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News
Employee of Distinction 2007 Winners
Posted May 10, 2007, 7:00 am
The winners are:
Karen Boley, Supervisor of Customer Service, The Will-Burt Company and Rex Miller, Maintenance, Pomerene Hospital.
The Employee of Distinction Luncheon, hosted by Goodwill Industries of Wayne and Holmes Counties and sponsored in part by Buckeye Community Health Plan, celebrated the employees nominated from area companies who “go above and beyond the call of duty” at work. The luncheon featured the 13 nominees and the companies who nominated them, along with speaker, Barry Hummel with Hummel Insurance Agency.
The other nominees were: Dawn Baker, Assistant Warehouse Manager at Friendly Wholesale; Janet Barton, Administrative Assistant at Rea & Associate; Janet DeHart, paralegal at Taggart Law Firm; Delores Fetter, Assistant to the Administrator, Wooster Christian School; Barb Frybarger, Counselor at Your Human Resource Center Bob Porter, Holmes County Juvenile Court; Lori Stauffer, Master Chef at Smithville Western Commons; Michael Thompson, Ed.D, Director of Institutional Research at The College of Wooster; Jordan Tompkins, a GIS Specialist, TechniGraphics, Inc;, Phyllis Wiebe, Senior Administrative Assistant at The University of Akron Wayne College; Shirley Wilson, Laundry & Housekeeping at Inn at Honey Run.
Judy Delaney, CEO and President of Goodwill stated, “We know how important it is to find good employees because Goodwill trains people to get and keep a job. Goodwill wanted to host this special event to celebrate the individual successes of the exemplary employees and the companies who took the time to nominate them. “
Judges for the event were Don Noble II from United Titanium, Trice Black, from Spherion and Mullet Cabinet’s Diane Duff.
Goodwill Lotto Scam
Posted April 17, 2007, 6:46 am
 A new scam is out there, called GOODWILL LOTTO or GOODWILL INTERNATIONAL LOTTO. A person may receive a letter or e-mail from another country notifying them they have won considerable lottery dollars. In some cases a check for a smaller amount is enclosed, with instructions to cash it and mail back part of the money and account information to redeem the rest of the prize.
Click image at left for larger view of the letter...
Some Goodwill employees have received this letter, and naturally they trust the name Goodwill. Community members also trust the Goodwill name, so this scam is especially dangerous.
We have found a link on Yahoo Answers that may also serve as added warning: http://au.answers.yahoo.com/question/index.php?qid=20070412090853AAdIq3m
Please get the word out to your workers and volunteers that neither your Goodwill nor Goodwill Industries International is responsible for this “lottery” and that it likely is a fraud and identity theft operation. Anyone who responds, and certainly anyone who cashes a related check, becomes part of the problem.
A conversation with your local media is also time well spent as a public service. At GII, we have been contacted by one local reporter already. If you would like assistance with this, please contact Christine Nyirjesy Bragale or Paula Lin here at your Member Service Center, at 800-741-0186.
A faxed copy of the letter is attached as a tif file. Let me know if you can’t open it and I will try to get it to you in another format. Thanks to Sandra Purgahn in Lafayette for sending this along for all our benefit.
The same advice applies as always: If it looks too good to be true, it probably isn’t.
Thanks,
Dave Barringer
Vice President, Member Relations
Goodwill Industries International (The real one!)
Launching the New Goodwill Website
Posted April 16, 2007, 9:54 am
Part of the Goodwill Strategic Plan for 2006 was the implementation of a totally re-designed website and the project posed various challenges to overcome along the way.
IT Director, Mark Gryniewski and Marketing Director, Pat Potter took the challenge and succeeded in creating an appealing and informative site.
The Challenge:
"We felt strongly that our web presence was an extension, if not a mirror, of our organizations overall image and we wanted to make this new site shine," Gryniewski said.
“Understanding really good web pages are all about content, not design, we strived for the middle ground between strikingly creative and technically functional. We believe our new menu system simplicity and color scheme marry well with the fresh content and functionality built into the site."
"One of the tricky hurdles to overcome was the need to mix different web server environments to accommodate our more complex web based systems, some built for Windows servers and others for Linux based servers.”
New Site Launched:
Potter stated, “We were excited about creating a site that would educate anyone who clicked onto www.woostergoodwill.org."
"You will notice that we have a lot of pictures and interesting offerings that many Goodwill sites don’t utilize which keeps the visitor well informed and also makes the overall experience of using our website a positive one.”
Consider Giving Your Surplus Merchandise to Goodwill
Posted April 16, 2007, 9:54 am
Your Surplus Merchandise Can Help Goodwill Provide Needed Services in the Community
Benefits of Donating:
Many businesses already donate money, volunteer time and unused equipment to non-profit organizations. This philanthropic community link is nothing new.
What may come as a surprise is the fact that donated inventory used by the nonprofit for charitable purposes allows the corporation not only a deduction for the cost of the inventory, but an additional deduction for 50% of its gross profit. (Reference: section 170(e)(3) of the federal tax code.)
How We Can Help Each Other:
Unwanted inventory can create a headache for businesses. Model updates, fads or trendy items that go out of style and changes in packaging create opportunities for businesses to donate to Goodwill.
Donating unwanted inventory to Goodwill allows businesses to free up storage space and reduce inventory. This saves on storage cost and allows new, in-demand items to be delivered and stored.
Your donation allows Goodwill to fulfill its mission of developing programs and services to enable people of all ages to live, learn, work and play in the mainstream of community life.
Goodwill’s retail stores generate more than 80% of our total operating revenue needed to support our programs, serving thousands of people with special needs every year.
