Goodwill

Project Size:

6 projects totaling over $65 Million

Jobs Created/Retained

172 Jobs Created, 383 Retained

Goodwill Industries Impact South Carolina Job Market, Economy with JEDA Bonds Help

Goodwill Industries is known internationally for providing for those who need assistance at its wide-reaching network of thrift stores. Goodwill, as one of the world’s largest charities in 24 countries, has had a considerable impact right here in South Carolina.

Over the past six years, JEDA has worked with four Goodwill organizations that serve South Carolina. These organizations have more than 40 retail outlets, have directly placed several hundred people into new jobs in 2010 and now employ more than 1,100 people across the state. Perhaps known mostly for its visible retail presence, Goodwill also provides a wide range of services, including skills assessment, job-seeking resources and placement, and life skills and specific training for areas such as retail, food service and health care, along with teen and young adult services. Companies also can come to Goodwill to contract for support services such as grounds maintenance, packing and shipping and even production.

“Goodwill was founded with the philosophy that people don’t want charity as much as they want a job, an opportunity, a chance to make it on their own. We’ve done that in this state, and in ways that are helping thousands of individuals do their part to fuel our economic recovery,” said Patrick Michaels, Executive Director of Goodwill Industries of Upstate/Midlands South Carolina in Greenville.

The JEDA Connection

JEDA has helped to fuel Goodwill’s growth in the Palmetto State with funding from tax-exempt revenue bonds.

JEDA, the South Carolina Jobs-Economic Development Authority, has helped to fuel Goodwill’s growth in the Palmetto State with funding from tax-exempt revenue bonds. Among the hundreds of millions of dollars in issues through JEDA in recent years are more than $65 million that financed Goodwill projects, including land acquisition, construction, re-fitting and furnishing of stores and training and community centers.

“Working with Goodwill Industries is a particular fitting venture for JEDA, because our mission also is to facilitate economic development across the state. Goodwill does it on a one-to-one, retail level, and we assist by making sure they have the financing to give these programs a home,” said Harry Huntley, JEDA’s Columbia-based Executive Director.

Those one-on-one outreaches can add up. For instance, the Midlands-Greenville Goodwill “touched 23,376 lives in the past year and offered direct employment assistance to 4,372 people,” said Michaels. He said the economic impact represented by the wages of those people Goodwill helped place into employment exceeded $71 million.

Huntley said he has learned in JEDA’s work with Goodwill how many people do not realize how much the organization does. “Everyone knows about Goodwill as a place to recycle clothes and other goods, and as a place to get great deals. However, very few are aware of the job training for people with disabilities and the other opportunities that Goodwill creates.”

Goodwill Job Creation

With regard to the job creation, Goodwill hires people with physical, mental and social challenges – such as welfare dependency, illiteracy, language barriers and homelessness – and for others whose primary challenge is simply finding and keeping work in a struggling economy.

“We’ve helped people displaced by plant closings and company downsizings, people recently widowed who haven’t been in the workforce for years, or suddenly find themselves there because of lost savings. We’re there for everyone,” said Gary Barrett, Chief Financial Officer at Goodwill Industries of Southern Piedmont, which recently secured a $1.6 million JEDA bond to create a new drop-off and retail facility in Rock Hill.

Those drop-off facilities generate a lot of income for Goodwill (in addition to tax breaks for donors) and the organizations have established a strong record of efficiency with what they’ve been given. “I can tell you that over 90 percent of our revenue directly funds mission-related services,” said Gerald Romaine, Chief Financial Officer at Goodwill Industries of Lower South Carolina.

Huge Success in North Charleston

The North Charleston-based organization has been by far the biggest Goodwill user of JEDA funding, leveraging nearly $53 million in tax-exempt bonds since 2005 to open new stores in Mount Pleasant, Charleston, Sumter, Summerville and Conway and a distribution and community services center in North Charleston. Romaine said they place several hundred people a year in new jobs a year and provide training and other employment services to more than 10,000.

Those jobs are either in stores – like the retail operation at the new Goodwill complex taking shape on a four-acre tract in Aiken – or in contract services, such as the custodial services, light manufacturing, order fulfillment and other industrial outsourcing the organization offers there. The $3.3 million bond is projected to secure the jobs of 30 existing employees, create permanent new ones for 20 people and indirectly create 150 new jobs in two years.

“Goodwill Industries is the largest employer in the world of people with disabilities and each year we help a half-million people find work,” said Tim Ligon, CFO at the Aiken operation’s operator, Goodwill Industries of Middle Georgia. “’Changing Lives through the Power of Work’ is our mission and our motto. People are our partners in achieving this, everyone from the bond attorneys and investors who commit to our issues to the people who work in our stores and the millions of people who donate and shop there. We’re all in this together.”