D Movement: Simplify your Life by Donating to Goodwill

Courtesy of Goodwill Industries International

Spring presents the perfect time to take a fresh look at the items in your home and decide what should stay and what should go. As you de-clutter your home, Goodwill Industries® of Middle Tennessee can put your unwanted items to good use. When you donate your gently used clothing, housewares and electronics, you are helping Goodwill® provide job training and community- based services to people in your local community.

Here are the top four things that people don’t think to donate.

1. Shoes: When you use the Donations Calculator you’ll discover that when you give one dozen pairs of shoes you provide more than one hour’s worth of free career counseling for someone who is searching for a job with the help of Goodwill’s career counselors. It’s more than just a good way to clean the clutter from your closets, avoid the hassle of a yard sale or to take advantage of a tax write-off. Your donated shoes fund job training and placement for people who want to work but may have a disability or other barrier standing in their way.

2. Books: If you’ve already read a book and have no plans to read it again, donate it to Goodwill. Donating books frees valuable shelf space and makes room for new ones. Check your children’s rooms for outgrown kid’s books or your kitchen for cookbooks you haven’t consulted in the last year.

3. Clothing: You can let go of the jeans that never quite fit or that sweater that wasn’t quite your style. Goodwill gladly accepts donations of gently used clothing. As you’re cleaning out your closet, put clothing donations in a pile and, when you’re finished, bring them to your nearest Goodwill donation express center. When you’re finished going through your closet, that pile might be bigger than you bargained for!

4. Housewares: Sometimes we inherit household items from others or receive them as gifts. If you have a second toaster, vacuum cleaner or blender that you don’t need, donate it to Goodwill.

More than 1.5 million donors have given their gently used items to Goodwill, helping their neighbors build careers and make positive contributions to their communities. Last year, Goodwill served more than 11,000 people in our communities; including people with disabilities, those who lack education or work experience and others facing challenges to finding employment.

One expert who knows all about the process of de-cluttering is Lorie Marrero, Certified Professional Organizer®, contributor to Good Housekeeping and spokesperson for Goodwill’s Donate Movement. She is also the author of The Clutter Diet: The Skinny on Organizing Your Home and Taking Control of Your Life and the creator of ClutterDiet.com, an innovative program that teaches people how to organize their closets, businesses and homes. An organizing expert, Marrero has first-hand knowledge about spring cleaning and the importance of donating gently used items to environmentally sustainable organizations such as Goodwill.

To calculate the impact of your donation or to find a Goodwill Donation Express Center, visit www.giveit2goodwill.org.

What items are making it into your Goodwill donation box?

Bridal Blog: A dress for every bride

NaTisha Moultry, Community Relations Manager

 

When I look at my own wedding pictures I get excited all over again. I can remember how important it was for me to find the perfect dress for my big day. As we prepare the wedding gowns for the Goodwill Wedding Gala I am so impressed with how beautiful each gown is and how beautiful our brides-to-be will look when the find the ONE!

There’s a dress for every bride, no matter what her style preference or size! We have strapless, A Line, ball gowns, destination dresses, gowns with tulle, gowns with a hint of color, and gowns ranging from size 2 to 32. We even have vintage gowns.

It is my hope that brides will find a gown they feel beautiful in while saving hundreds, even thousands, of dollars. So, brides gear up to attend the second annual Goodwill Wedding Gala! Arrive early and enjoy every moment of being a bride.

What’s your idea of a dream dress? And if you’re already married, what style dress did you wear at your wedding?

D Movement: Donate Forward March 20 – 26

Karl Houston, Senior Director of Marketing and Community Relations

One of my favorite movies, “Pay It Forward,” starred Haley Joel Osment who portrayed a 12-year-old boy who wanted to make the world a better place. In the movie, he does a favor for someone, without any expectation of being paid back. That simple concept was a hit off the silver screen in the U.S. and beyond. A social movement was born with the only expectation being that for every request you make, do the same for others. Pay it forward.

As I think about the history of Goodwill, when in 1902, Boston’s Rev. Edgar J. Helms, had a desire to make his community a better place through the act of giving people a chance to earn a living. Rev. Helms would gather burlap sacks and visit the wealthier residents in his community asking for items they no longer needed or wanted. After collecting the donations, Rev. Helms took the items to his church where people repaired what was broken and then sold the used goods. He didn’t believe in charity. The reverend gave people an opportunity. Those he worked with found success through their own efforts and with work, they gained the dignity that comes with earning a paycheck. Like the young boy in the movie, his goodwill efforts became a movement that would eventually grow internationally.

