On Veterans Day, Americans honor the 22 million men and women living in our country today for their service, as well as those who have come before us and those who made the ultimate sacrifice.
As a Veteran-founded logistics technology platform on a mission to make giving simple, ReSupply is proud to join in this salute with our partner charities across the country and residents of communities we serve. At ReSupply, the story of our founder, our company’s origins, and our team reflect particular realities of the servicemember and veteran experience in America today, particularly in the areas of military relocation, military transition, and veteran entrepreneurship. We hope that sharing our story will assist others in more fully understanding the lives of men and women who serve, and encourage you to support them.
Here are three ways to support veterans, and how our story fits in:
Relocation: Welcome a Military Family That Just Relocated
Today, ReSupply provides donation pickups from any home, across the country, and delivers them to charities across the country. But what is today a nationwide service started out by serving members of the military.
ReSupply’s roots can be traced to 2015, when our founder, Paul Tocci, was serving in the U.S. Army at a base in Georgia. Members of the military often relocate on short notice due to the nature of their duty and the demands of the next assignment. In the process, members often struggled to move their things. Tocci noticed that when servicemembers moved, many would leave furniture and other household items behind on the curb. Many of these items were still usable, so Tocci set out to solve this problem of wasteful turnover.
Partnering with local moving companies, he created a process that redirected the items from landfills, and instead delivered them to local charities. What could’ve ended up thrown out, could be put to work to ReSupply nonprofits, who in turn put the items to work in their communities.
ReSupply’s founding story highlights military relocation. According to the Military Family Advisory Network, military families move every 2.5 years, on average. As ReSupply’s story shows, this means they have to purchase new things and set up quickly. It also means acquainting themselves with a new community and moving away from support networks. It can make a difference in their lives just to say, “Welcome,” and even more to lend a helping hand.
Entrepreneurship: Support a Veteran-Founded Company
What started as an Army captain’s efforts on a military base has grown into a nationwide mission to revolutionize charitable giving in the U.S., powered by a team that includes veterans.
Today, Tocci leads a team that includes former military Veteran operations and logistics specialists to enable next-day donation pickups of gently used furniture, clothing, and household goods. This provides white glove removal for homeowners, and a steady stream of high-quality goods to nonprofits that put these items to work for their communities. Over seven years, ReSupply has provided more than $20 million in value to nonprofits across the U.S., and redirected 25 million pounds of material from landfills.
Paul is in good company. In the U.S, two million veterans own businesses. Collectively, Veteran-founded businesses employ nearly 5.5 million Americans, according to the U.S. Small Business Administration. Many veterans continue to serve their communities after completing their military duty. They are more likely than other groups to start businesses in healthcare, education, and nonprofits, according to Gusto. Supporting veteran-owned businesses like ReSupply not only means providing a livelihood for veterans, it also means supporting communities.
Military Transition: Hire a Veteran and Service 2 Software
As ReSupply found new homes for household items, Tocci also set out to provide avenues for transitioning servicemembers to embark on new career paths as their time in the military came to an end. also the founder of Service 2 Software, a nonprofit which has an accredited Career Skills Program and Individual Apprenticeship with the U.S. Department of Defense. The program allows servicemembers to spend the last six months of active duty time as fellows. During this time, servicemembers develop experience in sales, which prepares them for careers in revenue operations roles across the technology sector. Now in its seventh year, Service 2 Software has supported over X veterans and has a X% of successful conversion into full-time employment in the technology sector.ReSupply has hired veterans through this program, many of whom remain with the company in long-term full-time roles to this day.
Service 2 Software reflects the two sides of military transition. When servicemembers are leaving the military, they are often in search of a next step in their career, and, due to the nature of duty, don’t have some of the experience that others in the private sector gained just by working in an office every day. However, when given initial training, they prove to be exceptional contributors, who make an immediate impact on revenue outcomes and teams, often by hitting their stride in the first week. By supporting a transitioning servicemember, you’re accessing impossible talent.
Supporting Veterans
On Veterans Day, many in the community will display a flag, attend a ceremony, or write a letter to a veteran. We encourage all of these. But for those who are looking to do a little extra, we encourage you to lift up a servicemember, a family, or a business. These are the veterans who make an impact in our community every day. We honor them on Veterans Day, and we support them all year long.
