Jeannie Barsam runs Gifting Brands, a nonprofit resale shop selling excess luxury inventory at steep discounts. A $1,200 Baccarat ring sells for under $400; $300 diamonds go for $49.99. All proceeds fund charities like The Family Place and Together We Thrive, which helped roughly 1,000 students graduate or advance last year.
Questions this video answers
100% of what you purchase (proceeds go back to charities that help women and children).
Eight charities on the website (shoppers select one at checkout or choose 'all of the above').
Twelve-hundred-dollar Baccarat rings being sold for under $400.
Originally $300, listed on the website at $49.99 (and noted as a Black Friday gift-with-purchase).
Jeannie Barsam was an executive at Zales.
Chapters
All right, coming up next, a way to shop name brand fashion without breaking the bank. And you can also help others in need at the same time. The 10 is back right after this. All right, welcome back. There is a way to combine philanthropy and shopping and saving some money on luxury designer brands. It's called gifting brands. Jeanne Barsom joins me. How to explain how it works. This is all like first, right? I mean this is the same stuff you'd buy at the store. Why is it discounted so heavily?
So brands work with us because they want to be sustainable and to help make a difference in lives of women and children. And so we work with brands that have excess inventory. And that was my whole career was managing inventory for large companies. And when I retired, I found a way to do it and give back. So 100% of what you purchase, those proceeds go back to charities that help women and children. I love it because we're a nonprofit.
Yeah, what a great idea. I mean, listen, people make more than they sell sometimes, so why not? So let's kind of talk about some of the part of the partner companies because this is some high end stuff here.
Yeah, it is.
Okay, so let's talk about it. Where is these red boxes are hard to not recognize.
Yes, they are. So those are baccarat and they have some amazing products. We have these twelve hundred dollar rings that are eighteen karat gold. Full eighteen karat gold. There's no plating on it. And we're selling them for under $400. And we have a lot of the jewelry is actually now under $100. Many of these amaz that we have that are sterling silver. It's all made in France, all first run. But they were really generous to donate it to us. And you know, these become really things that you can pass on to your kids.
I was going to say these are heirloom, heirloom quality.
And these are no longer in their inventory. They actually cleaned out their warehouse and said, you know, these are no longer on our line and we're going to give them all to you to make a difference. They've helped us build a school in Honduras. They've helped us build wells with charity water. And really a lot of local companies like the Family Place, which is a beloved nonprofit here in Dallas. And they're one of the charities that when you purchase, you can donate to.
I think one of the things that people don't realize is that again, it's all perfectly good, perfectly beautiful stuff that actually, I mean the way that it used to work or still does sometimes is they just throw this stuff away.
It's true. And especially with jewelry, you know, there's nothing wrong with it. It doesn't go out of style for the most part, for sure. And it's a great way that they can be sustainable and give back to the commun. So it's been amazing. We've gotten great response. Like these lab created diamonds right here. Those are from signet jewelers and they were $300. They're now on our website at $49.99. Incredible. Incredible. In fact, Black Friday, they'll be a gift with purchase.
Okay, so let's kind of talk about. So Baccarat, Kate Spade, Loft, who else?
So we've had lots of brands. So Rocksbox was. Is a subscription based company and they had excess inventory and they donated different brands, including Kendra Scott, which we actually sold out of already. But we've got Loft, we've got. We have apparel brands as well at Cabana Life. We're really blessed to be able to do that. We also have a brand called Christy Jean, which is actually what I'm wearing as well as these.
This piece is gorgeous.
Thank you. Those are actually my designs. I started after I So I was an executive at Zales. When I retired, I started a jewelry company. I was a closet jewelry designer for 20 years. And so I decided what a great way to do what I love my hobby and donate it all to the charity.
Is it a polished geode?
That is a geode. That is actually geode. So I love hands picking. All of the geodes. All of these bracelets here, they're real gemstones and they're all from the Christie Jean line. That's on the website as well.
Incredible. Now real quick, talk to me about where this money is going. So you mentioned building schools. Who are we supporting by shopping this way?
So the way that it works is we have eight charities on our website. When you check out, you actually then get to select one of the charities or you can say all of the above.
Oh, so the consumer gets the charity.
The consumer picks the charity.
That's incredible.
We really vetted all of the charities. We wanted to work with nonprofits that are really making a difference. So charities like the Family Place, as I mentioned, together we Thrive, which is actually a local charity here in Dallas that actually has life coaches in the schools and they help homeless and trafficked teens stay in school. They're a very new organization. I think DFW school district let them go into the schools about three years ago. Last year they saw 1000 kids either move on to the next grade or graduate from high school, which they wouldn't have had that opportunity.
It's great. I love the idea here. Listen, shopping is something that people. People do anyway. Saving money is something that people love doing. So why not figure out a way to do all of those things and help a great cause? We appreciate everything that you're doing. Hey, and if you want to start shopping right now, you can do it. We've got a link on our station website, foxfornews.