This simple concept of reciprocity is still central to our mission here at Goodwill. With every donation made to Goodwill, we feel a sense of obligation to pay it forward by giving someone an opportunity to earn a living. We believe it begins with us being good stewards of your donations and ensuring that we maximize your donations to have the greatest impact on individuals, families and our community.

From the time we receive your donation, your donations are supporting a growing list of free job training programs and continuing services offered by Career Solutions. How so? When you donate to Goodwill, things like clothes, small appliances, furniture, and toys, at one of our 67 Donation Express Centers, your donations provide jobs and free job training services.

Each item is handled by an attendant, many of whom may have some barrier to employment. The journey continues when the items are transported to our Goodwill’s main processing plant in Nashville where each piece is processed by Goodwill employees for resale, many of whom have disabilities or other disadvantages. Your donated items are then sent to one of our 30 retail stores for resale.

Once each item sells, with the help of our retail staff, again many of whom have come through our job training programs, the revenue from that sale supports our community-based employment and training programs. Thanks to you, these programs provide thousands of hours of free classes and on-the-job training to thousands of individuals in our communities who have an economic, educational, social or vocational barrier to employment.

The bottom line? When you donate forward, your donations become an investment in the futures of the thousands of individuals who participate in our programs and services each year, and an investment in our communities. It’s a good thing!

Join our movement during the week of March 20 and donate forward.

Have you calculated your impact?

Bridal Blog: How will you spend your wedding gown savings?

NaTisha Moultry, Community Relations Manager

The Goodwill Wedding Gala is fast approaching. It will be so much fun to watch brides as they find their dream wedding gown. As I think back about my own special day, I can remember dreaming about my wedding, and how I wanted everything to be. For the most part everything turned out beautiful but I know there were so many ways that I could have saved.

As I talk to brides-to-be I enjoy giving tips and pointers on how to have a dream wedding for less. One of the most important, and possibly most expensive items a bride will purchase, is her wedding gown. Designer gowns can cost thousands of dollars. However, the Goodwill Wedding Gala allows brides a chance to find their bridal look for a lot less – $400 dollars or less!

Spending less for your dress means that you can use the money you save for other parts of the big day. Here are some things you can do with the money you save on your wedding gown if you purchase it at Goodwill.

• Add to your floral arrangements.

• Make your bouquet larger or beef up centerpieces.

• Purchase extras like personalized favors.

• Accessorize to compliment your bridal look, including your jewelry, veil or shoes.

• Search onlinegoodwill.com for your jewelry selection.

• Invest in bridal party gifts to show your appreciation to your wedding party.

• Treat yourself to luxury spa services. De-stress and pamper yourself before the big event.

As I prepare the wedding gowns for the sale I am so impressed with the tremendous inventory of designer wedding gowns. I am also thankful to our donors and all of the sponsors who have supported this event. It is my wish that brides who come to the gala leave with a wedding gown that makes them feel as beautiful as I felt on my wedding day without the large price tag. Brides who purchase their gowns at the gala can also be proud that their purchase will help Goodwill continue changing lives.

How will you spend your wedding gown savings?

Mission Possible: Success That Counts

David Lifsey, President and CEO

I wasn’t a Goodwill employee long before I learned that success means many things. Until I came here, I thought of success as having a lot of money, won/lost records and items that I’ve accumulated. But Goodwill has taught me that success is something very different, often not measured in money or things, but in accomplishments, confidence and hope.

Success can be learning to ride a bus on your own, getting to work on time everyday or hanging just one more piece of clothing today than yesterday. Success can also mean earning a fresh start and having paid for past mistakes. It’s gaining new friends who appreciate you for who you are, not what you can do for them, having your own home and supporting family.

Our Goodwill is in the success business. Sure, we open stores, hire more people and build new buildings. That’s really not so much success as it is accomplishments that allow us to achieve our real success which is measured in having more than 1,400 employees who work for Goodwill because of our mission. We served more than 11,000 people last year who turned to us for help finding and keeping a job and building a reputation that allows people to feel good when they donate to us.

There is a needlepoint piece framed on my office wall. It defines success. Among the measures it touts as signs of success are these, “To leave the world a bit better – by a redeemed social condition, (and) to know even one life has breathed easier; this is to have succeeded.”

Our Goodwill is in the success business; success that counts.

How do you define success?