HOW ONE VIRAL TWEET TURNED INTO A NON-PROFIT CHANGING LIVES
By: Hillary LeBlanc
Salome Hall never expected to be running a not-for-profit organization, but like many, the pandemic brought a lot of life changes. Hall is a disabled veteran, who went to school at NYU to be an archivist. When their illness became so severe they were homebound, stuck inside and unable to be employed. This was the first time that Hall struggled, yet all signs were pointing towards being in service to others.
COVID-19 sparked many changes, one ppsitive impact was a surge of projects where groups would support one another. During this heightened time of support, Hall started to research how they could help or lend support to other organizations. Hall first heard of the Brave Space Alliance, an organization headquartered in Chicago providing free cosmetics to the gender expansive community. Hall also became aware of For The Gworls, an organization in New York who help trans women pay rent. Despite their own hardships, Hall donated funds to For The Gworls and items to Brave Space Alliance and would check their social media to eagerly see how they had impacted others. During this time Hall also moved from New York City to Philadelphia. Hall decided that they had plenty of items and clothes that they could give away locally but didn’t know how to start or spread awareness.
Serendipitously, Hall saw a clip of the song Somebody That I Used to Know by Gotye and Kimbra. She re-tweeted the clip and added the sentence ‘A hit that sticks’. Shockingly, thanks to the algorithm gods, the quoted tweet went viral with Kimbra herself sharing Halls tweet. Because their tweet went viral, companies like Amazon were offering to pay Hall to add their products for sale in the replies to piggyback on the tweet’s success and earn sales. While mulling it over, Hall didn’t want to promote random products or not use this moment to generate impact. They share, “I just wrote, “If you're a trans woman and you need things, hit me up. I will make you a gender affirming care package with clothing and whatever else you need. Just DM me.” And that's how it started.”
Dalyla Mizani Cristal wearing Elias Gurrola at Threads Reimagined 2026, NY, NY. Photo by Charlotte Tatum
After posting that tweet in June 2020, Hall received two dozen requests by the end of August of that same year. Hall was funding the shipping out of their own disability checks and funds so they wanted to pivot models. Eventually, Hall got a collapsible travel closet and went to queer BIPOC focused events offering items for free. They drove 16 hours from Philadelphia to Durham, round trip to offer these free items. As they continued to raise awareness about their work, they were then invited to the social impact cohort of Philadelphia non-profits which solidified how serious this project was. This led Hall to start networking, ask for grants and look for funding to scale the work they were doing.
The Sisters Affirming Sisterhood Project was named very intentionally, early in the formation of the organization, because Hall wanted the name itself to reflect both organization values and practice. “Sisters” speaks to kinship, care, and shared humanity. “Affirming” is central to the organization because affirmation is not passive, it is an active commitment to seeing, supporting, and protecting one another. And “Sisterhood” represents the kind of collective belonging and solidarity that Hall wanted to help cultivate, especially for those so often excluded from traditional ideas of womanhood, community, and safety. Hall chose the name to signal that this work is about more than services, but has the goal of building a culture of affirmation where people are able to live with dignity, connection, and support.
The Sisters Affirming Sisterhood project has moved from Center City Philadelphia to West Philadelphia into a hub. They now throw clothing events, have space to do queer ballroom and have thrown two annual Marsha Cookouts celebrating Marsha P. Johnson. Guests get free food, free clothes and there are people to alter garments on site.
In 2024 and 2025 the Sisters Affirming Sisterhood Project participated at New York Fashion Week. In 2024, a friend asked Hall how they could go about holding a fashion show. Hall suggested they could find queer designers who would go through the free garments the organization offers to the community and the designers could repurpose those pieces for the runway. Having never thrown an event before, Hall successfully threw the event and though attendance was a bit small, they were able to create a moment, get great visuals and increase brand awareness. The experience also allowed them to show models and participants in the show how their skill set can be monetized, like embroidery and mending. In 2025, Sisters Affirming Sisterhood Project returned to New York Fashion Week and sold out their space. This season, they had designer Elias Gurrola do the entire show with 100% queer representation on the runway and production. The show shared the story of Gurrola’s life, loss of his mom, heartbreak while weaving in dance at the Judson Church which is a queer haven and institution that has been in New York for 150 Years.
Dalyla Mizani Cristal at Threads Reimagined 2025, NY, NY - photo by Kaleo Rodrique
As the US has recently pulled back from supporting BIPOC, Queer and Trans communities, Hall has remained steadfast in her organization’s work. Before Donald Trump became president, Hall took it upon themselves to file to become a 501(c)3 non-profit to allow for more funding opportunities. Hall has also experienced other people and organizations suggesting the Sisters Affirming Sisterhood project use different language and back away from saying they are a gender affirming resource as many corporations are no longer sponsoring that work. “There were a lot of companies that didn't have their pride events this year.” Hall adds, “A lot of those companies are saying they are not funding work in that area at the moment, or, they are shifting their funds to new industries or interests. I believe that we've gotten this far without compromising our messaging.” Hall adds they won the Gold award at the fifth annual Anthem Awards for best non-profit in DEI. Hall will never shy away from saying the work of the Sisters Affirming Sisterhood Project is a gender affirming resource, about environmental justice, about workers' rights, or that society needs to divest from fast fashion.
Now, 6 years since the idea started, the Sisters Affirming Sisterhood Project receives donations which they then give out as gender affirming packages to their West Philadelphia location. For the future to come, Hall hopes that there will be ways to take secondhand garments from around the world and expand to being internationally recognized. She’s also seen people in their own community go through trash after university students make their mass exodus to find goods. Hall hopes that as more people learn about Sisters Affirming Sisterhood Project, that they could be a central drop off point and then offer free garments to people with dignity to avoid resorting to garbage sifting.
Through the Sisters Affirming Sisterhood Project, and all of their work, Hall hopes more people will come to a place of acceptance and universal love for all people no matter their identity, gender, or existence. Hall says, “We might realize we have a lot more in common than we think. We're not as different as we think. We're all roommates already, on this planet. You might as well get to know your roommate or at least compromise your living space with them.”