That's a wrap on 2025! Our Annual LiquiDonate Recap

2025 Highlights

This year was incredible for LiquiDonate. Our biggest highlight was winning TIME Mag Invention of the Year in sustainability. We are still pinching ourselves! To be awarded such an important designation as a small four-year-old business is nothing short of a dream. Being mentioned alongside companies like Anthropic and Samsung validates the impact of our work in the eyes of experts and motivates us to push even harder in the years to come! 

Other 2025 highlights include:

• Bringing our disaster relief services California wildfire victims
• Being one of only six companies accepted into the 2025 New York Fashion Tech Lab cohort
• Launching our partnership with Loop returns
• Participating in SF Climate Week
• Honoring CEO Disney Petit, selected as one of SF's LGBTQ+ Outstanding Voices
• Relaunching our Shopify App with free enterprise features for small businesses
• Releasing our very first holiday gift guide to shop retailers who donate

Growth

What a year! Through our three solution (ReturnsDirect, WarehouseDirect, and BoxDrop) we donated over 4.8 million items, which is more than twice the number of items in 2024. That's over 2 million pounds of goods diverted from landfills. We are now up to 15.8 million items donated all time!

Our network of circularity partners receiving goods grew by 12% to 4,369 nonprofits and schools across all 50 states (and Canada!)

Our Recipients

We are honored to partner with nonprofits of all sizes, many of which are grass roots and have limited resources to serve their communities. Every time a retailer directs an item through us instead of landfilling, a life is touched in an incredible way. Here are some of our favorite stories shared by recipients this year:

I would like to extend our sincere thanks for your generous donations. The quality is outstanding, and our clients truly appreciate them. These items not only provide a practical benefit but also help our clients feel seen and supported as they work toward rebuilding their lives.

The quality of the item is amazing. The item arrived with tags still on.

The donations we have been receiving are amazing!  Brand new shirts, bras and now socks.  These are all much needed items  in our community.  These are going to men and women who are really in need and they appreciate all you are doing!  We can not thank you enough!!!

I'm over the moon in tears. I'm so forever grateful. Thank you 1 million million times.

We help a lot of families, and honestly, for someone who's going through a tough time, getting something as simple as a brand new, soft, well-made t-shirt can really make their day. So thank you, it means more than you know.

Our Team

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Our team grew to keep up with doubling our operations, including a Director of Marketing, Chief of Staff, and Business Development Manager. While we all have different backgrounds, we have one thing in common: valuing the critical work of nonprofits. That's why we offer each employee paid volunteer time to support organizations and causes of their choice. Our tradition of volunteering when our remote team meets in person also continued. This year each employee was given a total of 24 hours to volunteer. We’re grateful to be able to give back in our own communities.

As a team we volunteered during our onsites with A Meal With Dignity, Punks with Lunch, and Martin Luther King Jr Elementary in Oakland, CA.

Looking Ahead

Our mission is to accelerate the world’s transition to a circular economy. 

In 2025, returned merchandise in the US amounted to nearly $850 billion dollars. Retail's best kept secret is that an enormous percentage of these returned items that can't be resold profitably will end up in landfills. Brands and retailers shouldn't be shamed - they've never had a cost-friendly option to do the right thing with these items. That's where we come in.

In 2026, we are going to tackle the Everest of retail waste, beginning with releasing our own report in January and a feature on All Access with Andy Garcia in February. Our ReturnsDirect software has proven itself in 2025 to make donation more cost effective than dumping. Now, it's time for the brands to come on board to save money on landfilling, do good for the community, and be great for the planet.

Cheers to a wonderful 2025, and to more impact in 2026!