met with the founder of DonationMatch. And what's amazing is they host 25,000 charity events a year. And it helps me because then I don't have to vet the charities to make sure they're truly 501s in good standing that are truly making a difference and being good stewards with the money that they raise. I wouldn't be able to do that if I didn't have their platform. So that's what's so wonderful about it. And I can select the type of charity. And the types of events through that platform to be able to then support women, children, and families that we really like to focus on. We do, do school events and fundraisers for anything that has to do with— it isn't just women, children, families, but that's the primary focus.

You know, talked about all the different events you've helped, and with the new model, you've already supported or on track to support over 250 charity events, I believe, this year, if I'm not mistaken. What does that number represent in terms of real-world impact?

Are you asking about charity, about donations?

Yeah. So the way that you've engaged these events, and when you run the math and see how much impact you've had, tell me about how that makes real-world impact.

You know, it's truly about the dollars and how much, you know, charities, their mission can't be supported unless they have the funds to raise. And so the great thing about it is the inventory that we is substantial. You know, our goal is to hit $1 million just in our first year of inventory that we are able to donate. That inventory raises easily $1 million or even more. Many of the charities will use it for raffles, which raise even more than the value of the product. So—

Got it.

You know, it's millions of dollars. And so the impact is huge when you think about it. It funds schools, it funds scholarships, it funds medical research, it funds, you know, housing for domestic violence. There's just so many different things that, you know, funds Boys and Girls Club, Make-A-Wish Foundation, Cancer Society, all these great charities that really need the funding. One of the things that really drove me to this as well, after I retired, I joined the board of The Family Place. Which is the largest domestic violence shelters in Texas. And being a board member, you get involved in the financials. And so I didn't realize this, but 30% of the donations that come in for a charity are at the last 2 weeks of the year because for tax purposes, um, it's really 30% last 2 weeks of the year. The problem with that is the charity has to plan their budget at the beginning of the year, and they're hoping and praying that that last 2 weeks hits their budget so they can pay for the bills that they've had to fund their mission throughout that year. So part of me starting Gifting Brands was a way that we could at least give them a recurring sustainable plan through our inventory donations for these charities. It's a small way for each of the charities, but when you add it up, it's really big because of the number of charities that we support.

Yeah, well, the charities clearly benefit. And, you know, I've had a long history of being in the philanthropy space, especially related to sports. Those charities are always looking for ways to utilize things like this to help them create additional dollars for the mission. What does the problem look like for needing more inventory and what does the outreach to brands look like? How can the business community help?

Yeah, this has taken off so quickly and fast that we're now reaching out for brands for more inventory because we'd love to hit that million-dollar goal. I don't have enough inventory right now to hit that million-dollar goal based on the demand that we have from charities, and I really don't want to turn charities away. So our focus really this year is to reach out to more brands. Most brands don't even know that we exist because No one's doing this. We're the only ones in the jewelry, accessory, kind of handbag space. That's the type of jewelry that we take. We're the only ones doing this in the United States. So it's really about getting that message out to brands that they can do good with their inventory, or even brands that are up and coming that want more exposure. They can do that by being philanthropic and not only helping their organization to get the word out about what they do and their great products, but make a difference with the charities.

Yeah. I mean, in some cases they get a tax deduction to boot.

Yes, that's exactly right. They do get a tax deduction for their inventory donation.

That's so great. Let's shift gears a little bit. Let's talk about impact, legacy, and the road ahead. I mean, this show is Legacy All-Stars. We definitely like to consider what the legacy that you leave looks like after, you know, you're finished doing what you're doing. And you and I had a prior discussion about mentorship. Tell me about your philosophy of giving of yourself with the younger generation.

I think that for me, climbing the corporate ladder was hard as a woman in the beginning because I didn't have a lot of women role models that were leaders. And so, and even today, you know, there's not that many women CEOs. The number of women CEOs are very small in comparison to men. And so to give opportunities and let women know, here's, here's how you can do it. I can take all the things I did wrong in my, you know, going up through the corporate ladder and share the successes and ways that they can really have that confidence that they can do it. Statistics show that when you're interviewing for a job, a man versus a woman, women will only apply for jobs that they think they check the box 100% of the time. For a man, if there's 50% of the job that they've never done, they're still going to apply. So, so—

I've heard those same statistics that can validate that. I've heard it.

Yeah, exactly. And so it's really building the confidence for these young women who really want to understand what the opportunities are, how they can think more broadly about their career path, how I did it, you know, as a working woman with two kids. Yes, I have the luxury that my husband chose to stay home because he realized the impact that he had as a parent in mentoring our own children. But, you know, there's always this give and take about, you know, being a parent and working. You can do it. There are sacrifices and you have to decide what those are. For me, family was important. So for us, it was important that one of us stayed home and it just worked out that I had the better career than my husband. He was in law enforcement. And so he decided to stay home, which was the right decision for us. But everyone has their own path. But I don't want women to think they can't do it. They can. There are ways. There are so many more support networks now. And I really love mentoring, whether they're a, you know, young person or even people or directors, VP levels that I also have lots of friends in the industry that have worked for me that I still mentor. And try to help out. It gives me joy to see people succeed, whether that's through charity events or whether that's just, you know, in life.

