The Common Good Mission
Our vision is to raise awareness and funding for vital youth empowerment and family support through our boutique thrift store in Seattle.
Who We Are
Common Good plans to operate a high-quality retail thrift business that generates income and awareness for grassroots charitable organizations. Surrounded by artful displays in an upscale unique setting, you’ll find fairly priced, high-quality new and pre-loved merchandise.
Fashionable Donations
Inspired by Housing Works’ Brooklyn storefront, Common Good will present merchandise in a manner that evokes retailers like Anthropologie and Urban Outfitters.
Charity Partnerships
A portion of our net proceeds (your purchases) will go to support one of our elite charity partners, which will be given 60 days to promote their organization’s work to Common Good customers through our retail space, website, and our Facebook page. Common Good will feature a new charity partner every two months. Check out our blog to learn more details about each featured charity.
Quality Merchandise
Common Good will offer a wide variety of quality, lightly-used merchandise in a clean, friendly and stylish atmosphere - a place where shoppers can listen to great music while perusing a wide range of quality name brand clothing, furniture, antiques, books, music, household items and décor.
How We Got Here
It all started with the loving hearts and minds of Anita and Robert Young.
Anita and Robert founded Red Feather Development Group in 1995 with a mission to build safe and affordable housing in American Indian communities where residents live in extreme poverty.
As they built house after house over the years, they wrestled with the non-stop fundraising required of a grassroots non-profit. This sparked their interest in creative funding alternatives.
Children and families in need get a huge lift from grassroots organizations – a healthy meal, a listening ear, a path toward a better future. The skilled, big-hearted people behind these non-profits change lives every day. However, they must step away from that life-changing work to fundraise endlessly. Grassroots non-profit organizations need champions.
At the same time, we live in a society marked by affluence, waste, and inequity. Shopping is never more than a click away, and millions live in homes loaded with high-quality, little-used items. The value of these items goes untapped as they gather dust in closets or are dispatched to overflowing landfills.
With their passion to help others, Anita and Robert discovered the idea of starting a boutique thrift store. This started the mission to open Common Good.
Meet the Board of Directors
A recognized social-entrepreneur with a B.A. in Political Science from the University of Washington, Robert co-founded and successfully co-managed three for-profit start-up enterprises, and co-founded a national nonprofit housing organization (Red Feather Development Group) that partners with American Indian nations to develop and implement long-term, sustainable solutions to the dire housing problems facing many of their reservation communities.
Since 2000, Mr. Young and Red Feather have been honored with seven nationally recognized awards, which include the Oprah Winfrey “Use Your Life Award,” Safeco Insurance “Rudy Award,” Volvo Cars of North America’s “Volvo for Life Award,” Natural Home Magazine’s “Earth Mover Award,” Dwell Magazine’s “Nice Modernist Award,” 2004 Harry Chapin Self-Reliance Award, 2006 WHY Chapin Award and the 2003 Antioch University Horace Mann Victories for Humanity recognition. In 2007, Mr. Young was appointed by Governor Schweitzer (Montana) to sit on the Governor’s Advisory Council on Economic Security for Montana Families.
Jeff Daub is a Senior District Manager for Waste Management for the Bio-Hazardous and Specialized Waste Divisions in the Pacific Northwest. He received his B.A. from Washington State University. He has held a Washington State Real Estate Brokerage license and sat on the Department of Ecology’s Citizen Advisory Board. Jeff was a partner in MJM Humidor Company, which manufactured and sold humidors through Costco and was the largest domestic producers of humidors in the late 90’s. In addition to raising his two teenage daughters, Jeff is an avid snow skier and instructed for “Ski for All” a ski school designed for people with physical disabilities. Jeff remains an active volunteer with several youth-based organizations, and he and his family currently reside in Redmond, Washington.
Duke Dixon is President and founder of International Marketing Corporation (IMC). IMC was established in 1999 and focuses on marketing health-related products to Costco Wholesale. Prior to IMC, Mr. Dixon was Sr. Vice President of sales for Weider Nutrition. Mr. Dixon has volunteered his time to Pacific Northwest-based youth organizations for over 12 years, and he maintains a wealth of business acumen and direct hands-on experience in the nonprofit sector. Duke is a father and husband, and has been happily married to his wife Marcia for over 13 years. He remains highly involved in youth organizations in the Pacific Northwest. Mr. Dixon is also an accomplished tennis player, triathlete and skier. He currently resides in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho.
In Memory of Anita Young
Thanks to the brilliant ideas from co-founder Anita, Common Good is able to help change many lives.
1963 - 2013
Our Founding Partners
We'd like to thank all our generous donors that are making Common Good possible.
Our Founding Partners also include:
Stone Gossard - Pearl Jam
Robert and Anita Young
Reid Carolin
Jim and Jan Waters - Waters Foundation
Neil Grayson
Jean Johnson
Michael and Kelly Chang
Thank You to Our Corporate Partners
Click on each logo to learn more about these wonderful organizations.
Our Charity Partners
A portion of our net-proceeds (your purchases) will go to support one of our elite charity partners, which will be given 60 days to promote their organization’s work to Common Good customers through our retail space, website and our Facebook page. Common Good will feature a new charity partner every two months. Check out our blog to learn more details about each featured charity.
