This is a guest post from Dress for Success Halifax
(Member since 2010)
As the Executive Director of a non-profit charitable organization, Brenda Saunders/Todd spent a lot of time thinking about how to ensure sustainable funding.
But what she came up with was a solution that wound up benefiting three times as many people.
Dress for Success Halifax regularly receives clothing donations that are in excellent condition that aren’t quite job interview-appropriate wear for their clients. Instead of re-donating anything non-professional, Saunders/Todd had the idea to create a non-profit social enterprise.
“These articles of clothing weren’t necessarily appropriate for our clients, however, they were still very good clothing of great value,” says Saunders/Todd. “So, I started a non-profit organization that’s 100 per cent volunteer-run, and all proceeds are donated directly to Dress for Success Halifax.”
The Social Boutique opened in 1,200-sq.-ft. storefront just off the Bedford Highway in the Village Centre in October of 2016 — and gratefully moved into a 3,000-sq.-ft. space this past January.
Saunders/Todd says they’d been so focused on raising money for Dress for Success Halifax, they were surprised when the shop resulted in “wins” they hadn’t considered — like being able to help a wider community of women.
“Dress for Success Halifax clients must be referred, but everyone can come and shop in The Social Boutique,” says Saunders/Todd. “Trousers, blouses and sweaters are mostly $5 each, so a woman can come in and get completely outfitted for a very small amount of money. It’s a fun place to shop.”
She says another unexpected “win” was how The Social Boutique ended up changing the lives of the people working there.
The original team of five volunteers were women who’d wanted to get back into the workforce but lacked experience or had “been out of the game” for a while. Volunteering at The Social Boutique gave them valuable skills and boosted their confidence. Within six months of opening, all five of them had found paid employment.
“We realized the shop was a win/win/win — a win for Dress for Success Halifax and the clients we serve, a win because we were helping more women in the community and a win because of the positive effect the boutique was having on our volunteers,” says Saunders/Todd.
Today, The Social Boutique is staffed by nearly 30 volunteers. Saunders/Todd says it remains “an economic engine of sustainable funding” for Dress for Success Halifax, which helps the non-profit charitable organization stay afloat.
It’s ideas like The Social Boutique that led to Saunders/Todd being put forward as a candidate for Dress for Success’s International Board of Directors. She was voted in back in January, and her two-year term runs through 2021.
Saunders/Todd is the only Canadian on the International Board of Directors, and only one of two affiliates who run Dress for Success operations. The remaining members include executives like Wal-Mart VP Lisa Schimmelpfenning and Lucy Kaylin, Editor-In-Chief of O, The Oprah Magazine.
“It’s really amazing for me to see the workings of the organization at that level,” says Saunders/Todd, who also serves on the Board of Directors for Dress for Success Canada.
Saunders/Todd believes she was brought on board to “bring insight, awareness and advice to the board from the affiliate perspective, as well as the client perspective.” She recently flew to New York City for her first international board meeting.
“Most of these board members are not working with clients directly, so I want to show them what their time and effort looks like at the ground level — while representing Canada as an international player,” says Saunders/Todd. “They could have asked Toronto, Ottawa, Vancouver or any other affiliate in Canada, but they chose Halifax. It’s a really big feather in our cap.”
Though Saunders/Todd’s workdays are “always a juggling act” as she works with three levels of Dress for Success while also helping with The Social Boutique, she says she wouldn’t change a thing.
“There’s not one part of me that complains or feels like ‘Oh my gosh, I don’t have work/life balance’ because I do — I absolutely love what I’m doing,” says Saunders/Todd. “My no. 1 objective is always to be moving women forward.”
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