Plan Ahead:
Since the rules are strict, checking with a tax planner before you make a donation is recommended. It would also be a good idea to make the Goodwill Store Manager aware of your donation to arrange for transfer of the items and provide a receipt. Thank you for considering giving an in-kind gift to Goodwill!
Donation Box Confusion
Posted April 16, 2007, 9:54 am
Inquiring Minds Want to Know
Numerous people have called Goodwill to ask about the different donation boxes that seem to have hit our area in the past month.
Questions asked:
- Why are the boxes in this area?
- Do the boxes belong to Goodwill, Salvation Army, People to People?
- What does the company do with the donations?
We are pleased that there are so many conscientious donors who have registered concern.
An educated donor assists Goodwill by helping to insure that our future stays positive. Without donations, Goodwill would not be able to provide education and job training for individuals with barriers to employment. Funds raised from the sale of donations provide job training and employment services.
In other words, your donations help put people to work in our community!
As a consumer, you need to ask the following questions.
· Does my donation support a local, worthy cause?
· Does my donation help local people in need?
· Does my donation benefit my local community?
If you answered yes to all of those questions, then your donations help others in our community.
When donating to Goodwill, you can be guaranteed that 100% of the funds received from the sale of your donations stay in our community to benefit our community members.
Goodwill, along with the other local charities, encourages you to be an informed donor. Help make a difference in your own backyard by donating your good usable items to local charities.
If you have questions or concerns, please call Goodwill at (330) 264-1300 and ask for Marketing Director, Pat Potter or email PPotter@woostergoodwill.org.
Rare Ukulele Breaks Goodwill Online Auction Sales Record
Posted April 16, 2007, 9:54 am
Donation Nets Instrumental Funding for Goodwill Career Programs
September 1, 2006
Omaha, NE - An unidentified shopper purchased a rare 1920s "tricone" ukulele for $10,514 on Goodwill's Internet auction site, shopgoodwill.com, making it the site's highest sale on record. The revenues will help fund job training programs offered through Goodwill Industries Inc., Serving Eastern Nebraska and Southwest Iowa (Omaha).
"This rare instrument is just another example of the unique treasures available on shopgoodwill.com and at Goodwill stores everywhere," says George W. Kessinger, President and CEO of Goodwill Industries International. Other treasures found on shopgoodwill.com include an original, signed Picasso, a Sea-Doo watercraft, and a Hot Wheels collection that garnered $2,001 earlier this summer.
Created, owned and operated by Goodwill Industries of Orange County (Santa Ana, CA), shopgoodwill.com boasts nearly 200,000 registered buyers. More than 100 local Goodwill agencies are sellers on the site.
"Job seekers across North America benefit from the generosity of more than 58 million Goodwill donors each year," says Kessinger. "For more than 100 years, Goodwill has been a household name associated with donations of gently-used goods. People trust Goodwill because of our longstanding history in their communities and our mission of putting people to work."
Since its launch in 1999, shopgoodwill.com - the nation's first and only Internet auction site owned and operated by a nonprofit organization - has earned more than $32 million for Goodwill programs in the United States and Canada. Some 13,000 items, selected from the millions of pounds of goods donated to the organization each year, are for sale on the site at any given time.
Same Old Closet to Clean but New Rules for Claiming the Tax Break
Posted April 16, 2007, 9:54 am
Tax-Deductible Donations to Goodwill Benefit Jobless in Your Community
December 1, 2006
Rockville, MD — Make room for your holiday gifts — de-clutter your home and give your gently used clothing and other unwanted items to Goodwill Industries. And claim a tax deduction to get a little money back from Uncle Sam in the process.
"Cleaning out your closet is an easy way to invest in your community and, at the same time, get a tax break," says George W. Kessinger, President and CEO of Goodwill Industries International. "Thanks to your donations, last year Goodwill helped someone find a job every 57 seconds of every business day."
With the passage of the Pension Protection Act in August 2006, new rules about claiming tax deductions for charitable donations went into effect. For cash contributions, donors must show a receipt from the charity, a canceled check, or credit card statement to prove their donation, and may not claim a deduction if they cannot provide supporting documentation. For material donations, donors may claim a deduction only for items that are in "good" condition. For items worth more than $500, a qualified appraisal must accompany the claim.
"A good rule of thumb to follow when determining the condition of something you want to donate is to consider whether or not you would give it to a relative or a friend," says Kessinger. "If the answer is yes, then it's fit to donate and most likely in "good" condition."
Goodwill accepts clothing, household items, toys, computers, cars and other vehicles - even those holiday gifts that weren't quite right. Items are sold in Goodwill stores and online at www.shopgoodwill.com, for the benefit of Goodwill's job training and career services.
To make a financial donation by credit card , donors can visit www.goodwill.org, or send a check to Goodwill Industries International, Inc.; 15810 Indianola Drive; Rockville, MD 20855. To donate gently-used clothing and household items , use the online locator at www.goodwill.org to find the Goodwill near you, or call (800) 664-6577.
Goodwill Industries and Auto Suppliers Protecting the Environment and Creating Jobs
Posted April 16, 2007, 9:54 am
Suppliers Partnership for the Environment Recognizes Unique Collaboration at North American International Auto Show
January 11, 2007
Rockville, MD - Goodwill Industries agencies in Michigan are being honored by a leading automotive industry group for protecting the environment and creating job opportunities for a variety of workers, including people with disabilities. The Suppliers Partnership for the Environment (SP), an association of automotive industry manufacturers and suppliers, will recognize Goodwill at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit on January 11, 2007. The Goodwills are being acknowledged for innovative processes that reuse, recycle and remanufacture automotive parts, by-products and other materials.
The Michigan-based Goodwill agencies provide the auto industry with an environmentally sound solution for recycling materials that might otherwise end up in landfills. |
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