My Nonprofit Reviews

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.

The comments here suggest it's quite a scam, but where are you getting your figures? A look at their 990 published at ProPublica--

https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/910568708

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.

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.

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.

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.