Gifts for the Homeless: Law Firms Working Together to Help the Homeless

Laurel Glassman and Carol Weiser

This is the story of how a group of energetic lawyers in Washington, DC has been able to provide hundreds of thousands of items of essential new clothing and tens of thousands of bags of good quality used clothing to homeless men, women, and children in the DC metropolitan area. It is the story of how a small, simple idea for helping the homeless has grown into a large and successful operation that now supports more than 80 homeless shelters, soup kitchens, and transitional housing facilities with clothing and other essential items.

In 1986, a handful of young attorneys who were looking for a way in which the legal community could give back to the broader community in the nation’s capital decided that they should do something to help the homeless survive the cold of winter. Initially, they collected money from their colleagues at three DC law firms as the December holiday season approached, used the funds to buy clothing at retail, and distributed that clothing to homeless men and women on the streets of DC and at holiday parties held by area homeless shelters. They called their group “Gifts for the Homeless” (GFTH).

In the intervening 20 years, GFTH has become more and more successful. Not long after that first effort, it was incorporated as a 501(c)(3) organization. The group began soliciting the participation of other DC law firms, buying new clothing at wholesale and taking all the clothing to shelters for more efficient distribution. In 1989, GFTH also organized a used clothing drive, recognizing that this effort would allow GFTH to reach even more people, and establishing the current practice of an annual campaign to collect used clothing and money to buy new clothing for area shelters.

An all-volunteer organization, GFTH has a 21-member board of directors, representing a broad cross-section of the legal community of the DC metropolitan area, including partners, associates, counsel, paralegals and administrators from law firms, in-house counsel, federal government attorneys, and service providers, such as a printing company that prints appellate court briefs. It accepts support from any person or organization, but focuses its efforts on soliciting donations of money and used clothing, as well as volunteers for the used clothing drive, from the local legal community. And when GFTH recently organized its first fundraising event, it was a “battle of the law firm bands”—with the requirement that every competing band have at least one member who was a lawyer!

GFTH Today

The used clothing drive, GFTH’s biggest annual project, requires the participation of all members of the GFTH Board and many volunteers. During the December 2005 drive, 380 volunteers sorted nearly 4,000 bags of donated items and distributed them to almost 70 facilities that serve the homeless and needy in DC and the Maryland and Virginia suburbs. The volunteers and the donations of clothing, shoes, sleeping bags, toiletries, and many other items came from over 70 law firms and other legal organizations.

To help with both the used clothing drive and its fundraising efforts, GFTH has established a group of “firm coordinators” at law firms and other legal organizations in town. In November of each year, GFTH sends out letters and e-mails to the firm coordinators announcing the annual campaign. (GFTH also posts this information on its website: www.gfth.org.) The firm coordinators are asked to send notices to staff at their firms requesting used clothing, volunteers, and donations. While the firm coordinators are collecting the clothing, sleeping bags, blankets, toiletries, and other items, the Board surveys each facility it serves, performing a “needs assessment” to determine what that facility needs in the way of used clothing. Since GFTH has no permanent location of its own, the Board must also locate vacant office or retail space in downtown DC that the owner is willing to donate as a sorting site for the weekend of the drive. On that weekend, the firm coordinators bring the donated items to the sorting site where the items are sorted, re- bagged, and distributed to the homeless facilities. Law firms cover the cost of pizzas and sodas to feed the hundreds of volunteers. Two Board members rent U-Haul trucks to haul the larger loads, and volunteers are enlisted to haul the smaller loads in their own cars or minivans.

The used clothing drive has grown exponentially over the years in terms of the number of volunteers, number of shelters served, and amount of clothing distributed, but the operation involves only a few basic requirements: finding empty office space for sorting by calling a few building management companies; putting out a call to the firm coordinators at legal organizations (often by e-mail) for used clothing and volunteers; contacting shelters to find out what their needs are; and sorting and delivering the clothes to the shelters. While GFTH runs its used clothing drive on a large scale, a similar drive could be run on a much smaller scale with only a handful of people—indeed, that is the way the GFTH used clothing drive was originally run.

The firm coordinators are also integral to GFTH’s efforts to raise money for the purchase of essential new clothing for the homeless, such as thermal underwear, thermal gloves, thermal socks, knit caps, sweatshirts, sweatpants, and socks. With their help, GFTH has been able to raise over $100,000 each year in the past several years. The monetary donations come principally from individual lawyers and staff members. A few law firms have matching programs under which the firms match donations by individuals. Also, some firm coordinators raise money through fundraising activities, such as offering an ice cream party to the floor or practice group that contributes the most money, bake sales, and silent auctions at office Christmas parties.

GFTH is a unique charitable organization because law firms in DC and contributions from Board members cover all expenses. As a result, GFTH has no overhead and is therefore able to apply one hundred percent of the general purpose donations it receives to purchase and ship the new clothing items it buys. GFTH uses the funds it raises to purchase clothing at wholesale, in bulk, from manufacturers and have it shipped directly to a group of 20 to 30 shelters.

In 2004, the Board of GFTH decided to put on its first fundraiser for two reasons. First, the Board wanted to be more active in support of the homeless throughout the entire year. Second, the Board realized after surveying the shelters for which it buys new clothing that the money raised during the course of its annual fall campaign was meeting only a fraction of the new clothing needs of the homeless. After much debate, the Board settled on sponsoring “Banding Together 2004”—the “battle of the law firm bands”—as a summer associate event. Held in a Georgetown bar, the event featured seven firm bands (each including at least one lawyer) competing for the championship. The winner was determined by “Chicago-style voting,” that is, by the audience stuffing money into the ballot box for its favorite band—of course, GFTH kept the money.

Banding Together 2004 was a modest success, raising $10,000 for the purchase of new clothing. Encouraged by these results, GFTH decided to host Banding Together 2005 at a well-known nightclub in the Adams Morgan area of DC and to make a greater effort to attract law firms and service providers as sponsors of the event. Hundreds of summer associates from law firms across town attended, and GFTH raised more than $30,000 from Banding Together 2005. The event was so successful, and so much fun, that GFTH will be presenting Banding Together 2006 at the same venue.

Lessons Learned

The GFTH Board has learned some useful lessons over the years. First, and foremost: even a small group of volunteers from the legal community can make a significant contribution to helping the neediest citizens if the people are willing to put in just a few hours of work each month. Second: law firm support, and having individuals from law firms on the Board, has been essential to obtaining used clothing donations, enlisting volunteers, and raising money. The law firms that have worked with GFTH over the years take great pride in the work they do and the contributions they make to help our organization, and they believe that they benefit from the association with GFTH. Third: the willingness of so many people to help GFTH, just for the asking, has been phenomenal. Every year, GFTH has been able to obtain free use of office or retail space for the weekend of the used clothing drive, free use of recycling carts to move the donated items into and out of the sorting site, free food for the volunteers, free publicity from print and television media, free office supplies for mailings to firm coordinators, and so forth. Fourth, and finally: every member of the Board feels enriched by working with GFTH. GFTH hopes to keep growing and improving, so that eventually we can help every single homeless man, woman, and child in Washington, DC stay warm each winter.