Project Shelter, a startup with cofounders in Georgetown and Richmond, Va., is seeking a graphic designer (who is interested in working for equity). The company is seeing an increase in business as the music festival season hits its stride this year. The company sells (rather than rents) camping equipment and delivers it to festival sites for fans and then donates what is left behind to nonprofit organizations.
Nick Stelmack, cofounder of Project Shelter, is an avid music festival attendee. "I saw all this new gear getting thrown away [at a festival's end]," he explains, "[as well as] the frustration with people charging so much for rentals. [Festivalgoers] deserve a supplier that will cater to them."
Project Shelter is a for-profit enterprise that donates to nonprofits. "People order stuff and choose the event they want it delivered to, and we sell it outright," Stelmack explains. The prices are competitive with rentals, and at the end of the festival, buyers don't have to stand in long lines to return stuff, get it inspected for damage, and fill out any paperwork.
Customers can choose from different packages and can choose items a la carte, depending on their needs. Stelmack says that his most popular item is the
two-person package for $149. Blankets and tents, he says, are the items usually returned to Project Shelter, but the company will donate everything that is given back to it. Lately, he has been donating the tents to Feed the Children out of Oklahoma City to use as temporary shelters following the tornado there. "We are open to other partnerships," he says. "They can work with the tents." The blankets go to homeless shelters and refugee camps.
"I believe our model is unique in the way social outreach is integrated into our day-to-day operations," Stelmack says. Maximizing Project Shelter's donations is an effort, he says, "defined by our double bottom line as equally important as revenue."