PORTLAND – Dress for Success Maine, a nonprofit that provided clothes for low-income women to wear to job interviews, closed late last year, but the national organization that oversees the local affiliates says a successor could soon be found.

The Maine affiliate, which operated on Congress Street, closed in November after fundraising took a hit, said Kim Allen, who was executive director of the organization.

Dress for Success Maine’s mission was to provide career clothing for low-income women who didn’t have enough money to buy outfits suitable for interviews in office settings.

Most of the clothes were donated, and the group held fundraisers to cover operating costs.

Allen said a spring clothes sale raised only about half of the $15,000 it had raised in past years, and efforts to raise more money during the summer and fall were unsuccessful. The board decided in October to close after a fall fundraiser fell short.

Dress for Success Maine spent its last month helping clients and selling off the remaining clothes to cover costs, Allen said.

“We did have a lot of community support, a lot of in-kind support, but it simply wasn’t enough,” she said.

The supply of clothes was always plentiful because of support by individuals, she said.

But it cost about $60,000 a year to cover Allen’s salary, rent, insurance and other costs. Dress for Success Maine, which operated for 14 years, was always able to raise that money but never was able to build a financial cushion, she said.

When the annual fundraisers fell short last year, there was nothing to fall back on.

“It’s a huge blow to us,” said Deborah Rumery, who teaches classes in work and job search skills for the Portland Adult Education program.

Rumery said many of the women she worked with acquired computer and other in-demand skills, got help polishing up their resumes and took mock job interviews, but still lacked proper attire.

After the women landed interviews and went to Dress for Success Maine to find clothing, “you’d see them walk in the door in a suit or a nice pair of pants and a jacket and they just knock people out, they look so great,” Rumery said. “It’s that final piece of confidence, of being able to walk into an interview dressed appropriately. It’s another piece of (job training) that I don’t think people are really aware of.”

Rumery said she hopes to bring in a clothing store owner to talk to students about appropriate clothes for interviews, but the women will have to find a way to get them.

They may not have to wait long. Dress for Success already has two applications to reopen the Maine operation, said Kelly Beaty, the national organization’s vice president of communications.

Beaty said Dress for Success has 116 affiliates around the world. The national organization provides the “brand” for local affiliates and provides help with organizing, but the local groups run local operations, she said.

“I don’t think you’ll be without a Dress for Success for long,” Beaty said.

The national headquarters plans to review the applications and vet the local organizers before picking a group to run the affiliate. She couldn’t say how long the process will take, but said the group will move quickly.

Allen said Dress for Success Maine helped more than 300 women in the nearly 11 months it was open last year and the need will likely grow as the job market recovers.

Edward D. Murphy can be contacted at 791-6465 or at:

emurphy@pressherald.com

 

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