Seattle Nonprofits and Charities

I have been presenting the CHOICES Workshop since 2003 and have been the Optimist Club Project Manager for the last 4 years. The progarm is fun for the 8th grade students and many have a chance to participate and see the outcome of good and bad choices regarding their decisions about education in high school. Without exception, our Presenters say " I wish someone had told me these things when I was in Middle School". The majority of the students rate the Workshop as 4 or 5 on a scale of 1 to 5. The teachers love the program and have requested that we present it early in the school year so that they can refer to it and build on it during the year.

I am a former employee of FareStart, a 30 year old nonprofit well-known in Seattle for its workforce development programs training marginalized communities in culinary skills. FareStart also expanded its programs to include hunger relief during the pandemic. FareStart has been experiencing a financial crisis for the past year due to mismanagement and dwindling public funds following the end of government pandemic funding. While many nonprofits nationally have been experiencing the same shifts in public funding as well as a reduction in private donations, FareStart leadership has failed to respond appropriately to these financial difficulties at the detriment of its staff. Its primary approach has been to “restructure” the organization through two separate rounds of layoffs in 2023 alone. Leadership has failed to provide sufficient support for remaining staff during and after the layoffs, putting more work on the plates of an already overworked workforce. Staff are consistently asked to take on more work beyond their job descriptions for no additional compensation or title changes. For workers who have to do physical labor (I.e. food transport) this involves physical strain to an extreme that would cause OSHA concern. FareStart continues to accept donations and public funding, but leadership has failed to provide a sufficient road map or business plan for their way out of the financial crisis beyond repeated “restructuring.”<br>FareStart markets itself as an anti-racist organization that stands for diversity, equity, and inclusion. In actuality, FareStart leadership routinely perpetuates discrimination against staff of color, female and trans staff, and disabled staff. Equity initiatives have been stonewalled, supposedly due to budget difficulties, but also because many of the staff who have been engaged in initiatives at this point have left the organization or been laid off. Complaints from employees around equity and accessibility were routinely dismissed, and there were concerns that some of these complaints to HR had mysteriously disappeared, either “lost” or destroyed. These trends are particularly concerning when considering the student programs, which enroll youth and adults who have experienced poverty, incarceration, houselessness, and systemic racism. Nationwide trends of reduced numbers of case workers in social services have exacerbated this issue, creating an environment where students, particularly students of color, are not sufficiently supported and potentially exposed to further harm when a trauma informed lens is considered.<br>In all, the reputation that FareStart retains in the Seattle nonprofit sector is founded on falsehoods, and the leadership continues to do harm to its staff and the King County community as it continues down the road of financial downfall.

I have been in uplifts program for over a year. I have not received any help with finding a job. The staff is incompetent and lazy. The housing provided is not safe. A resident shot through his front door one day almost killing someone coming up the stairs. Two days later he was back in the building even though the police didn't recover a gun and put us all in danger again. Many residents are mentally unstable and addict's with belligerent and unpredictable behavior. The old Millionaire club staff was great,but since uplift they have fallen off. I was recently given a one year lease. Three months in they are trying to re- neg on that lease and implement a 6 month lease shortening stable housing. ( Who ever heard of a landlord breaking a lease 3 months in. Now I have to worry about housing and a job. The reviews about Uplift are from staff and donors. It doesn't reflect the tenants opinions in any way. People here are worried and miserable at times. I have to speak up. Others are afraid of backlash or getting thrown out. Since I have voiced my concerns in numerous emails and conversations I am done with pleasantly. If you need real help. Don't go to uplift. Any temp agency will get you a job.

I had a substantially handicapped aunt who worked for Goodwill most of her adult life so I have always made them my first choice for in-kind donations. However, I found the allegations against their current business model disturbing so I began looking for the truth as it relates to Seattle Goodwill Industries. <br> <br>The comments here suggest it's quite a scam, but where are you getting your figures? A look at their 990 published at ProPublica-- <br> <br>https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/910568708 <br> <br>shows exec compensation as $1,463,356 or 2.1% of their total expenses, less than half what the previous reviewer claimed. That is not unreasonable and the numbers otherwise look good for an organization that does not rely on volunteer labor. <br> <br>True, their mission has changed from the "sheltered workshop" of my aunt's day and malfunctioning merchandise is not fixed and frequently passes onto the sales floor (I am a consumer as well as a donor) and their clients are now able individuals learning job skills. Many are immigrants and some seem to be native born folks with limited inter-personal skills, as well as individuals attempting to build up recommendations and trust after a stint in lock-up. <br> <br>I see good outcomes here for the target clients, and there are more and better facilities for workers with the physical and mental handicaps suffered by my aunt. <br> <br>However, this is certainly a case in which "milage may vary." I am looking specifically at Seattle Goodwill and I would certainly look at the ProPublica listings for other metropolitan areas before I made them a charity of choice.

I worked for this non profit. As a disabled, lgbtq person, I was bullied and discriminated against. When it was brought to the attention of the director of operations, he enabled more bullying and joined in. I addressed it all head on with HR, who proceeded to fire me when I directly named the manager. I also witnessed abuse of mentally disabled workers. If you're looking to donate, please don't give to this establishment. They need to be investigated and the disabled workers need help. They abuse and bully people with smiles on their faces. It's absolutely heartbreaking and they should not be on this list.

While working for a large janitorial business in Seattle, I found CARES of Washington to be a very useful partner in helping me find people with disabilities and low incomes to fill a request for one of our top accounts. A unique program was developed with the Port of Seattle to bridge the gap between folks looking for employment, and open positions at the Sea-Tac Airport . CARES of Washington introduced me to highly qualified individuals who were seeking a path to sustainable careers. Additionally, the support that CARES offered my new employees was fantastic; job shadowing to support the new hire success as well as support for social skills. The team at CARES of Washington excel at what they do because they love what they do and understand the importance of resilience as a life skill. They are easy to work with and a very caring group of people. I recommend CARES of Washington to any employer seeking to hire people with disabilities and low incomes.

After visiting three audiologists and leaving frustrated a friend told me to try this place. I was happy to finally have someone listen to my special hearing issues and provide me with multiple options. I got to "try before you buy" and they convinced me! I am getting regular follow-ups and the staff is very attentive. I am much happier and more social since I can hear.

While visiting the plaza behind Viet-wah Supermarket, I had an opportunity to sit in on one of the ESL sessions provided by nonprofit, HelpingLink. One of their primary goals is to educate and enrich the Vietnamese community through providing programs that helps to make one independent. Though they have multiple tutors, the teacher of the evening was known as Barrett. The session started with a review of last week’s materials followed by a conversational dialogue and a focus on basic grammatical structure. Materials, including the script is, provided by the center. While conversing, proper pronunciation and enunciation were the core focus. It was engaging to have the students practice the script and substitute different subjects into the same structure. <br> <br>Throughout the session, I thought about how unfortunate it was that not many persons know of the wonderful services this center provided as well had taken advantage of these services, all of which are provided with zero-costs to the students. <br>