For 13 years, the National Council of Jewish Women St. Louis has run The Resale Shop out of a former Jos. A. Bank store on Lindbergh Boulevard in Creve Coeur. The 84-year-old store is a juggernaut, a donation-fueled secondhand shopping destination that grossed $1.2 million last year—money that NCJWSTL (also a juggernaut) uses to fund its charitable endeavors, which are vast.
The problem is that the agency has outgrown the space. The nonprofit’s boardroom is full of donated items, volunteers have to work out of Starbucks, and busy shopping days turn the meager parking lot into pandemonium (and the shop’s annual four-day Couturier event takes things to a whole new level). “We have people parking on the grass,” says board president Phyllis Langsdorf. When staff members get done with a shift, “they’ll find three cars waiting to get into their parking space.” Something had to give.
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So in July, NCJWSTL quietly closed on the building next store—coincidentally, it’s currently a Jos. A Bank. At 26,000 square feet, it offers twice the space, which will allow a significantly bigger retail floor, as well as a better donation center, bigger offices, their own event space, and 126 parking spaces.
Jessica Duneman, NCJWSTL’s director of retail operations, can’t wait to move. But, she says, it will likely be a few years. Jos. A. Bank needs to find a new St. Louis flagship, and building renovations for the space will follow that. And if the new building seems almost too big to fill, Duneman knows better.
“I moved us into this building in 2011, thinking we’d never fill it,” she says. “Three years later, I was going, ‘Hey, Ellen…’” referring to the organization’s CEO, Ellen Alper.
Langsdorf knows that moving won’t be easy. She says, “This is going to be a dream come true. And also a nightmare.” But at least they’re not moving across town. Adds Duneman, “We’re just shifting 285 feet!”
Why It Matters: The Resale Shop funds 60 percent of NCJWSTL’s daily operations, so the goal isn’t just a better shopping experience, but more revenue to do good work. The agency’s newest project, the Women’s Network, will convene nonprofits across St. Louis that work with women, attempt to identify the various gaps between the services they offer, and put together a plan to address needs that aren’t being met. That kind of inventiveness has been a hallmark of NCJWSTL, which has created, incubated, and spun off multiple nonprofits in its 125 years, including the Scholarship Foundation of St. Louis, CASA of St. Louis (which provides court-appointed advocates for children in the judicial system), Legal Advocates for Abused Women, and more.
What’s Next: The organization is seeking to raise $3.6 million to pay for the building’s purchase (which was completed in July) and renovations. After they move out of their current building, they plan to sell it and use the proceeds for ongoing maintenance.
So far, their campaign is off to a good start. In the first six weeks after closing on the Jos. A. Bank store, they raised approximately $1 million. Says Langsdorf, “We know that we’re capable of doing it. We will get that money.”
