This week we begin a new feature on the blog I'll be calling "From The Mailbag," where - you guessed it - I'll be highlighting random questions and comments I receive via e-mail.

My buddy Luke in the Chicagoland area recently sent me the following question:

hey jason, have you seen the site freecycle.com? do you see any difference between freecycle and twoshirts? are they both kinda doing the same thing or is there a difference?

Luke,

The function of Twoshirts is obviously very similar to Freecycle. In fact, after I started Twoshirts.org last spring I soon discovered there are several sites like this that seek to connect people for the purpose of recycling.

The difference is mission; the mission of Freecycle (and other sites like freesharing.org) is to recycle used things and keep them out of landfills (which is a great mission!). People post things to giveaway on occasion when they don't need it and they'd rather not throw it away. These are great networks and are doing important and exciting work, in my opinion.

By contrast, the Twoshirts mission is to empower people to live an ongoing life of generosity and simplicity in order to contribute long-term toward the alleviation of poverty. In fact, rather than occasional giving, I'm hoping to inspire people to essentially live a life of shared possessions (I know, very idealistic). I think this would give a healthier perspective on the stuff in our lives, and possibly even free us up to use our extra resources to contribute to the fight against poverty.

Along those lines we'll be launching a new dimension of Twoshirts later this month that we're hoping will inspire and enable Twoshirts members to reach out in new ways to the poor.