Pinning Creativity to Charitable Giving

Sometimes a piece of jewelry is more than a fashionable accessory: Lucinda Yates’ House Pin is beautiful and it also benefits the homeless, troubled children and other charities.

The first House Pin, created in 1988, was inspired by the time that Yates spent homeless on California’s streets after a divorce and some financial problems. Since then, her Designs by Lucinda has helped more than 6,000 nonprofit groups raise some $12.5 million.

Yates didn’t need breakthrough technology to start a business that generates $1 million to $2 million in annual sales. All she needed were the square and triangular pieces used to create the House Pin, an Art Deco-style design.

The public response, generated by word of mouth, was so great that Yates closed her jewelry-design business. “It was out of my control,” she said. “There was no stopping it.”

Fund-raising organizations buy the pins for $6.75 and then pledge to donate all proceeds to charity. But Yates stipulates that they cannot sell the pins for more than $13, an effort to keep them affordable.

The effect has been far-reaching, from providing jobs for stay-at-home moms and dads in Maine to helping fund libraries in Alaska.

This year’s goal is to ship 300,000 pins in her six themes, including a book pin to help fight illiteracy and a Little People Pin to support children’s groups.

Yates honed her jewelry skills and business acumen in the attic of her Portland apartment. She sold high-end jewelry at craft shows and later sold handcrafted costume jewelry wholesale.

While walking past a frame shop in 1988, she spotted some mat board scraps in the wastebasket. She placed a triangle on top of a square and created a house. From that design evolved the first House Pin--a stylish brooch made of colorful mat board pieces and coated with an enamel-style finish.

Yates made about 100 pins for the head of the Maine Women’s Council of Realtors to take to a Florida convention. Calls started coming in from across the country, and in the first three years, annual sales rose from $17,000 to $205,000.

At the Scarborough office, software-driven lasers are used to cut shapes for the pins, which are then assembled by hand, ensuring that no two pins are exactly alike.

Yates “has done a wonderful job keeping the homeless issue out front. It has been more than a fund-raiser; it has raised awareness,” said Julie Komenos, development director for Abby’s House, a Worcester, Mass., shelter for women and their children.