Designer clothing and animal welfare may seem like an unlikely pairing, but Vanessa Getty found a way to connect them. As outlined in a Marketplace feature in the San Francisco Examiner, her standing in the fashion world became one of the most effective tools behind her charitable work.

Getty has appeared on best-dressed rankings for roughly two decades, including Vanity Fair’s 2014 International Best-Dressed List, Harper’s Bazaar, and San Francisco society coverage. She built long-term relationships with Chanel, Valentino, and Burberry, and was among Narciso Rodriguez’s earliest custom commission subjects. Rodriguez designed her wedding gown in 1999, his first bridal commission after designing Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy’s 1996 wedding dress.

In 2008, she put those connections to work by creating the PURR Sale. The luxury resale event asks designers and brands to donate clothing and accessories that are then sold below retail, with 100 percent of proceeds going to the mobile spay-and-neuter clinic she founded through the Peninsula Humane Society & SPCA.

The first PURR Sale raised approximately $150,000 in about an hour, with contributions from Chanel, Christian Dior, and more than 60 other designers and donors, including Nicole Kidman. The 2015 event, held at a Pacific Heights home, featured more than 68 designers and celebrities, including Portia de Rossi and Maria Bello, and raised $350,000 in a single afternoon.

Her fashion work supported the cause in other ways, too. She appeared in a Judith Leiber advertising campaign that directed proceeds to San Francisco Bay Humane Friends, and she hosted trunk shows and events with Michael Kors, Ralph Lauren, Louis Vuitton, and Mulberry.

According to the profile, that standing supplied the donor network, credibility, and inventory that made the PURR Sale possible. It also opened institutional doors, including an honorary co-chair appointment alongside Trevor Traina for the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco’s Mid-Winter Gala.

For the PURR Sale’s founder, fashion was never separate from philanthropy. It became the engine that kept a free clinic running for nearly two decades.