Author Archives: Armadio Team

Madonna a Voice for Hope and Action!

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Hey Madonna, What’s going on?

“It has pretty much taken over my life, and I’m so grateful it has…I’ve started an organization called Raising Malawi…and any of your help would be greatly appreciated by me.” – Madonna 

As most us know, Madonna has established herself as a pop star known for pushing the envelop of the lyrical content in mainstream popular music as well as images in her music videos. 

Madonna is an American recording artist who is a Golden Globe winner and an entrepreneur in her own right.. She has risen to the height of being considered one of the most influential women in music today, and has sold more than 200 million albums worldwide. She is the most successful solo artist in the history of Billboard Hot 100 chart.

However, we care most about and want to spotlight her for how she gained global recognition by helping to bring an end to the extreme poverty and hardship endured by Malawi’s 2,000,000 orphans and vulnerable children once and for all.

Way back in 2006 Madonna and Michael Berg founded Raising Malawi, together. This non-profit organization supports community organizations that provide children who are the most vulnerable and their caregivers with nutritious food, proper clothing, a secure environment and formal education. They also help by providing targeted medical care, emotional care and psychological support.

Raising Malawi is also a supporter of non-government organizations that offer impoverished families with innovative opportunities for sustainability such as Millennium Promise and International Medical Corps. Millennium Promise is a non-profit organization which is working toward halving extreme poverty in Africa by 2015 – a goal we hope they will be able to achieve. They work to implement high-impact programs with the objective of transforming lives and part of that work is with the International Medical Corps, a global, humanitarian, nonprofit organization.

New on the horizon is Madonna’s launch of a new fund-raising force to support the work of a Malawian pediatric surgeon. Madonna matches every dollar donated to Raising Malawi and is partnered with SocialVibe, the leading social media utility connecting people and empowering them in several ways. We hope she can find a way to leverage armadio to bring an end to suffering and hunger to children in our country too!

 

 

Madonna has supported so many other charities it’s hard to keep track, but we’d like to call your attention to just a few, here’s the partial list

  • American Foundation for AIDS Research
  • Afghanistan Relief Organization
  • BID 2 BEAT AIDS
  • Bony Pony Ranch
  • buildOn
  • Charity Projects Entertainment Fund
  • Children in Need
  • Children of Peace
  • Live Earth
  • Make-A-Wish Foundation
  • Millennium Villages
  • MusiCares
  • Music Rising
  • Partners in Health
  • Raisa Gorbachev Foundation
  • Sentebale
  • Sweet Relief Musicians Fund
  • Treatment Action Campaign
  • UNICEF
  • UN Millennium Project

And she’s in good company here is a partial list of other supporters of the same charities & foundations: Alicia Keys, Angelina Jolie, Angélique Kidjo, Annie Lennox, Bill Clinton, Billy Joel, Bono, Brad Pitt, Cher, Céline Dion, Demi Moore, Jeffrey Sachs, John Legend,  and last but not least Mariah Carey.

 

Open a Closet for Charity

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Helping a Charity
Opening a closet to help support a specific charity is at the core of what Armadio is all about.

However, sometimes, as my Dad likes to say, “charity begins at home” and if you need a little extra money for kids’ shoes or some other essential items than you owe it to your family to use the money from your Armadio sales to provide for them.

If your are fortunate enough not to need all the money from a sale for you or your family consider sharing a portion of the sale from your closet to support a charity you feel is doing great work!

Either way we hope that the Armadio community will be a “community of giving” whether it’s helping your family or someone else.

How We Add Charities
We want you to know how our process works for registering nonprofit organizations.

If you’d like us to add a nonprofit, you can submit a charity for our consideration. All you need to do is send us the name of the charity and any contact information you have – go to www.armadio.co and use the Contact form. We’ll contact the organization and let them know you told us about them.

Alternatively, you can have a representative of the charity contact armadio [same way using the Contact form on www.armadio.co] and we will assist them in getting on the website. Only an authorized representative can set up a charity account – they must agree to being registered on the site.

