Goodwill Industries' Growing World Role


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Goodwill Industries has changed its corporate name to reflect its deepening international role. On January 1, Goodwill Industries of America, Inc., became Goodwill Industries International, Inc., (GII) in order to better reflect its "service to people w ith disabilities and other special needs around the globe." Goodwill currently has 50 associate member organizations in 35 countries outside of North America, with more on the way.

A key element in GII's international growth is its International Partnership Program, which matches North American Goodwill organizations with counterparts overseas. As part of such a partnership, Tatyana Botcharnikova, head of St. Petersburg Goodwill, v isited Washington D.C. last fall, where she studied Goodwill management techniques at Davis Memorial Goodwill Industries.

While Goodwill's reach has been worldwide for decades, only recently have cross-border projects and collaborations become a dynamic feature of the organization. Since the late 1980s, Goodwill's CEO David M. Cooney has traveled widely and consulted with g overnment officials in Russia, Eastern Europe, Asia and Africa. Interested first ladies, such as Olga Havel of the Czech Republic and Danuta Walesa of Poland, both known for their specific involvement with disability issues, have encouraged Goodwill's wo rk in their countries.

In addition, the corporate headquarters in Bethesda, Maryland, has hosted dozens of government officials and other leaders from Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic, the NIS and other countries, many of whom returned home to plant seeds for training cente rs based on the Goodwill model.

Three Roles

Incorporating three distinct roles, Goodwill is a private voluntary organization which trains people and provides jobs at the same time that it supports itself through commercial business ventures. Its triple focus on social service, jobs and entrepreneu rship aims to serve the estimated 10 percent of the world's people who experience some form of physical or mental disability which limits their employability and strains overtaxed national budgets.

The problems in the NIS and Eastern European countries are even more difficult, considering the legacy of discrimination towards people with disabilities in every country formerly under communist rule. Today, governments and non-governmental organization s (NGOs) in these countries are looking seriously at alternatives to historical policies�and they are finding in Goodwill needed technical assistance, training for local groups, and a model of a novel approach to financing social services.

Frequently over the years, the Goodwill network has spread through the energy of a single individual with an unmet need. In 1990, a Hungarian woman named Magdi, the mother of a young man with mental and emotional disabilities, sent a poignant letter to B arbara Bush at the White House, requesting help in setting up a program for her son "to take care of him, after I am gone." The letter was referred to Goodwill Industries, where it ended up in the hands of a GII executive of Hungarian ancestry.

A strong partnership developed between Magdi and GII that led to Magdi starting a small food processing plant in a farmhouse near Pecs, Hungary. Her enterprise thrived and today the plant's sales of pickled cauliflower and mushrooms employ 20 young Hungar ian adults with mental disabilities, paying them salaries and helping them move toward full independence.

Developments In Russia

Currently, Goodwill has three programs in Russia. With a $250,000 grant from USAID through World Learning, Inc., Goodwill has provided supplies, equipment, and consultant support to its Russian colleagues in three cities. The grant was designed around a two-year plan, with the first year dedicated to the establishment of Goodwill retail programs and the second year to building rehabilitation programs.

Each of the three primary Goodwill programs in Russia is at a different level of development. In Rybinsk a traditional Goodwill program has been established. Slava Grafenkov, the local Goodwill director has succeeded with the assistance of his American partner, Craig Williams, in opening four Goodwill shops in this economically depressed city. The stores provide citizens of Rybinsk with a steady supply of much needed, inexpensive clothing, and provide work to over 50 people, more than half of whom are disabled. Slava has also been able to provide work for pensioners who, without their Goodwill income, would not be able to feed themselves. Unfortunately, the Rybinsk Goodwill finds itself hardhit by local, regional, and national taxes that eat away at the profits generated by the association's retail sales.

The Goodwill Association of St. Petersburg is still in its infancy. It is in fact a consortium of local NGOs dedicated to serving people with disabilities throughout the city. In mid-April, the St. Petersburg group received its first shipment of donated clothing, and hopes are high that the retail program there will be successful.

Moscow, where Goodwill began its efforts in Russia, has proven to be the most difficult environment of all. The first counterpart relationship dissolved, but through its NIS representative, Vera Karpenkova, GII is negotiating with another organization, O bshchina, to build a retail program in one of the poorest neighborhoods in Moscow, where over 70 percent of the population is on pension due to disability or age.

More on Goodwill The largest employer of people with disabilities in the world, Goodwill does more than collect used clothing and houshold items.

CCSI thanks GII's Suzanne Yuskiw and Melissa Jordan for the material in the above article. To contact them at GII:

9200 Wisconisn Avenue
Bethesda, Maryland 20814
Voice: (301) 530-6500
Fax: (301) 530-1516

This article is from the April 1994 issue of
Civil Society ... East and West

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Last updated: January 1997

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