We’re proud to partner with:
Seattle Girl's School
At Seattle Girls’ School, girls develop a sense of the big picture, connecting academic studies with current events, self-awareness, and collaboration, resulting in confident, highly qualified graduates who succeed in high school, college, and beyond. Middle school is a critical time for development – especially for girls. As girls reach early adolescence, their self-esteem and interest in certain subjects are likely to plummet as a result of being bombarded by conflicting messages about femininity and achievement. Seattle Girls’ School combats the trend of girls losing confidence before competence, especially in the areas of science, technology, engineering, and math, with a transformative experience for girls in grades 5-8. At SGS, girls are challenged to discover who they are and who they want to become. Our project-based curriculum, grounded in real-world experiences, offers endless opportunities for leadership, collaboration, and problem-solving. We invite you to witness what countless visitors to our campus experience: poised, confident, and actively engaged students. Our alumnae, when reflecting on their educational experience as a whole, often attribute who they become and what they achieve to the transformative experiences they had at SGS – their middle school! www.seattlegirlsschool.org
Young Women Empowered
Young Women Empowered (Y-WE): Empowers young women leaders through intergenerational mentorship, intercultural collaboration, and creative programs that equip girls with the confidence, resiliency, and future-planning skills they need to achieve their personal goals and improve their communities. The organization is open to young women from all walks of life. Currently, 70% of the girls are immigrants, 80% are of color, and 90% are from low-income backgrounds. youngwomenempowered.org
Youth Speaks
Since 2003, Youth Speaks Seattle has been the city’s premier collective for youth spoken word poetry, creating avenues for youth voices through creative writing instruction and performance opportunities. Over the years, Youth Speaks Seattle has conducted residencies and visited classrooms in nearly all of Seattle’s public high schools, hosted a thriving monthly open mic series, transformative all-city writing circles and explosive poetry slam competitions. www.artscorps.org/programs/teen-programs/youth-speaks-seattle
Right Brain Center for the Arts
Right Brain Center for the Arts is a digital arts resource organization specifically targeting the greater Seattle area youth. They are focused on bridging the technology gap and making digital media and art accessible to youth regardless of income or racial background. The Right Brain provides youth a facility in which to learn, create, display and perform their finished art projects, as well as become a community center at which to spend their time. www.therightbrain.org
Red Feather Development Group
Red Feather Development Group: Red Feather envisions a world where safe housing is available to all and people are inspired to work collectively to create self-sustaining communities. Red Feather partners with American Indian nations to develop and implement long-term, sustainable solutions to the dire housing crisis facing many of their communities. Red Feather strives to achieve that mission by building homes, teaching home construction techniques, forging community partnerships, and fostering sustainable building practices. www.redfeather.org
Red Eagle Soaring
Red Eagle Soaring-Native Youth Theatre: Empowers American Indian and Alaska Native youth to express themselves with confidence and clarity through traditional and contemporary performing arts. Founded in 1990, Red Eagle Soaring has mentored hundreds of Native youth, staged 165 productions, and supported youth access to the healing power of Native cultural traditions which promote social, physical, and intellectual engagement. In bringing together Native youth to learn not just about the technical aspects and process of theatre, but also to build a community of people interested in learning about, sharing, promoting, and supporting Native arts and culture, Red Eagle Soaring is empowering Native youth to express themselves, take creative action on the issues that affect their lives, and sustain their cultural heritage. www.redeaglesoaring.org
Na’ah Illahee Fund (NIF)
Na’ah Illahee Fund (NIF): Serves as a resource to Northwest Native women and their communities, catalyzing advancement of sustainable indigenous cultures in the Pacific Northwest. NIF provides resources to support innovative projects and to build the leadership of women, youth, artists and culture keepers. The organization is dedicated to supporting ongoing regeneration of Native communities led by educated, connected, vested and passionate Indigenous women. NIF facilitates understanding and partnership with practitioners in the socio-economic and environmental arenas in order to affect systemic change beginning at the grassroots community level. www.naahillahee.org
Jane Goodall’s Roots & Shoots Program
Jane Goodall’s Roots and Shoots Program: The Pacific Northwest division of Jane Goodall’s Roots & Shoots program is the youth-led community action and learning program of the Jane Goodall Institute. This dynamic program builds on Dr. Goodall’s legacy and vision to place the power and responsibility for creating community-based solutions to big challenges in the hands of young people. www.rootsandshoots.org
Bridge of Promise
Bridge of Promise is a Pacific Northwest-based non-profit organization supported by Special Care Agency and founded to enrich the lives of children, teens and adults with disabilities. We do this by offering community based programs, camps and respite support to families. The need is great for more summer and after school activities, as well as year round programs for young adults transitioning from high school. bridgeofpromise.org
Rios Nete
Common Good’s Board of Directors has also elected to highlight and support one international nonprofit organization per year. Starting in 2016, Common Good has selected Rios Nete as our first global charity partner. Their mission and program scope has the potential to change health care as we know it, and we are proud to include them among our elite charity partners. Rios Nete is guided by the vision of protecting the Amazon through promoting global understanding of its immense value in tangible ways. This nonprofit endeavor seeks to turn the world’s attention to the rainforest’s life-saving plant medicines and the sophisticated medical expertise of its indigenous practitioners. By clinically proving the medical efficacy of these natural and cultural resources, they seek to heighten global concern for the destruction of this irreplaceable ecosystem. http://www.riosnete.org/