The Thrift-Shop Engine That Funds Half a Century of Help

In a town where charity galas fill the social calendar, one of Laguna Beach's most effective nonprofits runs on thrift-store racks and volunteer shifts. The Assistance League of Laguna Beach is an all-volunteer, 501(c)(3) nonprofit founded in 1953 that converts donated goods into funding for programs reaching local families from infancy to old age.

The scale shows up in the chapter's own numbers. For 2024-25 the league reported $425,000 in local support, 5,300 people served and 35,100 hours volunteered. The independent charity directory Give Freely, drawing on Charity Navigator and Great Nonprofits data, notes the organization's four-star, 96 percent Accountability and Finance rating, 2024 revenue of $791,206, four paid staff, 160 volunteers and zero dollars in executive compensation.

Volunteers sorting canned goods at a food bank.

U.S. EPA, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons · Source

The signature program is the Infant Development Program, which the chapter has funded at 100 percent and housed since 1976, and which recently celebrated 50 years of service. Each week, licensed therapists give parents of developmentally delayed infants hands-on coaching to advance their child's development. After two hours of hands-on therapy, league volunteers hold and care for the babies one-on-one while parents meet with a licensed family marriage therapist in a group session where they can talk through challenges and share resources.

Operation School Bell is the league's flagship for school-age children, providing essentials and school-related resources so students arrive healthy, confident and ready to learn. Its local arms include Chapters for Children, which supplies military families at Camp Pendleton with diapers, school-shoe gift cards and essentials; college scholarships for Laguna Beach High School graduating seniors; and school-readiness supplies for young children delivered through the Boys and Girls Club of Laguna Beach.

The chapter also addresses food insecurity with funding for the Laguna Food Pantry and the Armed Services YMCA Food Pantry at Camp Pendleton, both of which provide free, fresh groceries to families and individuals in need. Its broader program list includes Gigi's Playhouse tutoring, Shea Therapeutic Riding Center scholarships, the Waymakers Youth Shelter, Collaborative Courts, which helps adults reenter society through rehabilitation rather than incarceration, and Waste Not, which donates unsellable shop merchandise to other organizations.

Racks of clothing in a secondhand shop.

MAKY.OREL, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons · Source

For seniors, the league sponsors Lifelong Laguna and Sally's Fund, aimed at helping older residents age with dignity and independence, alongside resources for adults working to overcome hardships. The funding engine for all of it is the chapter's thrift shop, which reopened Sept. 1 with fresh merchandise after an August deep-cleaning closure and is staffed, like the programs themselves, by member volunteers. The shop is open Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

The next generation is already in the pipeline. The chapter's Assisteens auxiliary, made up of middle and high school students, was recently honored as Ambassadors of Change by the Waymakers Youth Shelter after a year of fundraising through a See's Candies sale, thrift-shop shifts and the league's 75th anniversary Diamond Jubilee Gala. And the chapter keeps recruiting: its Professionals group hosts a Gather Grow Give wine-and-cheese open house on Oct. 21, 2026, collecting business attire donations for Working Wardrobes.

The model is simple and, after more than 70 years, proven: secondhand goods in, first-hand help out, for infants, students, military families, seniors and everyone in between.