20Forward: Help Us Reach the Next 20,000 Women
Twenty years ago, Dress for Success San Francisco opened its doors with a rack of clothing and a circle of volunteers. Since then, nearly 20,000 Bay Area women have walked through them — building careers, rebuilding after setbacks, and finding the confidence to take their next step.
This year, we're celebrating that milestone with 20Forward, our 20th anniversary peer-to-peer summer fundraising campaign. And we're not just asking people to give — we're asking our whole community to help write the next chapter, in whatever way works for them.
San Francisco is Back. But Not for Every Woman in It.
The city is recovering. Downtown is filling back up, the headlines are optimistic but recovery doesn't reach everyone at the same time. Women still earn 82 cents on the dollar, and at the current pace, that gap isn't projected to close until 2155.
We've never been willing to wait that long.
For two decades, Dress for Success San Francisco has helped Bay Area women build careers, grow their income, and achieve economic mobility — without waiting for the world to catch up.
Real Women. Real Outcomes.
Every number in this campaign has a name behind it.
Divina, a single mother raising her six-year-old daughter, came to us rebuilding after a divorce and a fight for sole custody. She chose her interview attire through Career Wardrobe, got the call for a new job, and today works for the U.S. Department of the Treasury.
Ayanna came to us facing housing instability and a minimum-wage job. With the right support, she was promoted, secured full-time work, and has stayed with the same organization for nearly seven years. Today she's a professional, a mother of two sons, and graduating with a BA in Psychology this year.
Kya spent nearly a decade in retail before coming to Dress for Success, determined to break into a white-collar accounting role while balancing full-time school and full-time work. Career Wardrobe gave her interview attire. LinkedIn Premium gave her a way in. This fall, she heads to Cal State East Bay to study Accounting and Business Analytics.
These are three stories out of thousands. In 2025 alone, we served 1,345 Bay Area women with our sister office Dress for Success San Jose — the most in our 20-year history. Within one year of completing our cohort programs, participants see an average income increase of 191%. Fifty-two percent secure employment within 45 days of their final coaching appointment. Ninety-two percent say they'd recommend our services to another woman.
None of it happens without our generous community who continues to show up.
Ways to Be Part of 20Forward
20Forward runs through September, and there's more than one way to be part of it.
Make a gift. Every dollar goes directly toward career clothing, coaching, digital skills training, and financial education for Bay Area women. A gift of $50 funds a woman's seat at a Job Search Workshop. $150 provides an interview-ready outfit. $250 connects a woman with personalized career coaching. $1,000 equips a woman with a laptop, software, and three months of digital literacy training.
Start your own fundraising page. As an individual fundraiser, you set your own goal, share your own reason for supporting this work, and ask the people in your life to join you. It takes about ten minutes to set up, and it's one of the most effective ways to bring new supporters into this community — people give to people, not just organizations.
Captain a team. If you're part of a company, an employee resource group, or simply a group of friends or family who care about this work, you can build a team page together. Team totals combine on a shared leaderboard, and it's a great way to bring workplace or community giving into the campaign.
Offer a match. If you're able, matching the first $100, $250, or $500 donated to your page creates urgency and doubles the impact of early gifts — giving people a reason to act today instead of putting it off.
Share the work. Not everyone is in a position to give right now, and that's okay. Following along, sharing a post, or forwarding this story to someone who might connect with it all helps extend the reach of this campaign.
Every fundraiser who raises $100 or more will be recognized at our 20th Anniversary Celebration this fall — and the top individual fundraisers and fundraising teams will be recognized with prizes at the campaign's close.
Why It Matters Now
Twenty years ago, we started with 21 women and a few racks of donated clothing. Today, we're on pace to serve more women than ever before — but the need hasn't slowed down, and neither has the gap we're working to close.
Every woman deserves a success story. Help us write the next 20,000.
Dress for Success San Francisco and San Jose is a leading resource for advancing women in the workplace.
Our purpose is to empower women to achieve economic mobility by providing a network of support, workplace attire, and career skills and tools for success.