Goodwill Industries of Houston (Goodwill) has “learned the donated goods business all over again and has changed from a centralized to a decentralized model of operation,” explains president and CEO Steve Lufburrow. “Goodwill is no longer a trailer, a collection box or a storefront in the worst neighborhood with the cheapest rent, nor is it one centralized location where all of our donations end up for processing and distribution.” Instead Goodwill has combined its retail stores with its donation centers and placed them along busy thoroughfares near popular destinations. This makes donating clothes, small appliances and assorted household goods more convenient, and shopping in the stores more appealing. Donations are now processed on-site and placed in stores within hours instead of months. Since implementing its new model, Goodwill has opened 60 conveniently located donation centers, 29 of which include stores.

In doing so, Goodwill has employed hundreds of people who would otherwise have difficulty finding a job. The organization uses its stores and donation centers to educate, train and employ people with disabilities and other barriers to employment. “We employ 25 new people every time we open a store,” says Lufburrow. “When a bag of donated clothes arrives and is ripped open, the process begins. Someone in the back of the store has the job of hanging, sorting and tagging the merchandise and getting it on the floor within 24 hours.” He adds, “It took months back when everything was collected and sent to one centralized location. We have flipped the system.”

Goodwill’s transformation has dramatically increased donations, sales and employment. In addition to helping people with physical, emotional and mental barriers to employment, Goodwill helps veterans, homeless people and the elderly find and keep good jobs through its comprehensive training and placement services, through its contract services where it wraps and packages merchandise for other businesses and at its stores and donation centers.

Lufburrow says, “Goodwill continues to be a leader in providing services, jobs and training for all people with barriers to employment who want to work. We help people become taxpayers rather than tax receivers, and a job here serves as their stepping-stone to a better job tomorrow.” He concludes simply, “Goodwill changes people’s lives through the power of work.”