You know, the funny thing about mentorship too, for me, because I commit a lot of my energy toward mentorship, and especially with younger generations, but for those in the younger generations that have energy and insight in it from a different perspective, I find myself learning as much from them as they could from me. So there's a double benefit. You know, they can benefit from my experiences, but I can also benefit from their new energy and new perspective.

Absolutely. Sharing your mistakes are important too, because they need to understand we're all human. We're going to make mistakes. You know, one of the things in retail, it's all about test and learn. You test it. If it doesn't work, you move on, or you test it and you keep learning and making it better. And that's kind of what we did with Gifting Brands. You know, we tested it out as an e-commerce model where we were selling the goods either on our website and in popup events and realized we could make a much bigger impact by donating directly to charities for their events. The other thing that it does is that it saves those charities time because it takes them time to call brands and try to get those donations. So we save them many hours of work from their teams that they can really focus on their mission because we hand, you know, we hand select the products for them and deliver them to their door.

Yeah, that cannot be understated here. I mean, having had that experience myself, the effort that it takes to move that mountain of getting donations is really big. So yeah.

Yeah. And they're thrilled when they get it. It's like opening, you know, a box at Christmas. I get so many thank you notes and testimonials about how much they love the jewelry. And many of them start the bidding and bid on it themselves because they love it so much. So it's It's very fulfilling, but it's fun. I still get to be in the retail industry, but do it in a way that we're giving back. And everyone on our team now is a volunteer, including myself. All of what we do goes back to the charities and people that we support.

Amazing. You know, speaking of the charities you support, those causes that are most important to you, that you've really emphasized in what you want to do, who you want to support— women, children, families— they're deeply personal to you. How do you measure success beyond the numbers?

I mean, really success comes back from the amount, you know, how much they were able to raise through that. And then also the testimonials that I get. I mean, honestly, the testimonials from the charities are so heartfelt and so thankful because, you know, people who run nonprofits do it because they have a heart to give back. They're not doing it for the money. It's not an area where they make a lot of money. The salaries aren't great, but they do it because they do it from the heart. And so for us to be able to help the people who work in the nonprofits and for the profit, the mission themselves, that's really what keeps me up every day and, you know, wake up knowing that we can do something to help. I mean, the measuring it is really the amount that we donate, the number of units and the dollars. That's how we measure it. But the impact that we can make, you know, 250 charities, it's endless. I mean, we, we would love to grow this to help 1,000 charities a year and really make a difference. And again, time is a big deal. You know, we're taking away a lot of time that they would have to do this hard work on their own.

Yeah, definitely. You came from a world where bottom line was everything. How has your definition of success changed since starting Gifting Brands?

It's just in the number of lives that we can touch. You know, it's all about serving others and making it easier for the nonprofits to raise the funds that they need. Because as I said before, it's hard to raise money for nonprofits and, you know, they don't always make their numbers. So knowing that we can be a small piece of that for all the charities that we help, to me, you know, that's what makes me feel good.

Yeah. When you think about legacy, the word we build our show around, what do you hope that Gifting Brands ultimately represents in the long term?

Well, I think there's a couple of things. Sustainability, you know, we help brands be more sustainable with their inventory, so it helps the environment. Number 2, mission and service. You know, Gifting Brands is helping so many different nonprofits and the work that they do. And that's, you know, everyone can help in any small way, whether that's donating one item to a charity event, whether that's donating your time or volunteering. You know, one of the things that gives me a lot of joy is, you know, think about it, we're sending out 250 packages already. I don't do that all myself. I host packaging days and we bring in volunteers who help us pack and ship the items. And that for them is volunteer or service, or even some of them are students, they need volunteer hours towards their hours for school. So we help give all those volunteer hours and help people who just want to give of their time and effort. They can do that by helping Gifting Brands, and that helps so many more charities as well.

Yeah. And that's a great opportunity, just talking back to mentorship and talking back to giving people experiences that are meaningful. It gives them an opportunity to have purpose.

Exactly.

All right. For any brand retailer or entrepreneur listening who has excess inventory right now, what's the what's the first step they should take to work with you?

The easiest thing they can do is if they go to our website, giftingbrands.com, we have a whole brand section and it walks through what we do, how we do it. And there is a questionnaire and a, a form that they can reach out to me if they have excess inventory or if they want to learn more. And my information is there so they can reach out directly to me.

That's amazing.

You can also reach me on LinkedIn.

Perfect. Thank you so much. We've come to the end of the show, but I just want to really express how much gratitude I have for people like you and what you've built, the vision you put behind it. And you walked away from a very successful career, but you repurposed yourself into something that meant I can do something bigger. And that's really the definition of legacy. Gifting Brands is proof that business innovation and human compassion are not opposites. And that the best ideas sometimes hide inside the problems we walk away from or walk past every day. For listeners, if your company has excess inventory, or if you want to support a nonprofit that turns everyday products into life-changing impact, visit giftingbrands.com. I'm sure it will be a clean process for you. I've had several conversations with Jeannie. They're very well organized. If you know of a brand that should be part of this movement, share this episode with them for sure. I'm Alan Pavlosky. This has been another episode of Legacy All-Stars, where we celebrate people using their success to leave the world a better place than they found it. And again, Jeannie, thanks so much for joining us.

Thank you so much. I really appreciate it.

All right, have a good day.