Our story

Second Story Cards is a boutique greeting card company that elevates the creative talents of homeless women and men. We believe that no one element in our lives, certainly not our housing status, defines us. And regardless of our circumstances, we have the ability to change our situation, to change the narrative wrongly being used to define us. We can write a second story. 

In the dining room of a third-floor walk-up in our nation's capital, Second Story Cards was born in December of 2016. With a pack of white cardstock, some assorted inks and stamps, embossing powder, and an $80 black and white Samsung printer, we started producing cards. They were very simple, some of them were downright hideous. But the colorful envelopes and shiny plastic sleeves that they were packaged in made them look like legitimate greeting cards. Like the ones your mom used to buy - only better!

Our business model is simple: create beautiful greeting cards and help our most needy neighbors. The cardmakers receive 15% of each sale. Additionally, we donate 10% to a nonprofit of their choice in an effort to give back to the organizations that have helped them overcome the challenges they've experienced. 

We've grown a bit and enhanced our graphic design capabilities. We found a printer that uses gorgeous, environmentally friendly paper on which to print our cards. And we've even started branching out to areas beyond Washington, DC. But at our core, we're still as committed as we were from day one about creating beautiful greeting cards and changing the lives of the homeless women and men we work with.

Here's a great video that shares the incredible backstory of how Second Story Cards got started.