The Buy Nothing Project began in 2013 as a Facebook group on Bainbridge Island, Washington. Founded by Liesl Clark and Rebecca Rockefeller, it gave neighbors a way to give, ask, lend, and share without buying, selling, or bartering. Today the organization describes a network of local communities that use Facebook groups and the Buy Nothing app. Its reported reach is substantial, but its membership and annual sharing figures are estimates published by the organization, not independently audited totals.
What is the Buy Nothing Project?
Buy Nothing is a neighborhood gift-economy project: members offer things or services, ask for what they need, and express gratitude when something changes hands. The central idea is that useful items can circulate among neighbors rather than be purchased, discarded, or exchanged for another item. The project describes giving, asking, and gratitude as its core practices, rather than a transaction system based on payment or barter. The Buy Nothing Project’s 2025 announcement characterizes its official network as focused on freely giving rather than buying, selling, or trading.
This model is distinct from a resale marketplace: a member can request an item, and another member can choose to offer it, with no price or trade required. The project’s Global Standard rules describe local communities as places to give and receive, share, lend, and build relationships among real-life neighbors. Individual groups can set local variations, so members should read their group’s posted rules rather than assume every community handles requests or handoffs identically.
How did a Bainbridge Island experiment grow?
In 2013, Clark and Rockefeller noticed plastic washing onto the shore near their Bainbridge Island homes and began asking whether neighbors could share items that people bought but used only occasionally. Their first Buy Nothing Facebook group drew local interest, and members carried the idea into other communities. Clark described the goal as asking neighbors for something needed instead of repeatedly buying it, then offering useful items to the community rather than throwing them away or donating them elsewhere. The Washington Post’s 2021 account reported more than 5,500 groups in 44 countries at that time; that is a historical snapshot, not a current count.
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Clark called the origin “a social experiment” that became a “global, but always hyperlocal, gift economy.” The tension in that phrase captures how the network works: the organizing idea can travel internationally, while giving and receiving remain rooted in local relationships.
How large is the network now?
The Buy Nothing Project’s About page, accessed October 8, 2026, reports more than 14 million members across 50-plus countries, more than 162,000 metric tons of items shared per year, and $360 million in annual value of shared items. The organization does not explain on that page how it calculates the yearly tonnage or dollar value, and the reviewed material does not establish independent audits of those estimates. Treat them as figures the organization reports, not as independently measured outcomes.
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Separately, an October 2025 announcement, updated November 5, 2025, said the project had more than 8,000 communities and more than 11,000 volunteers. Those counts and the About page’s membership and impact estimates use different measures and publication dates. They should not be combined with the Washington Post’s 2021 group count to calculate a precise growth rate.
Can members ask for things as well as give them away?
Yes. Asking is part of the project’s stated model, alongside giving and gratitude. A member may post a request for something useful; another member can respond with an offer. Members may also lend or share, depending on their local group’s rules. Because groups can set local variations, check the group description or pinned rules for how to make requests, arrange handoffs, and follow up.
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Is the Buy Nothing app different from Facebook groups?
The project’s About page says its platform includes Facebook groups and the Buy Nothing app, which is available on iOS, Android, and the web. The app is another channel for participating in the gift economy; a Facebook group is organized around a local community on Facebook. The best fit depends on which channel you already use and the rules and activity of the local community available to you. There is no basis here to claim one channel is better based on comparative testing.
On January 22, 2026, the project announced Buy Nothing 3.0, describing tools to find nearby gifts, filter categories, and choose local or global reach. The launch announcement also acknowledged unexpected technical hurdles and said the team was working through them. The announcement does not establish the app’s present-day reliability, so check its current listing and functionality before relying on it for a time-sensitive exchange. Read the version 3.0 announcement.
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How do you find an official Buy Nothing group near you?
- Start with the project’s About page and its linked platform options, including the app and Facebook groups.
- Check the group’s description or directory listing to see whether it is registered with the Buy Nothing Project. The organization says Facebook groups using the BuyNothing name must register to be part of its official network; registered groups receive admin support and inclusion in a public directory. This is the project’s registration policy, not a guarantee that every group using similar language is affiliated. See the project’s explanation of registration.
- Read the local group rules before posting. The project’s standards allow local variations, so instructions on eligibility, requests, offers, and exchanges may differ by community. The Global Standard rules set out the shared principles.
What does independent research say about the groups?
A 2022 preprint by Amaç Herdağdelen, Lada Adamic, and Bogdan State analyzed de-identified Facebook Groups data. It found that Buy Nothing groups were more popular in denser and more urban U.S. counties with higher educational attainment. The authors also described interaction graphs with lower Facebook friendship density than comparison local groups and larger strongly connected components, which they interpreted as indicative of generalized reciprocity. The study is available on arXiv.
These are descriptive patterns in Facebook group data. They do not show that joining Buy Nothing causes people to reduce waste, become more socially connected, or experience other long-term environmental or community outcomes.
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How is the project funded?
In its 2026 app announcement, the organization said, “We don’t sell your data. We don’t run ads,” and said subscribing members help support the platform. Those are statements from the project, not an independent audit of its practices. The announcement describes that support model.
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