Fashion Executive Is Well-Suited to Run a Charity

When Richard D. Vorisek worked as a senior vice president at Polo Ralph Lauren, in New York, he spent half an hour deciding what to wear to work, traveled regularly to Asia to develop new markets, and met with the iconic American designer. In his new job as president of Housing Works Thrift Shops, in New York, he slips on his clothes in five minutes, takes the subway to work, and meets with store employees — some of whom have HIV or AIDS, and were once the charity’s clients. While he still loves to dress up when he is in the mood, Mr. Vorisek, 42, says the new routine suits him. He is taking a 70-percent pay cut, he says, for the chance to help the charity increase its revenue from a variety of businesses, including its seven upscale thrift stores, silk screening and catering businesses, and new online store.

“I am enjoying this job more than any job I have ever had,” says Mr. Vorisek, who has 20 years of corporate retail experience. “This is about helping people. At Polo I was making people look better.”

In addition, after working for several luxury brands, Mr. Vorisek says he reached a point in his career where he could afford the switch to nonprofit work; he declined, however, to state his salary in his new job.

Housing Works officials consider Mr. Vorisek a “major catch,” says Matthew Bernardo, the group’s senior vice president for business services, who previously held the job for which Mr. Vorisek was hired. “We have sort of been wooing him for a good part of a year,” says Mr. Bernardo. “Someone who was willing to come into the nonprofit realm with that kind of experience is phenomenal.”

As the economy continues to sour, Mr. Vorisek’s business skills will prove especially critical to the group’s mission: The thrift stores earn $13-million annually, which accounts for one-third of the charity’s budget.

Housing Works, founded in 1990, helps homeless and poor New Yorkers with HIV or AIDS find homes, medical care, and meals, and it offers job training and drug treatment, among other programs. Mr. Vorisek says he hopes to use his connections in the fashion world and experience in sales and promoting a brand’s image to increase revenue at the charity’s businesses by 50 percent in the next three years.

“The more money I make, the more apartments we can own, the more health care we can provide,” he says.

The thrift stores sell a range of clothing and housewares, including high-end fashion accessories and casual furnishings. Recent donations, says Mr. Vorisek, included a piano and an 18th-century desk from the singer Harry Belafonte, and a 500-piece collection of Yves Saint Laurent couture.

Mr. Vorisek also shoulders responsibility for running the group’s two annual fund-raising events, which partly depend on donations from fashion companies and designers. While he began the job last summer with no direct fund-raising experience, Mr. Vorisek has already notched several successes, including persuading the designer Marc Jacobs to serve as honorary chair of the group’s fall event, Fashion for Action, and enlisting Polo Ralph Lauren to donate $50,000 worth of merchandise. The event raised $350,000, a gain of $100,000 from the previous year.

“Most people are good people if you explain the case,” says Mr. Vorisek. “I have not been turned down once in five months when I made a personal ask.”

In an interview, Mr. Vorisek discussed his new job and why he is a thrift-store customer.

With the economy on the rocks, how’s business?

Over all, business is trending up about 10 percent but donations are down 10 percent. Men are shopping at the thrift stores instead of Macy’s for that new tie, and the women’s business has also improved. The furniture business has declined; there are fewer donations because of the economy. People are not spending $10,000 on a new living room and giving us their old one.

What are your plans for increasing revenue?

We are thinking of opening new stores, possibly in Hell’s Kitchen and Brooklyn, and also developing new businesses, such as closet organizing, where the stuff that would have been thrown away gets donated to the thrift shops. We’re thinking about having neighborhood donation days, where we get the word out that we’ll bring a truck and have people available to move items people want to get rid of.

We also need to develop an ongoing donation program that targets corporations and individuals. For example, we’d like to tap American Express for help improving our customer service, and also get the attention of that lady who lives in Tribeca and has a closet full of Manolo Blahniks. Hopefully she is shopping and replacing. Retail sales are not the issue; the problem is donations.

Why would she give her old heels to Housing Works instead of another charity?

Housing Works is a real brand in New York, but we need to do a better job of explaining our mission to potential donors. We are serving a really difficult client base, helping people with mental illnesses and drug-addiction problems in addition to living with HIV and AIDS. Twenty percent of people who work in our stores are former clients, so we help them get jobs as well. In this job it’s about relationships and bridges. We really need people to support our mission by donating products to our stores or events.

Are you reaching beyond New York for donations?

We’ve started a Web site to sell merchandise. In the first month, August, we did $10,000 and had 100 items available. In November we had 450 items and tripled our income. Google gives us some advertising to promote it, and we have hired three people in public relations and marketing to help with the effort.

What else have you been doing to ramp up business?

The first thing I did was redesign the layout of each store so they all look the same and customers know what to expect when they enter. I learned this directly from working at Polo, where every store has the same presentation so as to not confuse the brand. Now we can track how business is doing in each store and compare apples to apples. Also, there was not a lot of clarity and focus around budgets. The store managers now e-mail me and senior management every Sunday or Monday to tell us how they plan on making budget for the month. If they don’t have enough merchandise, we get them more products from our distribution center.

Have you bought anything at the thrift shops since joining the organization?

I’ve bought art and fashion books, a photograph of a horse in a field taken in Buenos Aires, some vintage ties, as well as a couple cool pieces of outerwear, including a military-style Ralph Lauren jacket.

What’s your plan if the downturn continues?

I don’t even want to think about it. We really need to encourage New Yorkers to continue to be generous with donations. The people who are going to get hurt most are our clients.