For women escaping domestic violence, homelessness and other obstacles, a nonprofit in Charleston is helping provide them with basic but often overlooked necessities: new bras and underwear.

The Undergarment Society encourages people to host parties where guests bring bras and packaged underwear in all sizes. The nonprofit then donates them to Lowcountry organizations that help women and teenage girls start anew.

An initial fundraiser in March 2017 was an unexpected hit, and co-founders and Porter-Gaud teachers Elizabeth Stribling and Eliza Chandler since have collected more than 3,000 undergarments for groups such as Carolina Youth Development Center, Florence Crittenton Programs of South Carolina and One80 Place.