THE YOU AND ME OF PHILANTHROPY
Julie P. Dunnigan, Vice President, Philanthropy
At Goodwill, we rely heavily on our retail stores to provide funding for our mission operations. We also have a philanthropy team that works hard to secure additional mission funding through donations that come directly from our community. The team is small but mighty (two members right now!) and is focused on getting existing donors excited about giving year after year, and getting brand new donors excited to give.
The Numbers
How much money is available through charitable giving? In 2019, Americans gave a whopping $449 billion to charity. $309 billion of that came as individual donations – from people like you and me. $53 million of those donations went to Human Service organizations just like Goodwill. That’s a huge amount of money that can make a world of difference in the lives of the people we serve.
The Tools
At Goodwill, we have several tools that we use to achieve our philanthropy goals:
- We hold Mission Tours at the ROC to share our stories with members of our community.
- We put on an annual fundraising event, Empower Arizona, where we share stories of impact and raise money for our mission.
- We lead the Change Campaign, where our cashiers ask shoppers to donate their change in support
of our mission. - We bring in Donations and Grants by building relationships with individuals, corporations and foundations.
How You Can Help
Our philanthropy efforts generate a significant portion of our total mission services funding. In fact, fundraising generated about 25% of our total mission funding in 2019. So, although our team may be small, our work is critical. And there are things YOU can do every day, no matter where you are in the business, to play an active role in our culture of Philanthropy:
Be a Goodwill Ambassador – You can support our culture of philanthropy by sharing the good work of Goodwill at any time. The friend of a friend at a barbecue who asks what you do for Goodwill may be our next donor. Your cranky aunt who had one bad experience ten years ago at a Goodwill store in Ohio may change her mind and decide to shop and donate with us after you tell her why you love coming to work every day!
Give great customer service – We know you’re great about thanking every customer, donor, and job seeker. Giving people that type of positive Goodwill experience makes them more likely to shop – and donate – with us again in the future. About 1/3 of our shoppers are cash donors. They choose to round up their change at the register, so let’s keep asking! You never know who will say yes.
Learn about our mission – You can support our philanthropy team by discovering one aspect of our mission work that you’re extra excited about. Then, make it a goal to educate people about this idea as you ask for change at the register, say thanks at the donation door, or just have a casual floor conversation with them. Your enthusiasm will come through and people will want to get involved.
Don’t forget about our environmental impact – Thanks to our retail and salvage operation we keep over 200 million pounds of goods out of the landfill each year. Go ahead and brag about it!
It’s important to remember that we really are One Goodwill that touches all parts of our community. The people we interact with might be job seekers one day – and donors or shoppers the next. Every day is a call to create a strong connection or impression that makes someone excited to support Goodwill. I encourage you to look for that call and rise to it – because Philanthropy is you and me.
