Is Goodwill Industries a scam? I need to locate executive salaries...

[Radio_Lady]

because I've been told that the top executive makes $1 million dollars a year. I'm running into a brick wall. Can you help me?

From:
http://shrike.org/writing/26/

"I had a hell of a time finding the income of any Goodwill CEO, past or present. Non-profit CEO's do tend to be less greedy than the typical American CEO, who makes on average 475 times the blue collar worker of their corporation. I did find that in 1999 then Goodwill CEO David M. Cooney made $209,153: not bad. This, however, seemed to be about the time that the Goodwill began changing so drastically. It was at this time that George W. Kessinger took over as CEO of Goodwill Industries International, in 2001, after 24 years as Orange County Goodwill president. No matter how I searched, I was unable to track down what Mr. Kessinger pulls in."

[Radio_Lady]

1. Another citation from another source. Looks like there is a diverse group

From:
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m5072/is_1_27/ai_n8965085

"Under IRS rules, a non-profit executive must be paid comparably to a person who holds the same position in a similar organization in the same or a similar community. Generally, boards comply through salary surveys, often conducted by consultants.

That's why, for example, Douglas Barr makes $263,000 as chief executive of Goodwill Industries of Southern California. Barr's salary is comparable to that of CEOs at other large Goodwills. "I am well paid. I am very well aware of that," Barr said. "(But) I didn't come into this business for the money. I would take my job for less than they pay me."

[papau]

2. Hope this helps - the media contacts are "nice" :-)

Christine Nyirjesy Bragale
Director, Media Relations
Phone: [phone]
Cell: [phone]

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Tia M. Galloway
Media Relations Specialist
Phone: [phone]
Pager: [phone]

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[e-mail]

http://www.goodwill.org/page/guest/about/newsroom/newsreleases/archivednewsreleases/NR050205GOODWILLREPORTSNEWHIGHS
Goodwill Industries Reports New Highs In Service And Revenue

May 2, 2005

Rockville, MD — A record 723,485 people benefited from Goodwill’s job training and career programs in 2004, and the organization reports a high of $2.39 (b) billion in revenue for the year. The figures represent a 17 percent increase in people served since 2003, and a revenue rise of 7.9 percent. Goodwill channels 84 percent of its revenues into its services.

"We are 1.9 million people closer to meeting our 21st Century Initiative goal of helping 20 million people by the year 2020," says George W. Kessinger, President and CEO of Goodwill Industries International. "As our revenues grow, we are reaching more people through a range of pre- and post-employment career services that help people find and keep good jobs, and move up the career ladder."

To pay for its programs, Goodwill sells donated clothes and other items in 2,015 stores in the United States and Canada, and on its Internet auction site, www.shopgoodwill.com. Last year, the organization earned a record $1.37 (b) billion through its store sales, or 57 percent of its total operating revenue. Goodwill also created 21,488 jobs and earned $422.1 (m) million through commercial services provided to government and private industry, including document destruction and management, janitorial, food preparation, packaging and assembly.

Goodwill Industries provides a broad range of training courses for in-demand jobs in fields such as health care, financial services and hospitality. Life skills training and counseling, elements of Goodwill’s core services, help prepare individuals for the demands of the workplace, while job coaching and post-employment support ensure people’s long-term success. The organization serves people with physical, mental and emotional disabilities, as well as those with disadvantages such as welfare dependency, illiteracy, homelessness or lack of work experience.

"Flexibility is at the heart of the Goodwill model, allowing us to meet the needs of our clients while meeting the needs of employers," says Kessinger. "From experience, Goodwill knows that individual success in the workplace depends on personalized career plans."

The organization recently completed a three-year project funded by the U.S. Department of Commerce which found that providing low-wage workers with access to computers at home significantly increases worker retention rates and helps lead to higher wages for those workers. With funding from the Hitachi Foundation’s Making Work Work initiative, Goodwill also published a new employee retention guide, aimed at helping small- and medium-sized businesses keep their employees. Staff training, performance reviews and no- or low-cost incentives for good work are some of the recommended strategies. Surveys estimate that the annual employee turnover rate for all U.S. companies is 12 percent, and that turnover can cost an employer $6,000 to $12,000 to replace an employee earning $16,000 per year.

"People entering the workforce for the first time, or at the first rung of the career ladder, need resources to achieve long-term employment and find opportunities for career advancement," says Kessinger. "In other words, Goodwill is making a long-term investment in workers worldwide."

[Radio_Lady]

3. Thanks, papau -- I'll pursue this further with the media contacts.

Appreciate your post.

Enjoy the (rest of) summer!

Making peace a priority,

Radio Lady

[meganmonkey]

4. Here's a good site to find out about nonprofits in general

and I found several regional Goodwill salaries on their site , but not their national one...

The regional CEO/President/Director's salaries ranged from $99,000 to $243,000 so it wouldn't surprise me that their national director pulls in a million.

http://www.charitynavigator.org/

[Radio_Lady]

5. Appreciate your good work, Meganmonkey.

I'm going to call the media folks and see if they are able to tell me anything.

I'm volunteering for a small charity called the Good Neighbor Center in Tigard, Oregon. Just got me thinking about Goodwill after I spoke to one man who was vehemently opposed to their work. He said he read an article in a local paper about Goodwill in which they stated the $1 million dollar salary.

Thanks............a bunch.