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Goodwill Industries

Goodwill Industries International Inc.
Goodwill Industries Logo.svg
Founded 1902; 115 years ago (1902)
Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.
Founder Reverend Edgar J. Helms
53-0196517, 04-2106765
Focus Vocational rehabilitation for disabled persons
Headquarters 15810 Indianola Dr Rockville, Maryland, United States 20855
Area served
Global (17 countries)
Products Retail
Key people
Jim Gibbons (President & CEO)
Revenue
$3.53 billion (2012)
Website http://www.goodwill.org/

Goodwill Industries International Inc., or shortened to Goodwill, (stylized as goodwill) is an American nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization that provides job training, employment placement services, and other community-based programs for people who have barriers preventing them from otherwise obtaining a job. In addition, Goodwill Industries may hire veterans and individuals who lack education or job experience or face employment challenges. Goodwill is funded by a massive network of retail thrift stores which operate as nonprofits as well. Goodwill's answer to its profit status is "As a unique hybrid called a social enterprise, we defy traditional distinctions. Instead of a single bottom line of profit, we hold ourselves accountable to a triple bottom line of people, planet, and performance."

Goodwill operates as a network of independent, community-based organizations in South Korea, Venezuela, Brazil, Mexico, Panama, Uruguay, the United States, Canada, and 8 other countries, with 163 local Goodwills in the Unites States and Canada. It slowly expanded from its founding in 1902 and was first called Goodwill in 1915. In 2014, Goodwill organizations generated a total of $5.59 billion in revenue, 83 percent of which was spent directly on programs. In 2015, the group served more than 37 million people, with more than 312,000 people placed into employment.

Goodwill's logo is a stylized letter g, resembling a smiling face. It was designed by Joseph Selame in 1968.

Currently, there are two public faces of Goodwill. Organization expert Lorie Marrero is the face of the Donate Movement, which began in 2010. ABC correspondent Evette Rios partnered with Goodwill in 2012 to help appeal to the Latin American market.

In 1902, Reverend Edgar J. Helms of Morgan Methodist Chapel in Boston started Goodwill as part of his ministry. Helms and his congregation collected used household goods and clothing being discarded in wealthier areas of the city, then trained and hired the unemployed or impoverished to mend and repair them. The products were then redistributed to those in need or were given to the needy people who helped repair them. In 1915, Helms hosted a visit to Morgan Memorial by representatives of a workshop mission in Brooklyn, NY and they learned about the innovative programs and the operating techniques of the "Morgan Memorial Cooperative Industries and Stores, Inc." Helms was subsequently invited to visit in New York. Out of these exchanges came Brooklyn's willingness to adopt and adapt the Morgan Memorial way of doing things, while Helms was persuaded that Brooklyn's name for its workshop, "Goodwill Industries," was preferable to the Morgan Memorial name. Thus was officially born Morgan Memorial Goodwill Industries, and that, plus Brooklyn's interest and ties, became the foundation on which Goodwill Industries was to be built as an international movement.


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