Sales at the nine Washington-area stores, for example, increased this spring by 5 percent, partly as a result of the organization’s effort to recast itself as a source of vintage and high-end fashions for young professional women. Last year, the Washington chapter hired Em Hall, a Web marketing specialist, to blog about stylish merchandise in its stores. It also uploaded a video of its annual fashion show to fashionofgoodwill.com, its Web site. “We thought we could learn from Victoria’s Secret, which was doing virtual fashion shows online,” Mr. Hurley said.

Image CHANGES ABOUT A Goodwill fashion show in Washington. Credit... Roger Chin

Across the country, Goodwill is competing for shoppers with a keener eye and sometimes deeper pockets. A few stores are adjusting prices accordingly. The many who think of the brand as a graveyard for no-name castoffs would be surprised  or dismayed  to find a Prada bag marked at $200 and climbing at auction on a Goodwill Web site, or a Pucci shirt for $800.

This is not to say the group has abandoned its low-income customers. Clothing prices typically range from about $7 to $20. Selective price hikes, however, support the nonprofit’s core mission: Goodwill says that about 84 percent of its revenues go into job training for the disabled and other programs.

Mr. Hernandez said he is seeking “more brand-aware managers” equipped to recognize (and, to some degree, exploit) the market value of luxury labels. “In the past we have been a little taken aback to find out the original store value of a Chanel jacket that we might carry,” he said. “Now we set prices in a way that the market will determine,” at roughly 10 to 15 percent of the original cost.

Goodwill of Akron, Ohio, published an annual report formatted in the style of a fashion magazine. Retique, a free-standing Goodwill boutique in Milwaukee, sent a direct mailing to customers in the trendy Third Ward district. “They are shoppers with more disposable income,” explained Vicki Holschuh, a vice president at Goodwill of Southern Wisconsin. “They typically would not have been in our stores before.”

The Milwaukee boutique displays its most covetable wares on mannequins. “We’re seeing a lot of people stretching their dollar specifically for name brands and fashion forward items,” said Cheryl Lightholder, a spokeswoman for Goodwill of Southern Wisconsin. “We set up the boutique to highlight those.”