Central Furniture Rescue founder Susan Johnston reflects on growth, challenges as she departs nonprofit

CEDAR RAPIDS — After building an annual church giveaway into a thriving nonprofit, Central Furniture Rescue founder Susan Johnston has announced plans to retire.

Since she started Central Furniture Rescue in 2019, the organization has diverted over 1,300 tons of furniture and household items from landfills to more than 9,000 people in 3,700 households. Under Johnston’s leadership, over $2 million in items have been gifted to those in Cedar Rapids and surrounding communities, helping them thrive in their homes.

As it moves into its next chapter, the organization led by an unpaid founder is raising funds to pay its next chief executive officer.

Furniture donations are accepted at Central Furniture Rescue’s warehouse, 2275 16th Ave. SW in Cedar Rapids, during weekday hours and limited Saturday hours. For more info, visit centralfurniturerescue.org/donate/give-stuff or call (319) 382-2882.

After seven years at Central Furniture Rescue and more than 25 years of experience in operations and project management, Johnston’s legacy isn’t hard to see. Here’s how she built it, and how she hopes it continues.

This interview has been edited for clarity and length.

“I truly believe that community helps community, and if community knows there's a need, Cedar Rapids and Iowa always show up.”

  Buy Photo

Q: What prompted the idea for Central Furniture Rescue?

A: In 2018, the church that I was worshiping at had this thing called the Clothing Giveaway — for 25 years we had done this. Twice a year, the congregation was challenged (to) go home, look in your closets, in the drawers, underneath the bed, all of the places, and if you haven't touched (an item) in six months, ask yourself, do you need it?

We spend a week setting up the Fellowship Hall and the auditorium, and over a period of time, the community got involved in bringing stuff. We would open it up to the public on Saturday morning (to give away).

You could come and get whatever you wanted, there’d be a line of 100 people. The biggest one we had was after the flood of 2008, and we helped 600 people.

But in August 2018, the woman who was in charge of this for 25 years comes to me on a Sunday morning, because I was no longer working, and said “Hey, this is all yours. I am no longer doing this.”

I said, can I think about this? And she said, “no” and walked away.

(Her husband said that she was in) the beginning stages of dementia, and “You were the only one she trusts to carry on her legacy.”

Q: How did it shape into what we see today?

A: All of the people around me needed to impart wisdom — what they didn’t like about the program, what needed to change. After I had filtered through all of this, it came down to three things.

It’s a lot of work. It’s not relational — people come in, get what they want, and leave.

And it’s really not really conducive to shopping. You have a line of 100 people. You have so few hours. It’s more (like) Black Friday.

So after I had thought about this, I had remembered that I met Phoebe Trepp, who was executive director at Willis Dady (Homeless Services) at the time. I called her and I said, “This is what my church usually does, but what I'd like to do is open this up to your clients during the week, while we're setting up for private shopping experiences by appointment.”

On that last week of October 2018 I met a woman … and we're walking around. At some point I had said, “Is there something we can be praying about? We're in a church. It's kind of what we do.”

She said, “Susan, I start my new job at Walmart on Monday.” Now, I knew this was huge for her, because she had escaped domestic violence.

At some point she said, “Susan, I moved into my new apartment on Saturday with my two little girls. Do you have any furniture?” My heart sank. I had everything but what she needed.

(Afterward) I go into the other room and I find her caseworker, and I told her what just happened. I'm like, “Is this a thing?” She's like, “Susan, they're homeless. They don't have anywhere to store furniture.”

She said that every once in a while, (they) may get a phone call from someone who's donating at the exact same time as someone's transitioning, and connect the two, but it may be just a bed or a couch or some dishes. It's not everything they need.

(God’s) waking me up in the middle of night. All I can think about is this mama's got to go to work. These kids have to go to school. They don't have anything.

I sent an email to our church secretary, and I did a quick post on my Facebook page. By Thanksgiving, three weeks later, I had been to (the woman’s new apartment) three times and filled her apartment with everything she needed including a Christmas tree, gifts and Thanksgiving dinner.

And I walked away thinking, if God did that with a single prayer, what more does he want from us?

(After gathering volunteers with storage and large vehicles,) in January 2019, I went back to Willis Dady and said I want to do this. (The partnership started with Willis Dady and Waypoint,) and they were sending referrals to my private email address.

We had this thing called Craigslist, and I was doing this out of my garage.

Q: What are some of the stories that stand out to you?

A: One of those very first referrals I got was for a mama with three kids — a 14-year-old girl, a 4-year-old girl and a 7-year-old boy. Mama said, “Just get my kids a bed.”

She said it's a two-bedroom (apartment). I said, “OK, so all three kids need to share a room.” I'm trying to figure out what this looks like. I said, “How big is it?” And she's like “not very big.”

She said, “We have a sectional couch that my 14-year-old and I dug out of a Dumpster two weeks ago.” So now I know they're all sleeping on this sectional couch.

