Your Dollar Doesn’t Just Help. It Multiplies.
How 100% of every public donation goes to work — and why no other organization stretches a charitable dollar quite like we do.
Imagine walking into Target on a cold January morning to buy a warm winter coat for someone in need. You’d probably spend $60, maybe $80. You’d feel good about that. Now imagine buying that same coat for $19.90 – and then buying 654 of that coat and then delivering them to a local homeless shelter. That’s not a fantasy. That’s a Tuesday for Gifts for the Homeless.
For more than three decades, our all-volunteer organization has been clothing thousands of our neighbors in and around Washington, DC. No salaries. No marketing budget. No overhead. Just a small army of dedicated volunteers and a network of wholesale relationships built painstakingly over thirty-plus years — relationships that let us buy new clothing at prices that would make a retail buyer’s head spin.
This winter, we spent $393,291.60 to purchase 144,810 new items of warm clothing for shelters across the DC region.
That’s not secondhand. That’s not surplus. Every single item we buy is brand new, quality clothing — thermal underwear sets, winter coats, socks, gloves, hats, jeans, sweatshirts, and more — bought in massive quantities at wholesale prices that reflect decades of trust with our supplier partners.
We pay an average of $2.72 per item. Try finding anything in a store for $2.72.
What We Pay vs. What You’d Pay
Numbers tell the story better than words. Here’s a direct comparison between our wholesale prices and typical retail costs:
| Item | Our Price | Typical Retail |
| Men’s or Women’s Briefs | $1.50 each | ~$4–6 each |
| Men’s Thermal Set (top + bottom) | $6.25 | ~$40–60 |
| Women’s Thermal Set | $6.00 | ~$40–60 |
| Adult Sweatshirt | $6.63 | ~$35–55 |
| Adult Hoodie | $7.25 | ~$45–75 |
| Men’s or Women’s Jeans | $9.25 | ~$50–80 |
| Adult Winter Bubble Coat | $19.90 | ~$80–150 |
| Kids’ Winter Jacket | $18.00 | ~$60–100 |
| Men’s Ski Gloves | $5.00/pair | ~$12–20 |
| Unisex Hat | $0.90 | ~$5–8 |
| Cotton Socks | $0.48/pair | ~$2–4 |
| Twin Polar Fleece Blanket | $8.25 | ~$25–45 |
The Secret Behind These Numbers
We’re often asked: how do you get prices like this? The answer is not complicated. Over thirty-plus years, we have cultivated deep, trusting relationships with a select group of wholesale clothing suppliers. They know us. They know we will place large, consistent orders that we donate to people in genuine need. We don’t spend public dollars on administrative salaries, fundraising galas, or office leases.
Because we have no paid staff, our entire organizational model is built on volunteer labor. That means when a dollar comes in from the public, a dollar goes out as clothing. Not 70 cents. Not 80 cents. A dollar. Our volunteers handle every step of the process, including surveying shelters; ordering whatever they need; and ensuring that everything arrives as promised.
This combination of wholesale pricing unlocked by decades of trust, and overhead costs held at zero by our all-volunteer structure is what makes Gifts for the Homeless arguably the most efficient way to help homeless people in the Washington D.C. region.
What This Means for You as a Donor
If you gave us $50 this winter, your money bought roughly 18 items of new clothing — socks, thermal tops, gloves, hats. If you gave $100, that’s 36 items. A gift of $500 put nearly 180 pieces of new warm clothing into the hands of people who desperately needed them.
No other organization we know of works quite like we do. That’s not a boast — it’s the result of three decades of faithful, quiet, unglamorous work. Showing up. Following through. Earning trust. Doing it again the next year.
We serve over 50 area shelters throughout the DC metro region. Every single one of them depends on us. Every single one of them knows that when Gifts for the Homeless delivers, it delivers something real: new clothing, at a scale that individual donors and smaller organizations simply cannot match.
100% of public donations buy clothing. No exceptions. No overhead. No salaries.
Thank you for your continued support!
Gifts for the Homeless is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization serving the greater Washington, DC region. All donations are tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law.