Editor’s Note: This story first appeared on our Seller Community page.
This Thanksgiving, Laurie Wong provided over 1,600 food insecure families with a savory turkey dinner and a week’s worth of groceries – amounting to over 267,000 pounds of food – thanks to programs funded by her eBay for Charity store. Raised in a convent with a soup kitchen, she began serving the less fortunate early in life. Today, she’s a force for good in her community, supporting those in need at an even larger scale.
More than 20 years ago, Laurie turned to eBay to transform her small nonprofit thrift store into a thriving global business that fuels charitable services in her town of Powder Springs, Georgia. Through her eBay store, she has become a lifeline for her community – powering a food pantry feeding thousands each week and running programs that assist seniors, students, and struggling families.
We sat down with Laurie Wong, founder of Reflections of Trinity, to learn how she grew her business and her charity, in her own words:
Answering the call to serve
When I was a child, I was sent to boarding school. It was a convent, and I lived there for seven years. We had a soup kitchen, and I saw the tenderness the nuns showed as they served the poor. It made an impact on me from a very young age, and it became part of my nature to care for people who were struggling.
Over time, I grew into what I call a “compassionate capitalist.” I’ve been deeply involved in my community and my church, and I'm an entrepreneur. So I’ve always looked for ways to use my entrepreneurial abilities and give back.
In 1999, I was in church and felt an urge to open a resource center to serve the needs of people in crisis. I emptied my savings account in 2003, and with the help of my church, I opened Reflections of Trinity, a brick and mortar thrift store that doubled as a resource center where people in need could pick up clothing, housewares, and furniture.
From local thrift store to global business
In 2005, a volunteer from the church came by, and I mentioned the lack of foot traffic to my thrift store. He was a techie, and he suggested we sell our goods online through eBay. He explained how eBay could expand our footprint to a national – and even international – audience.
At the time, I was unsavvy about all things online, so he had to literally open the account for me. He handed me the keys to my eBay store, leaving it up to me to figure out the rest.
Scaling to uplift her community
So I had this baby in my hands, and at night, after putting the kids to bed, I taught myself how to list on eBay. Back then, there were no YouTube videos or online tutorials, so I had to learn how to run the store by myself as a solopreneur. I built my eBay business to 1,500 items, working alone in my basement at night.
Once my store grew to 1,500 items, I hired my first employee. Since then, many others have helped me in my business. We now have 15,000 items in our store and a team of six employees in our eBay division, allowing us to better serve our community. And we’ve been selling on the platform for over 20 years.
I sourced the items for my eBay store from the donations to our nonprofit, grading them based on their value, and sold the rest in our thrift store for under $2 each.
We saw success with our eBay store quickly by selling big-ticket items on consignment. In 2006, I began selling classic cars through eBay Motors. I even sold a speedboat and a car trailer on eBay. We also sold a lot of collectibles, because those were the days of Beanie Babies and people couldn’t get enough of them.
Meeting basic needs, meal by meal
Thanks to the revenue we make on eBay, we’ve been able to expand our resource center into a food pantry. So not only are we providing folks who are struggling with items for their home, but also nutritious food.
We started out serving 33 families in 2012, and now our food pantry supports over 8,000 people each month, providing nourishment and hope to those who need it most. We do that through three distribution efforts: providing groceries to the general public, delivering meals to our senior community, and offering weekend meals to food-insecure students at schools.
The food pantry is staffed by volunteers, and some of our biggest efforts are our holiday drives. We believe it’s important for people in need to celebrate the holidays with dignity. At this year’s Thanksgiving drive, we provided over 1,600 families with a turkey and all the fixings, as well as a week’s worth of groceries.
Additionally, we’ve opened a benefits office where people can come and apply for Medicaid, food stamps, and other services for women and children. It’s open after work and on the weekends, so the working poor can come apply at the times it’s convenient for them.
Turning her sales into support for a cause
In 2006, we signed up for eBay for Charity right away because of the reduced fees and all of the other perks that you get for being a nonprofit seller. The lower fees allow us to put more of our money into our mission.
Being an eBay for Charity seller sets us apart on the platform. It helps the customer understand that 100% of proceeds will go towards our cause, and we can clearly state that our sole purpose is to feed those that can’t feed themselves.
I think the mere fact that eBay chooses to recognize nonprofits and the work that we do is phenomenal. They give us a lot of exposure, and over the years, eBay buyers and sellers have given over a billion dollars to charity. They truly walk the walk.
Living with purpose and passion
If I had not learned how to sell on eBay, we would have never been able to grow the business and service this many people. eBay has allowed us to expand our reach in the community and to add programs like the student meals program.
Success to me is being able to say to someone in need, “We got you.” I believe that we’re created to do what we can do, and by the grace of God, we’re able to provide for others every single day. I really love what I do, and I'm so thankful to wake up every morning with purpose and passion.
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