If you are the representative of a charity then you will want to set up a separate account for your organization to take advantage of potential donations. Click on the word “Charity” on the main menu and then use the “Add Your Charity” tab the rest of the steps will be clear [Let us know if it is not clear].

Once a charity has set up a profile page they must then be approved – we take this very seriously to guard against fraud. We authenticate all nonprofit profile requests using GuideStar http://www.guidestar.org/Home.aspx.

That’s our process and we hope you appreciate the care we take. Looking forward to seeing your “fabulous closet” on armadio!

 

Great Selling Tip – Sell Outfits!

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Is there anything better than finding a perfect outfit?

And even better buying the whole fabulous find for one price!  If you offer a mix and match approach on your armadio.co closet you can help create a path to stylish outfits that won’t break the bank.  If you can keep the price under a $100 you’ll find women bookmarking you as their “favorite” closet:

Helping another women to create a stylish and original wardrobe can help you become a star closet owner. Who doesn’t want to turn some heads and stand out in a crowd. Whether your perfect outfit is suited (no pun intended) to the office, a night on the town, or a relaxing casual situation, it’s important to look great and have clothes you feel comfortable in.

 

Another important part of creating fashionable outfits is keeping up to date with the seasonal styles. As the weather changes you’ll want to add seasonally appropriate outfits to your closet. Change your offerings so that you are not only prepared, but so that your closet keeps a stylish look.

 

High-Quality Clothing is always in demand and if your perfect outfit is a combination of quality pieces it will surely be a winner on armadio.co. Obviously,high-quality clothing starts out costing more, but a cheap piece of clothing is typically not a good value. High quality items last a lifetime and look great too.

Offer brands that will excite and are known to be good quality. Helping another woman to add quality to her wardrobe at affordable prices is what armadio.co is all about. We’re also about giving back, so please make an effort to share your sale with a deserving (nonprofit) cause.

 

Heidi Klum Super Supportive Supermodel

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Heidi Klum has put her status as a supermodel to good use helping a variety of charities and providing a great role model for all of us. Heidi is “high fashion” and has a keen sense of the important health issues women face everyday. Layering these together on several occasions, she has demonstrated her knack for combining the two. She has repeatedly donated dresses worn to an assortment of celebrity studded functions to one of her favored charities.

Heidi Klum purchased a custom-made couture red gown by John Galliano for an Oscar ceremony and donated the dress to the Red Dress Program. She also modeled at a fundraiser for the Red Dress Program. Her Oscar dress is being offered as part of the Red Dress Program initiative between Diet Coke and the National Institutes of Health’s The Heart Truth. The objective is to raise awareness of heart disease in women.

Another item from her fashionable wardrobe went to the ‘27 Dresses’ auction benefiting the Lavender Trust breast cancer organization. Klum finds time to attend other events too such as Madonna’s gala for Raising Malawi, which provides food, water, medical care and schooling to orphans.

She’s a supporter of UNICEF, the skin cancer nonprofit IMCG (for which she modeled a t-shirt), and the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation, which aims to prevent infants from contracting AIDS from their mothers and discover treatments for other life-threatening pediatric illnesses.

Here are a few other organizations that the “amazing” Ms.Klum supports: 21st Century Leaders, Cancer Research UK, Children’s Defense Fund, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, Elton John AIDS Foundation, Family Health International, Red Cross, Screen Actor’s Guild Foundation, The Heart Truth, Whatever It Takes.

Heidi, you would make us proud if you opened an armadio.co closet and donated some of the wonderful fashions you own to a charty registered on our shopping site!

 

 

Are You Ready to Open an Armadio.co Closet?

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Are you ready to open your armadio.co “closet?” Now is the time to get started! The beta site is ready for your closet. Please consider this your personal invitation!

So, if you want to start selling and letting us know about nonprofit organizations you’d like to support, than it’s time to: “Get on your mark, Get set, GO!.

Here’s what we recommend you do:

First, walk over to your closet (dresser, shelves, etc.) and begin the “Three Pile” exercise – you’ll find details here”  Do you Have a Closet or a Dungeon?

Then, organize “Pile # 2″ [put similar items together] photograph the clothes, accessories, and jewelry you want to sell (a phone camera is usually all you need).

