Florida's Best, Worst Charities

Dignity U Wear — Jacksonville

Since 2000, Dignity U Wear distributed 4.5 million items of clothing worth $80 million to 370,000 people around the nation. These aren’t used, thrift shop items. “What we have here are brand new clothes,” says Dorcas Tanner, interim executive director. Overruns donated by clothing manufacturers make up most of the stock.

The 8-year-old organization got its start focusing on underwear and socks for the homeless. “People can go to secondhand stores and purchase jeans and shirts and dresses,” says Tanner. “No one recycles undies.” In March, a Jacksonville community campaign called “Undie Sunday, Undie Monday” collected 78,000 pairs of new children’s underwear.

"What we have here are brand new clothes" - Dorcas Tanner, interim executive director of Dignity U Wear. [Photo: Kelly LaDuke]

Retired hotelier and philanthropist Henry Landwirth founded Dignity U Wear in 2000 and donated seed money from his family foundation. (Funding from the Fanny Landwirth Foundation also was used to set up Kissimmee-based Give Kids the World, a $30-million organization that provides central Florida vacations to children with life-threatening illnesses.)

Dignity U Wear has moved far beyond underwear, providing head-to-toe clothing for babies, children, teens and adults through 300 organizations in 30 states. In 2003, Dignity U Wear extended its reach by partnering with Jacksonville-based Stein Mart. Stein Mart employees in each of the retailer’s 284 stores raise money and select local non-profits to receive help from Dignity U Wear.

Administrative costs are low in large part because Dignity U Wear has a small paid staff of 13 and hundreds of regular volunteers who inventory, sort and ship clothing six days a week. Agencies that receive the clothing donations pay the shipping costs or, for large shipments by rail, Dignity U Wear relies on its partnership with CSX.