The lesser-known Assistance League of Salt Lake City runs a 'lean and cheap' charitable juggernaut. 

• Courtesy Photo
• Volunteers with the Assistance League of Salt Lake City pose for a photo outside the charity’s Thrift Shop on 3300 South in Millcreek.

Assistance League is probably Utah's best-run charity, and many don't even know it's there. "We hear this all the time," said Liz Quealy, President of Assistance League of Salt Lake City. "We've been around for 50 years and we are still the best-kept secret in Salt Lake City."

That's astounding, because Assistance League does so many things in the community. The charity has 230 members, participating in a main League and two auxiliary groups, Consociates and Assisteens; they volunteered for more than 36,000 combined hours in 2023.

Assistance League funds and actively participates in 10 philanthropic programs and partners with dozens of Salt Lake-area charities. And the Assistance League Thrift Shop at 2090 E. 3300 South does about a million dollars in business annually.

But it's word-of-mouth that keeps things in motion. "All of us have found out about Assistance League from a friend. They talk it up," Quealy noted. "I tried a couple of other charities before I settled on Assistance League, but it was so well run and so organized. I wanted to join where I could be of value."

Assistance League is a national charity consisting of 20,000 volunteers working in 120 chapters. Utah has chapters in Salt Lake City and Southern Utah.

The National organization exists to provide guidance to its chapters: administrative, legal, tech and operational. Chapters, in turn, run thrift shops, which fund the bulk of their charitable programs.

Every chapter participates in a signature program called Operation School Bell, which provides brand new winter clothing and coats to area school children in need. The Salt Lake chapter clothes about 5,000 kids a year and has added programs on their own initiative.

While Assistance League has a 100%, four-star rating on the Charity Navigator website, many national charities have high ratings with watchdog groups. That doesn't necessarily mean they're as careful with their funds. In 2019, social media posts circulated challenging the Red Cross on the enormous salary paid to its national director.

The Red Cross made a formal statement confirming its director was paid $694,000 annually, but justified that the salary reflected "her leadership of the country's largest humanitarian organization."

Of 27 Red Cross board members reported in 2022, 15 were paid salaries and those totaled over $7.6 million. In addition, the five highest compensated independent contractors received a total of over $65 million for services like printing and mailing, marketing, courier services and IT consulting.

By comparison, according to the 2022 IRS Form 990 posted on its website, the National Assistance League showed 15 employees; only two were compensated.

Executive Officer Matthew P. Zarcufsky and Salesforce Administrator Ryan L. Berens were paid about $110,000 each, despite being located in ultra-expensive Burbank, California. Also, these salaries are funded directly by membership fees and grants—not by charitable donations.

Charity watchdog groups state that up to 35 cents on every dollar can ethically be spent on administrative costs, but Assistance League of Salt Lake seems to feel like that guideline is just too loose.

"We are lean and cheap," said Barbara Engen, a longtime member who has held a number of positions from President to Tech Chair. Since positions can only be held for two years at a time, long-standing members have often worked in every area of the organization.

"We're audited every year," Engen explained, "so we keep everything clean and up front."

Assistance League of Salt Lake City spends 15 cents on the dollar for administrative costs, which runs the Thrift Shop and its attached administrative building. It also provides three real jobs to people in the community who are not Assistance League members.

"That was one of the first things that really impressed me," said New Member Orientation Chairperson Lynda Larsen, who has been a member of the League since 2018. "We know exactly what's coming in. We know what's going out. We don't throw money away."

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• “We’ve been around for 50 years and we’re still the best-kept secret in Salt Lake City.”—Liz Quealy (pictured), local Assistance League president.

Eye on the Community
In 2013, an investigation done by the Tampa Bay Times and the Center for Investigative Reporting showed that America's worst charities funnel nearly all donation money back to their presidents and board members, and to private companies and consulting firms. The worst spent 10% or less of donations on the programs or research they claim to be supporting.

Overall, the 5,800 charities named in the article raised a total of $1.35 billion but only provided $49.1 million in direct cash aid—less than 4%.