Now go to armadio.co and set up a closet. Your online store will have it’s own unique web page (Example Time and Again) and you can use it as a link from other places you visit (e.g., twitter, FB, Pinterest) You’re in Business!

 

What Can You Sell on Armadio?

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What Can You Sell on Armadio.co? The quick answer to this questions is almost any type of women’s clothing, accessories, or jewelry that is in good or new condition. Tops and skirts, shoes and belts, and dresses are popular items as are hats, jewelry, coats and other accessories.

Selling jewelry,may be one of the easiest because it doesn’t require the same amount of description as clothing (sizing issues and such are simpler). In all cases, a picture is worth a thousand words and two or three pictures are worth . . well you get the idea.

You can combine a necklace or bracelet with earrings and set one price. Take a look through your jewelry box or drawer and find the items you either don’t like or simply don’t ware – sell them and make room for “presents” from your admirers that you will wear.

 

 

A coat that you never or hardly ever wore is another good item to sell and you will create space in your closet, making room for more useful apparel. Coats and jackets are often worn less than other clothes and stay in excellent condition making them a great sale item for Armadio.

Do you have luggage that is just sitting in your closet taking up valuable space, pieces you never use? Take the plunge, sell it on Armadio. Good quality luggage is in demand. If you price it correctly it will sell quickly. If you’re feeling in a generous mood give a portion of the sale price to a favored charity!

But don’t stop there – shoes, tops, dresses, skirts, pants, hats,suits, belts, boots, etc. are all good items to sell and as always we encourage you to share your sales with a favored charity!

 

Lucy Liu Black Belt in Helping Prominent Causes

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Actress Lucy Liu, is considered the most well-known and visible Asian American women in the media today. She is an active artist in several forms of media and a women you don’t want to make angry given her martial arts capabilities (expert in Kali-Eskrima-Silat, which is knife-and-stick fighting). But kidding aside, Lucy is a formidable force, she is the “Asian Excellence Award” winner for Visibility, and visibility comes in handy as she pursues roles as ambassador and spokesperson for a number of prominent causes.

Liu took part in the America: A Tribute to Heroes charity telethon for victims of 9/11. In 2001, she was the spokesperson for the Lee National Denim Day fundraiser, a single-day fundraiser created by Lee Jeans to support the women’s cancer programs run by the Entertainment Industry Foundation, a 501©(3) non-profit, and the leading charitable organization of the entertainment industry, funding more than 300 charitable organizations annually, both in the Los Angeles area and throughout the United States.

I hope we can one day have Lucy Liu use the reach of our website and her wonderful sense of style to promote causes she is passionate about and help us help others. She certainly is no stranger to helping people around the world. Liu has traveled to Pakistan and Lesotho, among other countries, as an Ambassador for UNICEF.

 

She has also donated profits of her art shows directly to UNICEF and also through Whatever It Takes, a unique artwork campaign launched by 21st Century Leaders.

Lucy Liu has supported numerous charitable organizations during her fabulous acting career. Here are few charities where she has taken an active role: 21st Century Leaders, Bicycle For A Day, Entertainment Industry Foundation, Raising Malawi, UNICEF, and Whatever It Takes.

Keep up the great work Lucy, we look forward to your next block-buster role and we thank you for being a great role model and an inspiration to us all.

Together We Can Fight Cancer!

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Yes, this is a bold statement!  Nothing great has ever come from making timid statements. As Captain Kirk (Starship Enterprise) was fond of saying, we will “boldly go” where no one has gone before (although proper English would be we will “go boldly”).

It was a bold statement that President Kennedy made when he said we would reach the moon in ten years. A vision that propelled this country forward. Not a ten or fifteen point plan, but a vision, a bold challenge, which set us in motion, not just to reach the moon, it was a catalyst for driving new technologies and educating our young folks in science and mathematics.

Martin Luther King made a bold statement when he delivered his famous “I have a dream” speech, which still sends shivers up my spine. Well we’re not pretending to be in the league of JFK or Martin Luther King, but I do believe that together we can accomplish what others might think is impossible.

