Rebecca Lee Funk, the founder of District clothing retailer and community-activism hub The Outrage, considers giving back a key part of her business model: The 14th Street NW store donates to progressive causes using the money it has left over after paying for its operating costs.

But last week, along with many other local businesses, The Outrage’s brick-and-mortar location, which regularly hosts feminist- and social justice-themed events in Logan Circle, shuttered amid broader coronavirus closures. Funk sent her staff to work from home to help prevent COVID-19 from proliferating.

As a result, she had to improvise. The Outrage put out an open call via its mailing list and social media channels to ask what kind of help it could offer during the pandemic. Many people replied seeking ways to stay connected with loved ones while maintaining social distance, according to Funk; others said they’d lost their jobs.

The founder and her team came up with a way to address both of these problems at once: postcards. Through The Outrage Postcard Project, people can buy postcards featuring customized messages, and The Outrage will hire someone who has lost employment due to coronavirus to handwrite them. $3, $5, and $10 options that were designed in-house—embossed with slogans like “we can do hard things”—are also available.

Most of the profits will help pay the people writing the postcards, while The Outrage will collect a small percentage of $5 and $10 sales to cover overhead and keep the project going, says Funk. “They’re like little pockets and moments of joy in this scary time,” she tells DCist. When The Outrage announced the initiative last weekend, she says its staff received 100 employment applications within the first 30 minutes and more than 1,000 in the first 24 hours.

The first batch of cards went out Tuesday, and Funk says the messages have ranged from hopeful and reassuring to just plain funny. “People are writing hilarious poems,” says Funk. “Someone just wrote [one] this morning that was like, ‘Never forget that even in quarantine you are the supreme being, queen.’” One couple who had to cancel their wedding because of the virus sent a postcard to everyone on their guest list encouraging them to stay inside and keep safe, per the founder, and many others have written to their grandparents.

Funk says she and her staff are still working out the long-term logistics. Most postcard writers The Outrage has provided work live in D.C., and although Funk would like to expand beyond Washington, strict lockdowns in cities across the U.S. could make mailing the cards challenging. She’s also working out how many people she can afford to employ for the project.

The retailer’s own revenue has taken a serious hit because of local shutdowns, and even their e-commerce sales have declined, says Funk. Still, she hopes to continue hiring up and sending as many postcards as possible. And to repurpose the store by hosting food banks, blood drives, and other local relief efforts in its 2,000-square-foot community space.

“We don’t manufacture things, so I can’t make masks,” says Funk. “But I could probably make some people smile, and give some people some work.”