TODAYS NEWS
San Francisco Goodwill Launches Emergency Fundraising Campaign
January 21, 2009
SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 21, 2009 – Goodwill Industries of San Francisco, San Mateo and Marin Counties today officially kicked off its Jobs for Our Community Campaign, which aims to raise $1 million in community investment by June 30, 2009. Already running an enterprising organization with very low overhead, the nonprofit has made $2 million dollars in budget adjustments to combat a $3 million forecasted shortfall for its fiscal year. The $1 million from individual donors will address the remaining budget gap, preventing the devastation caused by closing key workforce programs.
The shortfall is driven by global economic factors related to the collapse of the real estate, commodities and philanthropic markets. Goodwill saw the sale of its headquarters fall through at the same time that institutional support waned. Simultaneously, the commodities market failed and Goodwill received pennies for every dollar it used to collect for recyclable materials. All this coupled with an exponential increase in demand for services has created unprecedented conditions for the 93-year-old workforce creation organization. Demand for its workforce programs have increased as much as five times more than budgeted due to the faltering economy and the rising unemployment rate, which is the highest in decades. The One Stop at Goodwill, which provides centralized resources for job seekers, budgeted for 200 visits a month from job seekers when it opened its doors in October. In December, the program saw more than 1100 visits.
"The United States and the world are facing the worst economy since the Great Depression, and people who already face severe barriers to employment – including disabilities, past addiction, past incarceration and lack of job experience – will have an even harder time finding jobs in this bad economy," said Goodwill President and CEO Deborah Alvarez-Rodriguez. "While financial institutions, the insurance industry and American carmakers are getting multi-billion-dollar bailouts from Washington, there is no bailout coming for social service organizations, yet we are the ones people on the economic edge turn to for help."
In order to close the financial gap and address the growing demand for job services in our community, the organization will turn to a broad range of its constituents, including: material donors, financial donors, vendors, business partners, community leaders, current and past board, staff, consultants, government contacts, foundation program officers, past participants, employers hiring its staff placements, its neighbors and the community. The planned scope of the campaign marks a first in the history of the organization. Because of the state of the economy, Goodwill will launch its campaign with a greater breadth and depth of outreach to potential individual donors than the organization has ever seen before.
"Goodwill could never, in good conscience, turn people away during these economically desperate times," said John Power, Goodwill board vice chair. "The cost to them, their families and to our community is too great."
Beyond tightening its belt, Goodwill has aggressively pursued individual donors. Even before starting its emergency campaign, Goodwill raised $125,000 during the month of December 2008. The organization did this with the help of a $50,000 challenge gift from its longest-term donor Elvin Fowler, a retired job-placement specialist, and through a letter-writing campaign where staff and board members tailored more than 600 letters to their personal and professional networks.
"There are 80,000 members of the extended Goodwill family in our database," said Alvarez-Rodriguez. "If everyone on this list makes a personal contribution of just $7 to the campaign, we will raise $560,000. Every gift does make a difference. Together, we can avert the financial emergency Goodwill now faces."
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