5 Ways to Support your Local Goodwill Retail Store and Donation Center

The world is a hard place, and sometimes it’s easy to get overwhelmed. With so much bad news across the globe, what is one person supposed to do? The good news is, you can make a significant dent in all that bad news by supporting your local community … and that starts with your nearest Goodwill retail store and donation center.

With deep roots in the Arizona community, Goodwill of Central and Northern Arizona is working hard every day for charitable donations that make a difference in real people’s lives. Here are five ways you can get involved and show your support today!

1. Donate Items You No Longer Need

The first and most obvious way to support Goodwill is to donate unused items from your home or office. Not only does your donation help us divert millions of pounds of material from Arizona landfills, but they also help to fund our no-cost career services. That helps us provide education, training and jobs to those in need.

That’s right: every clothing or household donation to Goodwill also helps fight unemployment in our community. When you donate or shop at Goodwill, you’re helping place Arizonans in jobs with hundreds of companies across the state each year, creating a ripple effect that helps families and children better their lives.

You won’t have to look too far, either. We have 80+ community locations where your no-longer-needed items can be dropped off, which in turn gives new life to clothing and other items that would otherwise be thrown away.

Goodwill of Central and Northern Arizona is grateful for the goodwill of our community (see what we did there?). After all, we know Arizonans have a choice of where to bring their used clothing, household goods and furniture. Keeping our stores stocked with donations allows other community members to purchase these items at a discounted price.

You have a few options about where to donate, including:

• Donating items to any of our Arizona Goodwill locations
• Donating your vehicle

If you’re not sure how to proceed, feel free to give us a call at 602-535-4000 with questions.

2. Make a Monetary Donation

Donations are the lifeline of our organization, and monetary donations are no exception. Without your generous contributions, our organization wouldn’t exist and we would no longer be able to help thousands of Arizonans find jobs through our no-cost career centers every year.

According to the latest statistics from Google, Arizona’s unemployment rate is 3.7 percent, which translates to 130,000 people in need of work. Again, there’s a ripple effect that creates hardship for thousands of families and children across the state. Just one job can mean improvement in the lives of many.

We like to think of monetary donations as investments in a person’s future. By filling out our donation form, you join our community of Goodwill supporters who back our mission of fighting unemployment. A mere $25 every month will provide someone with free access to resume and interview skills assistance, as well as the ability to attend local hiring events. It’s a small gift with potentially huge benefits.

3. Host A Corporate Donation Drive

Is it time to become your own thrift store? We think so! A great way to help your community is to rally the troops at your office and host a corporate donation drive through Goodwill of Central and Northern Arizona! It’s an easy process:

1. Decide on an end date for your drive, at which time you will take all your items to Goodwill.
2. Post the date around your office and create a donation box or corner where people can leave gently used items.
3. Offer guidelines about what types of items can be left.
4. Make it fun by printing out a paper fundraising thermometer or putting one on your website to get to a certain number of items.

By collecting gently used items from your neighbors, family, and friends, you and your co-workers can help give back. Simple donations of clothing and household goods help us place tens of thousands of Arizonans in jobs each year. If you’re interested in hosting a corporate donation drive, contact donationdrive@goodwillaz.org to get started.

4. Shop at Your Local Goodwill Retail and Donation Center

The great thing about Goodwill stores is they contain lots of usable items. Just because you have the money to buy something new doesn’t mean you should. After all, sometimes the oldest things are the best: well-worn denim is soft, old books have major antique charm, and you never know what you’ll find in homewares to add to your collection of China dishes or mercury glass.

Shopping is one of the best ways you can easily funnel money into your local community. Think about the $25 number we mentioned above … every dollar we bring in is a little piece of someone’s future. It’s especially helpful when you bring in goods to leave at our thrift store and then walk away with something for yourself!

Just be sure to search “locations near me” and “donation hours” before bringing items in to ensure your nearest Goodwill is accepting donations at this time.

5. Create a Goodwill Routine to Last a Lifetime

One of the reasons donations don’t get made is because it’s inconvenient. It’s easier to throw something away or store it in the basement for a thousand years than it is to bring it to the nearest facility. You can fix this problem by creating a reliable, repeatable process for saving and then donating your Goodwill items.

For instance, here’s a sample donation routine:

1. Clear out a corner of your garage, basement or attic. Make sure everyone in the family knows that this is the right area for donations.
2. Place tubs or boxes in the area, ready to accept old items.
3. Every time someone gets tired of an item that still has use left in it, direct them to your mini donation center. That goes for clothes, appliances, old electronics, dishes and anything else that doesn’t have an expiration date.
4. Set an annual or semiannual dropoff reminder. Before the date, go through each room in the house and see if there’s anything else you could add to the haul.
5. If your vehicle is big enough, let family and friends know that your dropoff is coming up and offer to take their goods in for them. You can either go pick them up or have them drop items off at your house, if that’s closer to them than their nearest Goodwill retail store and donation center.
6. Drop your items off and get a tax-deductible receipt, if you desire.
7. Repeat!

Habits and routines are much easier to perpetuate than “shoulds,” so put your new process in place right away.

We here at Goodwill thank you for your dedication to employment and your local community. Again, we invite you to call with any questions or visit our website to make financial donation today.