Worthy Décor Overview
Overview:
Worthy Décor (WorthyDecor.org) is a Boston-based 501(c)3 nonprofit organization dedicated to creating inspiring home environments for families and individuals rebuilding their lives after traumatic experience or homelessness. Worthy Décor provides clients with comfortable, wholesome home environments in which to build new lives and create new memories. Established by Josefina Pires in 2015, and officially operating beginning in 2016, Worthy Décor has so far helped ten families achieve hope, confidence, and a sense of accomplishment with donated new or slightly used home furnishings and decorations.
Ms. Pires’ was inspired by her work as a family advocate at St. Mary’s Center for Women and Children, her passion for helping others in need, and her lifelong love for designing and arranging homes. She often witnessed families in transition struggle in their new lives because of a lack of basic goods. After voluntarily helping one family to furnish their new home and seeing the difference her efforts made, Ms. Pires founded Worthy Décor to help more families at this critical juncture.
Each Worthy Décor family is heavily vetted by caseworkers familiar with the organization’ pro bono services. Ms. Pires then works with whatever stipends the family has been given as well as the family’s own needs and tastes to help them set up their home. She collects donations of furnishings on her own and often supplements these items with her own out-of-pocket purchases. Her philosophy is that home design is akin to life design, and she passes the importance of this onto her clients:
“We teach families that maintaining healthy lifelong habits and making good choices contributes to their overall well-being. We thus help them to improve their lives and ultimately reflect their new lifestyles in the way they maintain their home environments.”
Current Need:
Worthy Décor would like to expand the number of families it can serve with a proposed operating budget of $80,000 for 2018 (attached). This will allow Ms. Pires to:
· Increase the number of families served from 10 to 50 per year, working with a diverse population in a variety of circumstances.
· Create a physical space that can be used to store donations and make inventory readily available for families.
· Allow Ms. Pires to share the burden of bookkeeping, accounting, marketing and other back office duties so she can concentrate on helping families as well as maintain her livelihood.
Key line items in the Worthy Décor budget include:
Key Budget Items:
· Storage space
· Pickup and delivery vehicles
· Grant writing fees
· Fundraising expenses
· Operating expenses
· Accounting and legal fees
· Small stipends for Ms. Pires and a part-time co-worker to manage volunteers
Ms. Pires will continue her outside professional role as an independent family caregiver and a family advocate at St. Mary’s Center for Women and Children on a part-time basis. To date she has been funding operating costs for Worthy Décor, as well as the costs of some donated goods, out of her own pocket.
Ms. Pires wishes to expand the organization’s services to all families and individuals in need of creating a new home. To accomplish this goal, she is creating a business proposal to establish a thrift store in an inner-city neighborhood in Boston, Massachusetts. This store would provide, in addition to goods donated for resale, a range of household items free of charge to families and individuals who could otherwise not afford to purchase them. The store would accept donations of new or gently used household items, including furniture, lamps, rugs, curtains, draperies, and various artworks: pictures, sculptures, statues, glassware, earthenware, etc.
The store would serve as a storage facility for these donated goods and would open its retail section to the general public. All profits from sales in the retail section would support Worthy Décor’s mission: This store would also create transitional volunteer and employment opportunities for inner-city residents.
Ms. Pires also seeks corporate funding for an Executive Board to support and guide Worthy Décor’s growth, ensure the efficiency of its organizational and financial operations, consult on its community outreach strategies, and strengthen its branding and marketing initiatives. This board would include an Executive Director or President/CEO, a Vice President, a Secretary, a Treasurer, and a Board of Directors with experience in pro bono consultation for nonprofit organizations.