Friends, I have a lot of favorite retailers but my most favorite place to shop is hands down my local Goodwill Industries. I recently went shopping there and acquired some amazing finds and can not believe I have yet to blog about all the wonderful benefits of shopping at Goodwill.
I am both a shopper and a person who donates at Goodwill Industries and there are wonderful reasons for you to do both too!
A bit about the fine folks at Goodwill.
Who does Goodwill Industries service?
“Goodwill serves those with barriers to employment. This includes individuals with disabilities, people with limited work history, those who have experienced corporate downsizing and recipients of government support programs.”
Here are the highlights of Goodwill Industries’ 2010 performance (source). I’ve bolded some things I find hugely awesome!
- People served through employment and training programs: More than 2.4 million
- Workforce development services provided: 20.1 million
- People who earned a job with Goodwill’s help : Over 170,000
- Estimated total earnings of people who earned a job with Goodwill’s help: Over $2.7 billion
- Personal and family support services provided: 7.5 million
- Total revenue generated by Goodwill organizations: $4 billion
- Total revenue spent directly on programs: 84 percent
Goodwill Industries believes in helping people create quality lives for themselves not by charity but by helping the individuals find jobs and acquire training; some key words in their mission statements are: respect, ethics, stewardship, learning and innovation. These words are the pillars to helping people pull themselves up from whatever circumstances they are in to better their lives.
Donating!
If you are like me there are a few items in your home and closet that are just sitting there without value! I usually do a sweep of all my goods at least twice a year (for the big season changes) and the items I don’t think are standouts for selling get shipped to my family in the Philippines or are donated to Goodwill.
click image for source
How to donate!
Goodwill makes it pretty easy peasy to donate. Besides the many Goodwill store locations where you can donate (find location near you, here) they have tons of drop-off bins throughout the U.S., they look a bit like dumpsters and maybe you’ve seen them around your hood and mistaken them as such, but they typically look like this.
Assessing your donation & Tax Write Off!
A tax write off refers to any amount you can deduct from your Federal Income Tax; this can be in the form of value or actual money. For a guide on charitable tax write offs, TurboTax online has a nice outline on how to make sure your donation to charity counts, here.
For item donations (winky, your donation to Goodwill) you should value your donation based on how much your items are valued at Goodwill. And Goodwill makes that easy for you too by providing a value guide for your donations on their site HERE.
source: nonprofit law blogs
If you’d like to receive a tax write off for your donation you definitely should drop off at a Goodwill Industries store since you will need an itemized receipt to file and are not provided one at the drop off spots. I should also mention that there is a limit to the amount of charitable deductions you can file as write offs, for those regulations I recommend TurboTax again 🙂 here.
(editor’s note: this addition was thanks to Terri’s question from Rags Against the Machine in the comments. Thanks Terri for the great question!! I think it’s really important info.)
Where do your Goodwill donations go?
A common misconception is that your donation will be given to a person in need. That is NOT the case! Your item is shelved to be sold at a Goodwill Industries store and the money earned from sales will go to programming to help people in need obtain training to better their lives. And as mentioned above 84% of the revenue generated from sales at Goodwill stores is put towards employment and training programs!
Goodwill Industries launched an awesome calculator (donate.goodwill.org) this year that shows how your donations help their mission. Just plug in what you’re donating and this magic calculator will pump out how much time your donation is giving their programs.
Below the calculator there is also success stories from individuals who have participated in Goodwill programs; it’s truly inspiring to see how Goodwill has helped these people and I encourage reading them because they just make you feel good all over.
For the DOs and DON’Ts on donating you can check out guidelines here. My rules for donating are: nothing damaged or soiled! If a garment or an object is not in usable shape don’t donate it and WASH all items to be donated. I wash everything I purchase new and old but it’s common courtesy to donate clean clothing.
How about some shopping!?!?!
I really love shopping at Goodwill and find all my local Goodwills and by extension every Goodwill Industries’ store I’ve been to really organized and easy to navigate. Typically the clothing is categorized by a men’s, women’s and children’s section, then separated by item type i.e. skirt, pants, shorts, dresses, THEN organized by color. So you get something that looks like this:
source: yelp
This is my local Goodwill on East 23rd Street between 2nd and 3rd Avenue. Notice clear signs for sections annnnd fitting rooms :).
Here are some of my latest finds from my trusty Goodwill.
Before I go shopping at new and traditional retail I stop in here to find my wanted items. Goodwill rarely disappoints :).
Why you should shop Goodwill?
- As stated a couple times earlier 84% of the revenue from your purchase go towards valuable job training, placement programs, and financial help for people in need.
- You will be shopping green!!! You are recycling and reusing!