Armadio is not actually going to do cancer research, far from it. However, we are creating a “community of giving” and providing that community with the tools to unlock value they already have; and through generosity to redistribute this value in the form of donations to causes worth fighting for – helping to fight the plague of cancer is our bold statement.

Here’s How to Help.
Armadio is designed to provide you a place to set up a closet (it’s your own storefront) and begin selling. Buyers will come, but first we (you and many others like you) must fill the mall with “inventory” and that’s where Armadio needs your help.

To make it interesting we are having a drawing, the prizes are: Two Kindle Fire tablets. We will randomly select two winning closets from among the first 500 closets that open with five items or more. The winning closets will also be featured on the Armadio’s Homepage.

In addition, these 500 closets will be placed in a second drawing for ten (10) beautifully hand crafted pieces of costume jewelry. 

Please help us fill the “beta site mall” with great fashions so we can get the ball rolling! We appreciate your help to create a community of giving. Armadio needs your help

Armadio more than a website – it’s a Movement!

Do You Have a Closet or a Dungeon?

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When you open the door to your closet, and for those with large walk-in closets take a step into it, what emotion do you feel? Is it a feeling of delight or one of dread?

If you are delighted please share with us how you achieved this form of nirvana.  We can all use guidance on making the experience of entering our closet a pleasant one.

On the other hand, if you are not delighted and moreover you have a sense of dread, disgust [that may be a bit strong], or general displeasure than it’s time to take action. Here is a “3-Pile” approach to help you sort through your fashions and accessories.

 

Pile number one – Clothes, accessories, jewelry, etc that you truly love. Stuff that fits well and you often get compliments on from strangers. These are all the items you would buy again today if you didn’t already own them.

Pile number two – All the items you rarely if ever wear, never feel good about, and/or you would never miss.

Pile number three – This one you may have to work on repeatedly, but for now these are the items you can’t decide whether to keep or not. Could be an emotional attachment, or clothing item you’d like to fit into again, or one you’re keeping because a special someone gave it to you. There are many reasons why items will be placed in this pile. Don’t stress over it too much, sleep on it and revisit this pile in a day or so.

Now take action. Arrange the items in pile #1 so you can see them and start taking notes on what you need to fill in any gaps in your wardrobe.

Start organizing pile #2 and get ready to set up your online store i.e., “closet” on www.Armadio.co  - Happy Shopping!

Gwyneth Paltrow Donates and Donates and…

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Gwyneth Paltrow is a “charity machine.” This beautiful celebrity truly believes in giving back. Among the work she’s involved in is the donation Estée Lauder makes of a minimum of $500,000 of sales of items from the ‘Pleasures Gwyneth Paltrow’ collection to breast cancer research. In 2008, Paltrow donated $75,000 to the Food Bank For New York City.and said we all need to be doing more.

Paltrow also gives of her time serving on the board of the Robin Hood Foundation, a charitable organization which attempts to mitigate the many problems caused by poverty in the Big Apple (New York City). She hs been the Ambassador for the Saks Fifth Avenue Key To The Cure campaign against breast cancer. And, she narrated the UNICEF film The Gift.

However, it doesn’t stop there.Actress Gwyneth Paltrow – who is married to Coldplay singer Chris Martin – is a big supporter of Kids Company and British band Coldplay donated £1 million to this children’s charity in the UK. The group made this donation because the charity provides practical, emotional and educational support to vulnerable inner-city children and young people. They focus especially on kids with severe emotional, behavioral and social difficulties, that resulted from significant experiences of trauma and neglect..

Last year, she cleaned out her closet for an auction to benefit the charity, and she recently designed a range of clothes to raise money for the organization. We hope that someday soon Gwyneth will work with Armadio to create a fundraiser that will do something spectacular!

Gwyneth Paltrow has supported many other charities, here are the names of a few of them: Act Green, American Cancer Society, Environmental Media Association, Healthy Child Healthy World, Hoping Foundation, Keep A Child Alive, The Lunchbox Fund, and UNICEF.

 

Way to Gwyneth! You are a role model and an inspiration to us all.