The Importance of Donations: Second Hand to Second Chances

          Think of the biggest companies you can.  Off the top of your head, you might name several fortune 500 companies.  Sometimes people think of “Goodwill” as a massive conglomerate the likes of Coca-Cola, Alcoa, and 3M.  When people think of Goodwill, they often think of it as a monolithic entity with a centralized office and satellite locations.  The reality could not be further removed from this perception. Goodwill is actually comprised of 164 member organizations that each operate independently. Each Goodwill operates under the Goodwill name, but is fully responsible for obtaining and securing funding in their respective local area of responsibility.  That funding is the lifeblood of what we do here.

          The mission of Goodwill has always been to provide services to the community utilizing the funding we receive.  This funding comes from a variety of sources such as grants, endowments, state and federal funds and most importantly, donations.  Donations are the main thing driving what we do here at Goodwill and they are the main reason we are able to provide services to the community.  In many ways, none of what we do is possible without you.  That old sweater that didn’t fit anymore?  That helped pay for a job training program that helped four individuals with Autism get job training and work readiness skills.  That couch you kept in your garage and hadn’t sat on for 10 years?  That helped pay for someone to fulfill their dream of getting their GED.  Those golf clubs you bought and used once because you totally swore you were going to play 18 holes every week with your buddies from college?  That helped pay for someone who had been out of work for two years to get the training they needed to re-enter the workforce.  Your donations help us provide services to those in need.

          It’s not just your donation of used goods that assists us in our mission. Goodwill also relies on private cash donations as well as monetary donations from various community organizations and donors in order to provide services to the community.  Even with all the proceeds from donation and public funding, there is a limit to what services can be provided.  These funds, when augmented with cash donations, give us the tools that we need to provide comprehensive services to the community.  It is Goodwill’s mission to provide a hand up to those in need in the community and without donations, none of it would be possible.