Goodwill Industries of Northwest North Carolina, Inc. was started in Winston-Salem, North Carolina in 1926 by Centenary United Methodist Church. It was started as a way to replicate the success Goodwill Industries was having all over the country – helping people with a “hand up” not a “handout.” Accredited by the Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities (CARF), they help a lot of different types of people with different needs.

While Goodwill Industries is known for helping people, they have needs as well. For one, donations are needed more than ever. Receiving donations allows them to fix or repair the items (creating jobs), sell them at a reasonable price (helping families and making money), and use the money to pay salaries and also invest in more training and educational programs to help people become self-sufficient.

The need for donations goes beyond just clothes and household items, though. Donating a vehicle to Goodwill Industries gives them a lot of help. Fixing the car up and reselling it to those who need transportation for a job at a reasonable rate is only part of the way it helps. The other end is the money received from the sale of your donated car. This money is put back into programs in your community that help people with all aspects of getting a job and becoming a productive member of society.

Donating a used car that’s been sitting in your garage might not seem like it would help a lot, but you’d be surprised at the difference it can make in someone’s life. If you’ve always had a car and never had to worry about transportation, putting yourself in the shoes of someone on the bottom trying to make their life better, a dependable means of transportation can really be a life changer.

Goodwill, Serving the People of Southern Los Angeles County Inc. serves over 20 cities and neighborhoods in the area. Formed in 1929 as a response to the Great Depression, they’ve been helping people with job training and placement since opening.

As with all the other Goodwill Industries locations around the country, Goodwill SOLAC depends on donations to keep running. Whether it’s clothes, household items or even a vehicle, your donation goes a long way in letting Goodwill Industries do what they do best – help people from all walks of life (even if they have disabilities) to become productive and self-sufficient members of society.

This is a big goal and one they’re good at fulfilling, but they need your help now more than ever before. With the current economic conditions, more people than ever need help with the basics in life, including education for a career. Goodwill Industries helps with this, but they need your help to continue.

Whether you donate a car (great!) or clothes (good!), your donation will be used to help people in your community, no matter where you might be. By working with a website like Charity Dispatch, you can know your donation doesn’t break any laws when you try to deduct the donation from your taxes and also get help with the donation process, including pick-up and delivery of your donated vehicle.

Goodwill SOLAC has been helping people for a long time, but without donations big and small, the whole system begins to breakdown. By donating whatever you can to Goodwill (things you might give a friend – not junk), you can make sure you’re doing your part to help the system continue helping people help themselves. You might not think your one donation can make a difference, but donating a car can make a huge impact on the life of someone else. You never know.

While the following mission statement and values were found on the Goodwill Industries of Central Iowa website, in a way, they represent the values of Goodwill Industries all over the country. It’s these values that they try to live up to and pass on to the public that have made Goodwill Industries a success over the last 100 years.

The mission statement reads as follows: To empower individuals and families with barriers to independence through training, education and employment.

This is really what Goodwill Industries is all about – job training, job placement and education in general. They try to give a “hand up” instead of a “handout.” In today’s world, teaching people to be self-sufficient and not rely on the government is an important thing, more important than ever before.

The values they try to follow are: partnership, respect, advocacy, innovation, stewardship, and ethics.

These are all great values that represent what Rev. Edgar Helms was trying to start in this country over 100 years ago. It’s good to know they’re still alive and well today as Goodwill Industries tries to live up to these values and instill them in people from all over.

As mentioned, this mission statement and list of values came from the Goodwill Industries of Central Iowa website, but they’re important no matter where you live. To help them live up to their mission and values, they need your help. The idea started with donations and donations are still the driving force behind Goodwill Industries being able to help people all over the country.

Whether you donate clothes or donate a car, your donation will be used to directly and indirectly help people in your community. If helping people isn’t part of your personal mission statement, it should be. Donating a vehicle can go a long way in helping people who need help the most and are willing to work for a better life.

In a move that’s progressive and technically impressive, Seattle Goodwill has been using Facebook to reach out to the community in new ways. Since 2008, they’ve been using Facebook to friend people and keep them “in the loop” about exciting events and happenings at Seattle Goodwill.

The Facebook account for Seattle Goodwill also contains photo galleries, including a lot of great shots from their recent Glitter Gala Fashion Show in 2008 and a collection of great pictures from various Vintage Fashion Shows. This extra content is a great way to experience and find out about the good things Goodwill Industries is doing in Washington state.

The pictures should also remind you that your donations are important. Whether you’re donating a toaster, a juice blender, a box of books, or a Volkswagen, Goodwill Industries is able to help people by the donations they receive. From the small (clothes) to the medium (dressers) to the large (vehicle donations), every little bit helps them help with job education, training, and placement and many other things.

It’s great to see Seattle Goodwill reach out and embrace new tools and social networks that are becoming popular. By using the methods more and more people use to keep in touch, they can continue to do what they do best. There’s no word on whether there will be a Seattle Goodwill Myspace page. Stay tuned for more details.

In the meantime, if you have a used car sitting in your garage under a tarp, now’s a great time to reconsider donating your car to Goodwill Industries. Whether they use it to help someone who needs a cheap car to get back and forth to work or auction it off for cash to use in other programs (including job training and job placement programs), the vehicle is going to be put to good use if you decide to donate it.

Goodwill Industries of the Greater East Bay has served Alameda, Contra Costa, and Solano Counties in California since 1919. Providing services from job training to life skills training, they use the money they make from your donations to help people from all walks of life who need a little help and assistance. In February of 2009, they announced they’d passed the 90 years of service mark.

“Goodwill Industries of the Greater East Bay is very proud to have reached this milestone in our history of having helped those facing barriers to employment for 90 years. Over these years, we helped more than 100,000 of our community members in need, said John B. Latchford, President & CEO.

“While 2009 poses challenges to the agency as demand for services is rising while funding resources are dwindling, we are confident that Goodwill will continue to be a leader in workforce development. Our 90 years of success at helping the community, even through tough economic periods, not only beckons us to reflect on our accomplishments but gives us the confidence to look toward the future and ensure that we are meeting the community’s needs for the next 90 years,” he added.

According to Goodwill Industries of the Greater East Bay’s website, ninety-three cents of every dollar donated goes back into helping people in the community. If you’ve donated clothes or furniture before, you’ve helped a lot. To get to the levels like the $20 million recently raised over a year, they need bigger donations – like a car or truck.

Donating your car can give you a break on your taxes and help someone in need – either someone who needs an inexpensive car or someone getting job training paid for by money made by selling your car. Any way you look at it, if you donate a car or truck to Goodwill Industries, it’s a positive. Charity Dispatch can help you donate to any Goodwill Industries location around the country.