Philly AIDS Thrift is celebrating a major milestone — having donated $5 million through 250 grants over its existence — and nearly 20 years working within the community.
Christina Kallas-Saritsoglou is the co-founder and executive director of Philly AIDS Thrift. She explained the store began in the early 2000s.
“It was in 2005 [that] me and a couple of friends started the organization,” she said. “[We were] longtime AIDS activists and lovers of junk. We put the two together, and this is kind of what we came up with.”
Kallas-Saritsoglou said that, since then, the organization has grown exponentially. This includes a move to a larger South Philly location and a second location at Giovanni’s Room – the oldest LGBT and feminist bookstore in the nation.
“Back then, it was just two of us,” she said. “And now, we have probably about 30 paid staff people and probably about 70 volunteers that kind of help us do our work, seven days a week. And outside of staff and operating costs, we give all of our proceeds to local HIV organizations in the city.”
She said the store offers all types of products – from “dollar to designer to everything in between.”
“We have an entire kitchen room that’s huge,” she said. “We have a book area. We have an electronics room, a music room and a vintage room. We have dollar land, where everything in there is $1. We have designer racks. We have affordable furniture.”
There is also an in-store HIV testing center – which provides no-charge, drop-in, rapid testing and related counseling services with HIV/AIDS charity organizations.
Philly AIDS Thrift’s Grant Program began in 2014. Kallas-Saritsoglou said the process begins toward the end of each year.
“We have an online grant portal that we open in October of every year,” she said. “All the organizations submit proposals, they kind of tell us a little bit about the work they’re doing, projects they’re working on and how much funding they need in order to do that.”
From there, Philly AIDS Thrift’s grant committee review applications and disperses money to eligible applicants at the beginning of the year.
In total, the organization has awarded over 200 grants to more than 50 organizations.
Kallas-Saritsoglou said this past year’s contributions raised the organization’s total donations to $5 million.
“This past year, we were able to give 34 organizations $358,000,” she said. “And the wonderful thing about this is that the money kind of goes to all forms of [HIV/AIDS] care, because all these different organizations are focusing on things like prevention, outreach, case management, research and education.”
Kallas-Saritsoglou said the $5 million milestone “means the world” to her.
“It’s just an amazing thing that we can take items that people no longer want and turn that into dollars that support the work of people who are doing so many wonderful things that are making an impact in the community,” she said. “And we probably never thought that it would grow to be this, but it just gives you the hope and encouragement that we can do so much more.”
Philly AIDS Thrift’s main beneficiary of donations is the AIDS Fund, which disperses money to 19 AIDS Service Organizations in the five-county Philadelphia region. The grant program allows for additional funds to other HIV/AIDS Service Organizations. Eligible organizations have historically been awarded anywhere from $1,500 to $10,000, with an average award of $5,000.
Grant applications for this year will re-open later this year. Eligibility criteria for last year’s organizations can be found here.
As for the community, Kallas-Saritsoglou said there are many ways to help.
“We always say the way to support us is shop, donate, volunteer,” she said. “And for donations, we accept things that are in good, resellable condition.”
Donations are accepted Tuesday to Saturday of each week from noon to 7 p.m. More information on Philly AIDS Thrift and ways to get involved can be found here.
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2025-03-06 09:00:00
