Cleaning out a closet usually ends with the same thought: I’ll just take everything to Goodwill. But convenience isn’t necessarily the same thing as impact.
Goodwill can be a perfectly reasonable destination for many donations, and its stores help fund employment, training, and other community services. Goodwill says local organizations helped more than 1.7 million people build skills, access resources, and advance their careers in 2023, while revenue from donated goods supports workforce programs. But Goodwill isn’t one monolithic charity, and a bag of professional clothes, an old laptop, unopened toiletries, and three boxes of children’s books may each do more good somewhere different.
