Downtown Swarthmore has a small brick and mortar shop where the racks of gently used clothing and shelves of household finds are doing double duty as a fundraising engine for foster and adoptive families across Delaware County. Heart and Soul’d, located at 407 Dartmouth Avenue, operates as a nonprofit thrift and consignment store, and every sale, whether it is a designer handbag, a piece of furniture, or a rack of children’s clothes, sends proceeds to partner organizations that support kids and families in the foster care and adoption system. The shop is closed Mondays and Tuesdays, then open Wednesday through Sunday, generally from around 10 in the morning until somewhere between 3 and 5 in the afternoon depending on the day, so it rewards a bit of planning if a shopper wants to browse on a weekday.
The store built its reputation on the idea of quality over quantity, describing its own selection as high quality items at prices that will not break the bank rather than a bargain bin free for all. That approach earned Heart and Soul’d recognition as Best of Delco in the Thrift and Consignment category for both 2024 and 2025, a back to back honor from the local community that reflects steady word of mouth in Swarthmore and the surrounding Delaware County towns. The shop also sells its own branded merchandise, including a Chosen T shirt priced at 20 dollars, with proceeds folded directly back into its mission work.
What makes Heart and Soul’d distinct from an ordinary secondhand store is its Mission Match program, which rotates the specific beneficiary of store proceeds so shoppers can see exactly where their purchase is headed. The current Mission Match partner is the Family Support Line Children’s Advocacy Center, meaning dollars spent on a vintage lamp or a gently worn coat this season are funding a specific, named organization serving children and families rather than disappearing into a generalized budget line. As a registered 501c3 nonprofit, the store is transparent about that structure and treats its physical location as more than a retail space, describing it as a community built inside the walls of the store itself, complete with volunteer opportunities for locals who want to get involved beyond simply shopping or donating.
For anyone in Swarthmore or the wider Delaware County area with a closet to clear out or a Saturday afternoon to fill, Heart and Soul’d offers a way to shop secondhand with a clear sense of where the money goes. The inventory mixes clothing, accessories, and household items donated by the community, refreshed regularly enough that regular visitors tend to check back often rather than treating it as a once a year stop. Combined with its consecutive Best of Delco wins and its rotating Mission Match model, the shop has carved out a niche as both a practical thrift destination and a visible, accountable piece of the local foster and adoption support network. In one sentence, Heart and Soul’d is a Swarthmore, Pennsylvania nonprofit thrift and consignment shop whose sales directly fund foster care and adoption support services in Delaware County.