Some charities also hire fundraising companies, which bring in donations through coercive phone calls to the vulnerable and elderly.

Telemarketing and expensive direct mail campaigns can leave the organization in debt at the end of the year, and even well-meaning charities get caught up in the cycle.

By contrast, the Assistance League raises money through its curated Thrift Shop, where donations are sorted by a bevy of volunteers; they also apply for yearly grants, which are used to cover administrative costs.

The money made through the Thrift Shop funds Operation School Bell, free dental care to school children, scholarships to college hopefuls, laptops and books to individual students, entertainment to senior care facilities and much more. The League also maintains an Eye on the Community program to stay constantly on the lookout for more ways to help.

The local Thrift Shop building and administrative offices were purchased by funds raised by Utah's first Assistance League members; no money is owed on them.

In the early days, members were the wives of wealthy businessmen, and they spent their energies on an annual fundraising gala. The membership demographic is still mostly female, but has shifted over the years.

"I think if you spoke to many of our members, they would tell you they had very vibrant careers prior to their retirement," Quealy said. They continue to be active and hands-on as volunteers.

Assistance League sees their Thrift Shop as a boutique, showcasing only the best donations. Here, you might find a table laid with a full setting of china and flatware. Glass-shelved, backlit cases present higher-end holiday and home decor. The clothes are nicely displayed on mannequins and might be grouped by color on carousels. Silk flower donations are arranged for sale in containers and costume jewelry hangs on display racks like at a retail store.

People have been known to line up outside before the noon opening time. The Assistance League of Salt Lake City Thrift Shop brings in about a million dollars of yearly revenue. Running a shop this successful finally became more than a volunteer could handle.

"The job had become almost unmanageable," observed Susan Erickson, Thrift Shop Chair.

Compounding the problem was the rule that members can only take chair positions for two years at a time and that's about how long it takes to learn the ropes, which include ordering, reports, scheduling, cash registers, accounting, point of sale systems and storage.

"We researched various leagues who had paid for a thrift shop manager and felt positive about the idea," Erickson said.

They also pay two people to sort goods alongside the volunteers. As Thrift Shop Chair, Erickson supervises the employees and acts as their liaison to the Board of Directors, which oversees the finance and administration of the shop.

The burden of a thrift shop is that it receives donations of varying quality, which have to be sorted before they can be used. Donations that can't be stored long-term or that aren't suitable for sale at the Thrift Shop are still put to good use.

Books are donated to the prison, and many kitchen items go to Catholic Community Services' refugee program. Broken jewelry is sold for melt, while valuable jewelry is resold to a consignment store so that the Thrift Shop never has to worry about security.

Coconut Hut, a charity focusing on survival supplies for people who are experiencing homelessness, receives used outdoor gear donated to Assistance League.

"We just give them a list of items that we're currently collecting, and they call when they have a bin ready to go," said Coconut Hut co-founder Angela Arnell. "Baseball hats, water bottles, tents, tarps, sleeping bags—things like that."

Pat Blodgett is a past Assistance League president who now volunteers behind the scenes and describes herself as a "Thrift Shop regular person." She has been a member of the organization since 1988.

"We sort all the stuff and keep the best," Blodgett explained. "The things that have issues, that are dirty and broken, those are things that we still find spots for."

Among the many volunteers, donors, shoppers, and the Eye on the Community program, there's always someone with an idea for how to use the donated goods they receive.

"It's unbelievable how if you just search around a little bit, there's a spot for everything that's better than the landfill," says Blodgett.

Tana Hunter helped Assistance League find a use for heavily-used linens. Hunter has a long-term volunteer relationship with several animal welfare charities and knew they could repurpose previously unusable sheet and towel donations for animal bedding and crate covers. Once she started taking those items from the Thrift Shop, it expanded into animal goods.

"They started giving me all the stuff that had to do with dogs and cats that they couldn't sell," she recalled. "It would be dirty or in need of repair, and I'd wash or fix it if I could, and give it away."

Assistance League's support for other charitable organizations either comes from thrifted goods or from the money generated by the sales of those goods. Last year, Assistance League bought washers and dryers for the St. Vincent dePaul Center, gave 35,000 books to school children, distributed iPads to children who are nonverbal and offered laptops to rising college students from alternative high schools.

