NW FURNITURE BANK

Our Mission: NW Furniture Bank helps restore hope, dignity and stability in our community by recycling donated furniture to people in need. Our vision is for all families to have beds, tables, chairs, and the furnishings necessary to turn any house into a real home. NW Furniture Bank (NWFB) serves families who are trying to rebuild their lives coming from situations like transitional housing, domestic abuse, suffering a loss from fire or natural disaster and young adults leaving foster homes. All our clients are low income and include veterans, the disabled or anyone living without furniture. Our services fill the gap between a person finding a home and furnishing it with essential items.
The goal of NW Furniture Bank is to promote self-sufficiency among families and individuals who struggle with the provision of basic needs. By helping them to furnish their home we help to restore hope, dignity and stability to families that are working hard to rebuild their lives. An apartment becomes a home and a room becomes a sanctuary. NWFB knows furniture makes a difference in the lives of people so they do not have to sleep or live on the floor. Our program has proven to be cost effective and highly impactful. There are three programs that make up NW Furniture Bank, the Furniture Bank, Hope Furnishings and Spring Back Mattress Recycling.
In 2016 social service agencies will refer over 1,500 families who are in crisis and at a juncture in their lives when they need a helping hand to gain stability. NW Furniture Bank (NWFB) aids those with demonstrated need by furnishing their home with the basic items… beds to sleep in, a table and chairs to eat at, dressers to store clothing in, towels to bathe with, and dishes, silverware, pots and pans to make a meal. Distributed product is donated by furniture companies, hotels, restaurants and the community. NWFB is the consummate champion of “reuse”. Through our programs we distribute – and diverted from the landfill – over 3 million pounds of furniture and mattresses annually.
NWFB serves clients through collaboration with 200 local agencies and non-profits. Our collaboration improves an agency’s ability to serve our community; it eliminates duplication of services and increases the efficiency of an agency. NWFB provides one piece of the puzzle for a family; they may go to a food pantry for food, to a job placement center for career assistance, and to yet another charity for utility assistance. We complement these charities rather than duplicate their efforts. NWFB is an important resource in our community. Without us agencies would have nowhere to get the furniture items their families desperately need. In our partnership it is the agency who determine that a family has a bona fide need for furniture and they schedule their appointment. All clients come to us by this referral process, we provide $1,100 of goods (thrift store value) to each of those families.

NWFB History
In 2007 we began operating with a borrowed truck, 1,200 sq. feet of donated space and some purchased mattresses. Our 501(c)(3) non-profit status was approved in June 2007. After moving a couple of times, NWFB took possession of our current building in 2012, a successful capital campaign allowed us to purchase that building in 2014. Needing a source of income, NWFB opened a retail store in 2014 to sell certain donated items. About that same time NWFB began the Spring Back Mattress Recycling operation that today provides mattress to families in need, generates fee income and provides a job training program for the hard to employ. In total NWFB operates 33,000 sq. feet of warehouse space.

NWFB Programs
• Furniture Bank: This primary program is the reason for our existence. Each week we provide the equivalent of 3 semi-trailers full of furniture to families who each families receive 10-15 furniture items, including beds, sofas, dressers, tables and chairs along with 2-3 boxes of household items, including bedding, pots & pans, dishes, silverware, cooking utensils, etc. For a shopping appointment fee of $75 (often paid by the referring agency) the family will receive $1,100 of items priced at thrift shop value. Families come to the NWFB furniture warehouse at their appointment time and will be guided through the warehouse by volunteers who help them “shop” for their items. Selected items can either be delivered by NWFB for a $125 fee or taken directly by the family.
• Spring Back Mattress Recycling: A service which accepts mattresses and box springs for a fee. Pieces determined to be in good quality are distributed through our Furniture for Families program the others are deconstructed to recycle the component parts of cotton, foam, wood and steel. Ninety percent of the mattress is recyclable. The steel and foam are sold providing valuable earned income. Although it is only our second year of operation Spring Back already receives over 5,000 mattresses every month. Of those 300 are given to families and those recycled are diverted from the landfill reducing waste and saving landfill space. To operate this program we created a job training program that employs about 14 individuals. Most of those job trainees have been recently released from prison and come to us through partners like Progress House and Goodwill.
• Hope Furnishings Store: A retail store where we sell both gently used furniture and home furnishings as well as new mattresses. As a low cost retail store alternative we give the community a place to shop and it provides NWFB with a significant earned income stream.

Issue and needs
In Washington state Pierce and King Counties there are hundreds of agencies, churches, and nonprofits who work with at-risk people that have secured housing but have no furniture. NWFB is the primary resource for these organizations to furnish the inside of those empty homes.
One of the most effective ways to help at-risk individuals be successful is to provide a safe, stable home from which to build their lives. A furnished home is a basis for improved job performance, better grades in school and healthy family interactions. Families referred to NWFB have limited incomes and face the exhausting challenge of finding affordable housing, employment, education and health care. There is no money to furnish their apartment. Without furniture families do not have a comfortable place to gather. Their interactions are reduced and they often sleep, eat and study on the floor. NWFB relieves the pressure of buying furniture and makes their surroundings into a comfortable “home”. With this burden taken care of people can focus on the other crucial matters in their life. After receiving their furnishings, many of our clients are able to sleep in a clean, warm bed for the first time; share a family meal around a dining table; and read, complete homework, play games, and relax on their comfortable living room furniture. Family time is much more appealing with furniture.

Annually we provided 30,000 items that are good quality and ideal for reuse by a families in need. The thrift shop value provided to each family averages $1,100. Saving a family $1,100 allows them to buy basic needs like food and clothing, and to pay for rent and utilities. Currently a family of four receives:
Furniture
3 mattress/box springs
1 dresser
1 kitchen table and 4 chairs
1 sofa
2 upholstered side chair
3 wood items, e.g. night stands, book cases

Housewares
Bed linens, blankets and pillows
Pots and pans
Place settings: of dishes, silverware, glasses
Towels bath, hand and washcloth
Small electrical, e.g. toaster, coffeemaker, lamps
Misc, e.g. pictures, bakeware, toys