WHO WE ARE

Founded in 1998, Furniture Bank is a registered charity and social enterprise which redistributes gently-used furniture and housewares from donors in the community to families and individuals experiencing furniture poverty.

Revenues generated through our furniture removal service, which is run as a social enterprise, funds our charitable activities as we work to end furniture poverty – one sofa and one family at a time.

Working to end furniture poverty - one family at a time.

OUR VISION

A Canada in which everyone has the stability and dignity of a furnished home.

OUR MISSION

Furniture Bank is a social enterprise powered charity that provides low-income individuals and families with home essentials needed to create conditions of comfort, dignity and stability that come from having a furnished home. Our social enterprise programs create opportunities to reach more families in more communities across Canada.

Your contribution to our mission

With a bit of creativity and care, our Workshop team and volunteers rescue, repair and refurbish lightly-damaged items that would otherwise end up in landfill, and make them available to clients. It’s a triple win for the organization, our clients and the environment.

Our clients include women and children leaving shelters, the formerly homeless, and newcomers and refugees to Canada.

Our vision is a world in which everyone has access to a furnished home.

Who you support

By supporting Furniture Bank, you are helping to create communities where we all belong.

Furniture Bank supports marginalized and displaced families and individuals experiencing furniture poverty.

Individuals or families in need, including women and children leaving shelters, people transitioning from homelessness, and newcomers and refugees to Canada are referred to us by over 90 community agency partners.

For those we support, furniture has a profound impact on their quality of life:

Decreased likelihood of re-experiencing displacement or homelessness.
Improved physical and mental health.
Improved financial stability by freeing up funds for other essential items.
Increased ability and likelihood to participate in and contribute to the community and improved relationships with family and friends.

Programs you support

In addition to our socially responsible furniture removal service, your support also allows us to operate the following programs:

Leg Up social employment

Furniture Bank’s Leg Up social hire program works with employment agencies and partners to provide work experience, life & skills training, and meaningful job opportunities to youth, newcomers to Canada and other individuals facing barriers to employment.

Furniture repair workshop

Furniture Bank Learning Centre

Our charitable objectives include a goal of working with other organizations with goals similar to Furniture Bank.

Over the last five years, we have had over 30 communities approach Furniture Bank for help in learning, understanding, expanding, and inspiring more intentional furniture bank programs across North America.

The Learning Centre is an online educational site aimed at supporting social innovation and social replication of the furniture bank model into other communities