Throughout the month of December, the Charitable Giving Coalition will be featuring a variety of voices in the charitable sector through our Season of Giving Guest Blog Series. These posts feature a fraction of the endless good work America’s nonprofit organizations are doing.
For nearly 120 years, Goodwill has helped people reach their full potential through building skills, finding jobs and growing careers.
People like Diondre Ouzts. Diondre dropped out of high school after becoming academically ineligible to play football. After seeing his mother’s positive experience with The Excel Center, a charter high school operated by Goodwill of Greater Washington (DC), he enrolled in the Center’s College and Career Readiness program. After graduation, he found a job at The Literacy Lab, tutoring young students, and received a full-tuition scholarship to attend Catholic University to pursue early childhood education.
In Mississippi, Della Turner found herself out of work and without the skills that were needed in today’s digital workplace. In order to make her next career, she knew that she had to update her skills. She enrolled in a digital skills training course that was being offered through the Goodwill Industries of Mississippi WIN Job Center. When the pandemic hit, she took advantage of virtual services while also job hunting. Della landed a job as an employment specialist and is applying the skills she learned at Goodwill in her work life.
These are just two of the countless stories of individuals who have used Goodwill services to achieve success. Goodwill is a nonprofit organization that partners to connect people from all backgrounds with a unique range of services, including job training and placement as well as childcare, transportation and healthcare support. Goodwill career centers prepare job seekers for in-demand careers by guiding and supporting them in learning new skills, earning credentials, creating resumes and preparing for interviews.
Last year, 126,000 people connected with jobs with the help of Goodwill.
What makes these services possible are donated goods and financial contributions. That is why we encourage our nation’s policy makers to continue supporting nonprofit organizations like ours by expanding and making permanent the universal charitable donation through the Universal Giving Pandemic Response and Recovery Act. It’s the right thing to do in order for Congress to build upon its support and to do more to make giving incentives fair for all taxpayers. This will help charitable organizations achieve their missions and support their workforces and communities as our nation recovers from the current and future crises.
At Goodwill, it means that a person will continue to earn a good job every minute of every business day.
Steven C. Preston
President and CEO, Goodwill Industries International