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Your donations to Goodwill Retail & Donation Centers and your financial contributions fund programs that provide training, employment and job placement for people with disabilities.
Goodwill Industries of South Florida is grateful to all the people who donate their gently used items, including clothing and household goods.
Because we are a widely known and respected nonprofit, we sometimes stand in the line of fire from individuals and organizations who are misinformed and/or misrepresent us to the public.
This negative rumor mill has recently resurfaced in the form of a now five-year-old email that includes a variation of a message like this: "Think about these before you donate. As you open your pockets to do a good thing and make yourself feel good, please keep these facts in mind..."
The message then quotes erroneous information and salary figures for several nonprofit organizations' chief executives, including a reference to a so-called "Goodwill CEO and Owner Mark Curran, who profits $2.3 million a year."
This information is erroneous. As nonprofit organizations, neither Goodwill Industries International nor Goodwill Industries of South Florida are "owned" by anyone. Jim Gibbons is the actual CEO of Goodwill Industries International and reports to a volunteer Board of Directors. Locally, David Landsberg is the President & CEO of Goodwill Industries of South Florida. He, too, reports to a volunteer Board of Directors.
Goodwill Industries International earns $4.4 billion revenue per year, and we spend about 82 cents of every dollar on programs and services for people in need. Here in Miami & Broward, approximately 94% of the revenue we earn is spent on our mission services. This is a very healthy number in the nonprofit world, and a solid indicator of our commitment to good stewardship of your donations.
Goodwill definitely encourages you to "think before you donate" - the one legitimate message that this damaging hoax email contains - and to learn more about the charities you'd like to support. Make sure the organization you choose uses its revenue for charitable purposes that support a mission you believe in.
For more information debunking this hoax email, please visit snopes.com/politics/business/charities.asp, a website which validates and debunks urban legends, Internet rumors, e-mail forwards, and other stories of unknown or questionable origin.