- Your look will be your own. It will be pretty unlikely that someone will have your same digs since you thrifted it and even if they do you go it at a steal ;).
- You will save money!!! – The 4 above items from my shopping trip totaled a whopping $22 bucks :D.
Tips on shopping at Goodwill
- Pay attention to fabric. There is a sea of clothing in most Goodwills walk down the aisles and look for fabric that is still pristine looking. Saves some time thumbing thru the rack sand racks of clothing.
- Check, Check, Check!!! Make sure there is nothing horrifically damaging to the garment. And if you’re looking to buy electronics the folks at Goodwill are more than happy to let you plug it in and see if it works. Don’t be shy!
- Fit! My Goodwill store has fitting rooms and so have all the Goodwills I’ve visited, but just in case wear something you can easily layer on top and try on your finds.
- Check the return policy! All the Goodwill Industries’ shops in my area allow returning for either a credit or exchange but the policies differ from store to store.
- Goodwill is now online! 😀 HERE!
On quick inspection here are some goodies I found at Goodwill online.
Click to be directed to item :).
Bob Mackie Gold Top; current bid $4.00
Burberry Coat; current bid $79
So friends! Did you know about Goodwill’s work? Inspired to shop in store or online?!?!
oooo sounds like such a good cause! we don’t have them over here unfortunately xx
so cool that goodwill is now online! I love goodwill, I always with something. How can you not, the place is huge! You can fins unique, practically one of a kind pieces. Love this post Jamillah!
Though the color coded sections overwhelm so (I’m more of a concept shopper), I love finding fabulous goodies in my local Goodwill!! You got some lovely things there lately!!
Thanks for breaking it down for those who may not shop Goodwill.
GREAT POST! I plan on donating a TON of stuff when I move next month! to goodwill of course!
and I loooove scoping out some fun finds while i’m there! =)
This is a really interesting post! I have visited this shop and yes I agree they organise their clothing well so you can search for the things you are looking for, if you have a wish list, that is! A very worthy cause and nice to promote it with your blog. I will look out for their bins rather than think of EBay next time,
http://www.styleonthecouch.com
This is such an informative post! You’ve done your research haven’t you? It’s funny because my husband and I both went through some of our things recently and we decided to take them there. I also have another pile going so I’m sure I’ll be there again soon! I didn’t know about the Goodwill online store, that’s amazing! I’m definitely going to have to check that out. Great post, Jamillah!
Amazing! You must have put so much time into this and it turned out perfectly. Lovely job, J! When we were little my mom would always donate the clothes my sister and I outgrew so she set a good example for us. We always donate now, though I’ve never shopped at Goodwill myself. My mom and I spent an entire evening, each of us on our laptops, scrolling through the site, though! And when my dad asked us what we were doing my mom came up with the quip that we were “Goodwill Hunting”. 😉
Here’s a question for you. When you donate to Goodwill, how do you place a value on the clothing you donate for tax purposes. I’m always torn–should it be in the ballpark of what it retailed for originally or what the Goodwill is likely to charge for it?
As you know, I love this post! So detailed… great tips. My only complaint? My local Goodwill store does not look half as organized as yours!
Great post dear Jamillah, I’m a huge Goodwill Industries supporter. I used to only give my clothes away their, but have been a shopper in the recent years. Two of my good friends work for their offices in SF & have definitely scored high-end finds on a regular basis. I love their ebay auctions as well. So nice to read this. 🙂
Hold the phone, Goodwill is online? With Burberry? Love it!! I have a local shop in Davis Sq I like to hit every few months. They have a basement of books, random items and dishes I could spend hours in. I never leave empty handed. This is such a fabulous post on so many levels. Mainly because I donate all the time and never took advantage of the tax write off. So silly of me. And so changing.
What a brilliant write-up! It’s good to see how Goodwill works, as I only had a vague idea. It must be an amazingly huge company! I wish we had something like this, or like the UK charity shops in Hungary. Maybe I should start one. 🙂
I’ve always been a big supporter of Goodwill for precisely this reason, and yes, you can find some amazing stuff there. I just did a post myself on some Brooks Brothers shirts (regularly priced around $100 each) I picked up for a grand total of $9, and if they’re not brand new, you can’t even tell: http://kyotomaiko.blogspot.com/2011/07/out-of-season-is-in-bank.html
Goodwill is consumption as it should be. Makes a difference to you, and it makes a difference to the world.
I love Goodwill! Thanks for this positive post about it. I wish that more people knew about the amazing things you can find there! Probably 80% of my wardrobe comes from Goodwill…and I’m in college so I have to look presentable! I’m proof it’s totally a legitimate place for young people to shop and still look good.
La, I would love to go Goodwill Hunting with you! If you need a partner on an excursion let me know 🙂