The presentation discusses how early twentieth-century Roman Catholic charitable associations grappled with the threat of becoming obsolete in the emerging sector of modern social assistance. It zooms in on a specific example of the self-reforms of two pious associations for lay women active on the fringes of the late German empire and Habsburg monarchy: the Associations of Saint Vincent de Paul in the Province of Posen and the Sodalities of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Galicia. The selected charitable practices are located in the background of two contending bordering projects: the empires' efforts to maintain their political frontiers and the Polish population's aspiration to achieve its own nation-state through the imperial borders' redrawing. The talk argues that the women's charitable associations managed to secure their influence in the field of social assistance by introducing new categories of welfare recipients, which were crafted in reference to the ongoing territorial disputes in both contested borderland regions. The research mobilises conceptual insights from religious history, welfare history, and border studies.