We loaded up our pickup truck (with donated furniture) and went to the apartment. That sectional couch started at the door, and it came around and kissed the kitchen. So you can imagine how small that apartment was.

We're putting up the beds, and that 4-year-old little girl is sound asleep, and that little boy is bouncing (on the couch.) At one point, I'm walking through that door, and that little boy could not sit any longer. He jumps up, runs over to me, wraps his arms around my legs, and looks up at me with these big brown eyes and says, “Thank you for helping my mommy take care of us.”

So now, I gotta make this happen, right?

Q: How has the mission evolved over the last 7 years?

A: It started out just kind of being a little church mission. That first year, we only (served) 228 households in 2019. When the pandemic came, and a derecho, we did 422 households.

We were moving every six months, from warehouse to warehouse, to a bigger warehouse to a bigger warehouse, all depending on below-market rate rent. 2021 is when we realized we really need a forever home, and we were looking for a place that would let us sign a lease for more than month-to-month. We moved to (our current) building in January 2022.

In 2021, we did 473 homes. In 2022, we did 612. Then in 2023 we did 700, and in 2024 we did 875.

  Buy Photo

But in 2025 we had a change of administration, and funding for housing went away. That doesn't mean that there wasn't need. It just means that there wasn't any funding to help house people, and we can only give furniture to people who are housed.

So it dropped to 610.

I truly believe that community helps community, and if community knows there's a need, Cedar Rapids and Iowa always show up.

We need the money to hire that the next leadership to do this, and that's going to be the biggest thing in order for us to continue.

Q: Over the years, Central Furniture Rescue has served new waves of immigrants and refugees and seen a rise in homelessness in Cedar Rapids. How has your clientele changed, and what do clients look like?

A: In the United States, we are segregated socioeconomically. You live on the same block as your socioeconomic class, you work with your socioeconomic class, you play with your socioeconomic class, and you may even worship with them.

If you never step outside of that, your perception of homelessness is the guy outside Walmart panhandling. However, that's not the situation. There are crises in people's lives that cause them to experience homelessness.

Some of those crises are kids aging out of the foster care system. We have amazing organizations that will put a roof over their head, but they don’t have a bed.

We are talking about domestic violence. We helped a 70-year-old woman who, after 50 years of being abused, finally escaped.

We’ve also helped mamas with little ones who get in their minivan and just start driving away. I’ve talked to many mamas who choose to (fix their car instead of paying rent,) because you can live in your car and still go to work.

We’re talking about veterans who have seen things we cannot even imagine.

We’re talking about individuals who were recently released from incarceration. They’ve done their time, but they come out (of prison) and everything’s gone.

We are talking about senior citizens … who worked in the 1970s and ‘80s, where that average wage was $3 an hour, and this was all (before) 401(k). They worked for the same organization for 30 years in hopes of getting retirement. We had an economic crisis, and (their company) closed and took their retirement.

All of these things are different crises, and none of us are exempt.

Q: This mission relies on community support. Has that gotten harder to keep as budgets get tighter?

A: I want to make sure (with) anybody who has furniture or household items, that we create awareness. Because without awareness, change does not happen.

You have to be very strategic. I love to go and tell a story, because I want to make someone cry and create that awareness of what $10 can do, or what $50 can do, and I start talking about the little money versus the bigger money.

We want to make sure every household has a can opener. So for $50 I can go online to Dollar Tree, and buy a case of (48) can openers. People will go, “Oh my gosh, I can do that.”

When we get high-end (furniture donations) in here that just doesn't make sense (to donate,) we're selling it.

In September, we started Thrift Thursday. We open up to the community to come in and buy stuff and help us keep our rent paid. We started selling stuff … and we made about $20,000 last year.

Q: What has Central Furniture Rescue taught you about our community and world over the last seven years?

A: I do believe that everyone wants to help, they just don’t know how. I don’t care what side of the political realm you’re on — I believe everyone wants good. They just don’t know how.

I try to bring awareness in stories, because if you don’t know, you just don’t know.

I've also realized that all I have to do, if we're running out of something, is post it on Facebook. It gets shared 400 times, and suddenly I have 50 couches.

Q: What does the next chapter look like for Central Furniture Rescue?

A: It becomes more stable. It becomes more well-known.

We’re a furniture bank. There are 800 of us nationwide. There’s only three in the state of Iowa — Des Moines, Iowa City and Cedar Rapids.

One of my dreams was “the great Iowa furniture coalition,” establishing smaller ones in other communities, because the need is more than just in our area.

Q: Why are you stepping away?

A: Seven years later, it's time to turn this back over to the community, because it was never meant to be just me.

And it's time, because when you look at the life expectancy or the life cycles of a grassroots nonprofit like us, around that five, six-year mark is when the founder needs to step away for it to continue.

That's what we're doing.

I’ve brought it as far as I can on my own knowledge and my own power, and it needs to be turned over to people who know what they're doing … because the need never goes away.

Comments: Features reporter Elijah Decious can be reached at (319) 398-8340 or elijah.decious@thegazette.com.