strategic-management

160 MARY E. VRADELIS
operations, it has over 30 collection sites across the diverse region that it serves.
Goodwill’s central administrative offices and flagship retail store are located at 1500
Mission Street, San Francisco (http://www.sfgoodwill.org/StoreLocations2.aspx).
Because Goodwill has seen a decline in the profit margin of its brick-and-mortar
stores, it has developed an e-commerce business as well. Through collaboration with eBay,
it lists over 10,000 items (http://stores.shop.ebay.com/Goodwill-San-Francisco_W0QQ_
armrsZ1). In addition, Goodwill has launched a range of new marketing strategies, including
direct marketing based on psychographics and demographic targeting; e-blasts; social
networking on Facebook, MySpace, and Linkedin; and SeamSoGood.com, a blog dedicated
to fashion and style.
Goodwill offers job training in all three counties of its jurisdiction. In addition to
gaining hands-on retail experience, participants can get a class A (big truck) license, train
extensively in computer skills, improve basic skills in English as a second language, polish
interview and resume skills, improve financial literacy, support asset building, and complete
GED coursework. In FY 2007–2008, the program provided job training and career
counseling to 1,728 Bay Area residents—up 42 percent from the previous fiscal year.
Through the institution of One-Stop Career Link Centers (formed in collaboration with
other local work development programs), Goodwill expects this number to triple in FY
2008–2009. For the participants with the highest level of need, Goodwill is able to offer
paid training for up to six months. Although shown to be highly successful, this program is
the most costly.
GOODWILL NOT LANDFILL As part of its triple-bottom line, Goodwill’s vision encompasses
environmental stewardship. One of the programs that Alvarez-Rodriguez is proudest
of is the electronic donations program. This was a logical outgrowth of the reuse retail
business that had been a core of Goodwill since the beginning. The electronics salvage/reuse
program focuses on providing free computer recovery and recycling for Bay Area residents.
In fact, the organization likes to think of itself as the “original recycler.” In
2007–2008, Goodwill launched a major six-month advertising campaign to increase public
awareness of their overall recycling and reuse businesses, and to encourage responsible
recycling. The campaign included radio and newspaper ads, as well as signs on bus shelters
and buses. In addition, there were contests sponsored by two local radio stations. The
culmination of the campaign was an Earth Day event that resulted in the collection of
40,000 pounds of electronic waste. As indicated in Exhibit 1, by the end of that fiscal year,
Goodwill had saved the following:
• Over 7.3 million pounds of clothing and other textiles saved from going to landfill
• 49,528 computers from going to landfill
• A total of 18.4 million pounds of material diverted from landfill
In support of increasing the reuse program, the San Francisco Department of the
Environment awarded Goodwill a $200,000 grant to support a two-year pilot program to
reuse and recycle donated furniture And the California Emerging Technology Fund
granted Goodwill a three-year $600,000 grant to embed training in its ReCompute
EXHIBIT 1 Selected Success Metrics
FY 2007–2008 FY 2006–2007
Pounds of material goods diverted from landfill 18,402,438 17,178,916
Employers who hired Goodwill participants 217 235
Computers saved from gong to landfill
by recycling and refurbishing 49,528 59,863
Bay Area residents who received job
training and career counseling 1,214 1,728
Pairs of shoes saved from going to landfill 896,905 844,478
Source: Company documents.