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• The Assisteens—a youth volunteer group—assemble kits for Operation School Bell.

Virtuous Circles
Even with these donations, Assistance League is aware of potential waste and designs their programs to avoid misappropriations. "Items can't go into a pool, they have to be designated to a specific child," Quealy emphasized. "We don't just give a bunch of computers to a school and let them decide what to do. We're very careful about that."

While Assistance League supports so many people and programs, they are not set up for direct assistance to individuals. If a family were to call and request help for their children, Assistance League would point them toward their school counselor for inclusion in Operation School Bell, Operation Healthy Teeth, and the like. Assistance League is designed to serve those schools, agencies, programs and charities that assist people directly.

Reciprocal relationships are important within Assistance League. The stacks and stacks of vases that get donated to the Thrift Shop every month, far more than can be stored or displayed, are sent to Brown's Floral. They, in turn, donate vases full of fresh flowers for Assistance League's annual Karen S. Johnson Woman of Distinction luncheon, usually held at the Cottonwood Country Club in October. Members pay to attend the luncheon.

The luncheon is the year's primary fundraiser for Consociates, one of the Assistance League's two auxiliaries. This year's Woman of Distinction will be Amy Haran, Vice President of Camp Hobé, a summer camp for children with cancer. Camp Hobé also receives cold-weather clothing donations from the Thrift Shop so children can bundle up on unexpectedly chilly nights at camp.

The auxiliary groups—Consociates and Assisteens—offer volunteer opportunities and a community experience for younger members.

Consociates are working-age adults who meet one night a month for dinner and a project. They assemble Baby Bundles, layette sets that go to hospital maternity wards for those who may not be prepared for the birth of a new baby; and assault survivor kits to crisis centers, which include seasonally appropriate clothing and comfort items, since victims of assault have to leave their clothes behind for forensic testing. Consociates have also begun supporting the Weigand Resource Center for the Homeless and the Utah Refugee Center.

The Assisteens are students from 10 middle and high schools across the Valley. They meet once a month to fulfill a variety of projects, which have included cooking at the Ronald McDonald House and assembling Thanksgiving dinners and Easter bunny baskets.

Kim Shemwell, Marketing and Branding Chair, was Assisteens Coordinator when her three children were involved. Shemwell says that a lot of teen members participate because their families are Assistance League members, and the families like working together. Other kids need to put volunteer service on their college applications.

"I loved seeing how it changed them," she recalled. "A couple of kids changed their majors because they were so impacted by the work we did."

Shemwell is younger than the average member, but she got into Assistance League because of the intense involvement of her parents, Roger and Pat Blodgett. Shemwell's husband makes volunteer deliveries, as needed, and her daughter has stayed involved after aging out of Assisteens.

"It's really a wonderful community, and it's a comfortable place," Shemwell says. "Everybody is there for the same purpose of helping others, which I really wanted to instill in my kids."

Quealy said that one of the things that makes Assistance League different from other charities is the dues that members pay, on top of the work they perform for the organization. Members nationwide contribute annual dues totaling about $750,000, part of which fund the National organization's assistance to all the other chapters.

Part of those dues come back to Salt Lake's chapter to be used for programs and operational expenses. The "Assistance League" are the dues-paying members who have the privilege of voting at meetings; these are primarily retirees.

"For a lot of us, it was a shock when we retired and then all of a sudden didn't have a social network," Quealy explained. "That's another thing that's so valuable to the members. Most of us are within the same age. We love young people, but it's great to have friends you can relate to. Not only do we work hard, but we provide a lot of social activities, too."

Social activities include coffees, luncheons, outings and tours, planned by the Member Services Chair. Of course, none of these are funded by donations. Men often join after their wives become members, which makes Assistance League a social activity that couples can enjoy together.

"I actually don't know what my life would have been without it," Blodgett said. "Now that my husband and I are older, and I think we're almost finished with the traveling part of our lives, we still have a place to feel needed and a place to go. I don't know if all people our age have that."