At a time when major charities are seeing a decline in contributions (major charities reported an 11% decline in donations last year) the success of one local agency is remarkable since it is not only thriving but actually expanding.

WestSide Baby at 10032 15th Ave. s.w., founded by Donna Pierce in 2001, is based on the simple concept of sharing no longer needed baby items with those who need them. Over its ten year history the agency has filled more than 50,000 orders for clothing, equipment, and diapers totaling more than $6 million in goods to people in need.

But since it began, the organization has been challenged by the small space it occupies. That's changing now with an expansion into a newly remodeled space just behind their existing one going from 1600 square feet to more than 3200 for the primary functions they perform.

"We haven't really named it yet," said Executive Director Nancy Woodland, " We're kind of calling it an 'Operations Center.'" The former space is being retained as office space and a training area.

Rather than being a direct service agency, WestSide Baby works in partnership with more than 300 local service providers in 90 social service agencies.

They accept and collect donations of disposable diapers, car seats, and clothing on site and at drop off locations but use the outside agencies to distribute these donations on an equitable basis. At a recent car seat event they collected 536 seats of which 100 were reusable.

The new space, whose address is 10027 14th Ave. s.w. used to be an auto shop so renovation and upgrade required a lot of donations and volunteer effort. "We've had more than 80 volunteers in here who have demolished, built walls and painted," said Woodland. The three month process really got underway when Jon Morin of West Seattle Design-Build donated three weeks of his time to build doorways, a canopy and other structures inside. Alki Lumber donated all the lumber for the project.

Rebuilding Together Seattle and Pepsi came together to build the front facade and help rebuild some interior walls. 40 people from the Pinnacle Corporation were the first on site helping tear out old structures and later formed a diaper brigade to help move diapers into the space.

The remodeled space incorporates some much needed change for those who do the work.

"Now it has a nice big entrance so people coming in with donations can bring them in easily, our volunteers can come in a different door and our providers can come in a different door so it just helps with flow," Woodland said. The various donations will be sorted and placed in rolling bins permitting faster processing. This is an idea borrowed from their sister organization Eastside Baby Corner located in Issaquah, after whom Westside Baby was originally modeled. Today they still share ideas and resources.

Shelving will also be somewhat portable to permit groups of people to come in when necessary, and a new high capacity washer (donated through Rebuilding Together Seattle) is now in place as well. They are on the lookout for a matching red Maytag electric dryer. Previously it was completely volunteers taking items home to be washed. "We don't wash every item," said Woodland," just the ones that are dirty." They will still need volunteers for this but the new appliances are a step up.

Since a primary mission for WestSide Baby is providing disposable diapers there is now an 'on-floor' diaper storage plus 400 square feet in the new loft. The organization was the recipient of a massive donation of more than 200,000 diapers from Huggies this past summer as part of their Every Little Bottom program.

Woodland has aggressive plans, but not for her self. "By 2013 we want to be serving 25,000 children annually, last year we served 15,000. We want to provide 750,000 diapers by 2013, we're at 400,000 now." WestSide Baby could become the "regional diaper bank," but for now she said they are focused on doing what they do better and is not certain they could take on the whole Seattle area, preferring to partner with other agencies for a task that large. She sees her role as Executive Director continuing, "I can't see myself leaving WestSide Baby. I can see it growing, but my heart is here and I can't imagine that this would outgrow what I would like to be doing."

Under Woodland's careful guidance WestSide Baby has grown rapidly to become an important transit point for the collection and distribution of items that are now basic requirements for families. But the coordination of the human resources in that effort has become a major task all its own. An important role, yet to be filled, is that of a volunteer coordinator. "Someone who communicates well with people, can inspire people and can keep track of people(...) mostly for the group events," said Woodland.

Over the next year WestSide Baby plans to extend their donation acceptance hours, the hours volunteers can be there, and will increase the number of partnerships and size of groups that they can bring in. "We'll be rolling in changes like that as long as we can connect every change to getting more things out to local kids," Woodland explained.

WestSide Baby has grown so much organically that, "Our next step is to start planning some things and start driving the bus instead of riding on this amazing bus we're on. If we want to drive the bus then we need to have some plans. We have to be looking at where the need is in the city that we're not filling and then try to go fill it."