Many take the pleasure of new clothes for granted, but for those caught in a cycle of poverty, that luxury can be a necessity, Joan Clayton says.

"New clothing does something for people's dignity," Clayton says, "especially if they are in the dumps and are trying to get out."

In 1991, Clayton and her friend Ina Andre founded Windfall Clothing Service, a charity that collects donated clothing and distributes it to other charitable agencies around the GTA.

Windfall grew out of Second Harvest, a similar charitable organization that Clayton and Andre founded in 1985 to collect and deliver unused fresh food from the city's restaurants and small grocery stores to shelters across the city "What sets us apart from anybody else in Canada is that we're the only service that deals exclusively with new clothing donated by manufacturers or retail outlets," says Helen Harakas, Windfall's executive director.

Ken Kerr, Business Edge
Helen Harakas, Windfall's executive director, says the organization depends on volunteers such as Stephanie Small, top, and Stacey Harakas to run efficiently and keep costs down.

Since 1991, more than 360 manufacturers and retailers, including fashion heavyweights Gap Inc. and Levi Strauss & Co. Canada, have donated more than one million pieces of new clothing to Windfall.

"The donor company rejects the product for some reason," Harakas says. "It could be that a stitch is a little bit off or the colors have bled a little bit. Whatever the reason, it's clothing that would otherwise be thrown away."

And the amount of clothing is mind-boggling. Last year alone, Windfall distributed 274,000 clothing items to 80 partner service agencies as diverse as women's and men's shelters to health and community services to outreach and employment assistance agencies.

More amazing still is the fact that Windfall receives no government assistance and very little in way of corporate financial support. Most of the agency's $300,000 annual operating budget comes from charitable foundations.

"Each year, it gets harder and harder because there are more and more organizations vying for the same money," says Harakas, who also acts as Windfall's chief fund-raiser. "The foundations are trying to do good as much as they can, but they have to spread it around."

With more than a decade in the charitable services field, Harakas was attracted to Windfall after witnessing the benefits new clothes had on the clients of a group home she worked for. The difference in the home's clients when they received new clothing versus used was significant.

"A lot of Windfall's clients have had a long history of poverty," she says. "Poverty causes a lot of stress and a lot of health problems. I realized that if I really want to do something to help these people, maybe they don't need to go see another psychiatrist; maybe they just need help in the financial area."

Today, Second Harvest provides enough food for roughly 12,000 meals every day. But in the early days, Clayton says, she and Andre operated from the back of a stationwagon.

"We operate like a business rather than like a charity," Clayton says. "That was a conscious decision on our part from the beginning because it is less difficult for people to accept. We tried to look as commercial as we could rather than look like little old ladies with baskets."

A defining characteristic of Windfall, Harakas says, is the efficiency with which the charity operates. The service employs only one full-time staffer and two part-time. The rest of the agency's crew - board of directors, warehouse workers and special events workers - are volunteers.

"For some reason, we seem to attract unbelievably wonderful people," Harakas says. "Nobody is here for their own ego or for their own agenda; they are all really committed."

Even with the volunteers' help, Harakas says processing more than 250,000 articles of clothing a year would not be possible without the help of two pivotal partners.

The first is Remco Group, a commercial transportation company that donates its delivery services to Windfall. The fact that Windfall is able to take delivery of clothing from donor companies on 48-hour notice has been crucial to its success, Harakas says.

"One of the things that makes us different is that we respond to our donors very quickly, she says. "Once they decide they want it out of their warehouse, they want it out of there immediately. Because of Remco, we are the only charity that has the ability to have a truck there tomorrow to pick up your 20 skids and get it out of their way."

The other is Community Living Toronto, an organization aimed at maximizing the independence of people with intellectual disabilities. The volunteers from the organization help unpack, remove labels and categorize the thousands of articles of clothing Windfall receives at its 6,000-sq.-ft. Adelaide Street West warehouse each week.

"Even though they are helping us put all this clothing out, they benefit as individuals," Harakas says. "It is really fun for them. These are people who don't have social networks; they don't have the ability to create them. Here, they get support and a social outlet."

Anne Waters, general account manager for Levi Strauss & Co. Canada, says the delivery convenience along with the guarantee that the donations will not be sold are two of the central reasons why the company has been a contributor since the 1990s.

"Helen is wonderful," Waters says. "She lifts our spirits every time we are down there. I think we both have the same goal: To get the product where it's needed. For us, Windfall is a vehicle to get it there."

For the future, Harakas says the main focus will be to stabilize the organization's funding because it is overly dependent on charitable foundations. Toward that end, Windfall stages an annual event called Buy Design. Each April for the past two years, 80 volunteers co-ordinate a party and silent auction of donated items in Toronto's Distillery Historic District.

"Buy Design raises $60,000 and attracts the elite of the fashion industry in Toronto like Linda Lundstrom and Marilyn Brooks," she says. "Each year it gets bigger and better, and provides another source of revenue so we're not depending 100 per cent on one group."

There will also be a golf tournament this year, co-ordinated by the Charger Foundation, and a third special event is in the works.

"Everybody should volunteer and give back to their community however they can," says Clayton, who was awarded the Order of Canada last year and Flair Magazine's Award for Lifetime Achievement.

"It could be a big thing or little thing," she says. "Everybody can do something."

(Mike McLeod can be reached at mcleod@businessedge.ca)