Donate
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Why Donate? |
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Why Donate? |
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Is it because you like to help people in need? Is it because you were helped by a charity sometime in your life and you want to give back? Is it because you like the "good feeling" you get when you give and help others? The answer could be any or all of these reasons. However, giving is still a personal experience, personal choice, for personal reasons.
When you give to Goodwill, you are giving to one of the most trusted and respected organizations in the world. Over 85% of all money contributed to Goodwill (including sales of your donated goods) goes to the mission of the organization, which is:
"To provide to people with barriers to employment - particularly those with disabilities - an array of quality vocational and educational services so that they can work most independently."
Goodwill trains, educates, and employs a large percentage of people who have disabilties. Goodwill also helps find work for people with local businesses after they have been through our training programs. However, with a population of over 15,000 disabled people of working age (16-65) in our service region, the need for more training facilities, training staff, new specialized programs, and employment opportunities is growing as quickly as our population base in the Fredericksburg area.
Here are a few ways that you can become involved with Goodwill’s mission. Please take a moment and see which program, service, or giving opportunity is of interest to you. We know that giving is a personal choice, and Goodwill has a variety of ways you can help us help our community.
The Annual Fund is an important program to provide opportunities for individuals and businesses to expand their support of RGI beyond the donations of clothing and other goods. Increasingly, we will need to rely on direct dollar contributions to enable us to grow our programs to meet the growing needs of our community.
Annual Fund dollars will help support:
There are a number of specific community based programs and projects that may be sponsored in whole or in part by individuals and corporations to facilitate delivering employment services throughout the service region. Following is a list of just a few of RGI’s potential services, programs, and projects being considered for future implementation throughout the service region.
Job Help Centers
Opening new Job Help Centers adjacent to or near our retail stores provides an easily accessible employment and training service to those who are in need of assistance. Job Help Centers can also be established in collaboration with another agency or company.
Employment Specialists
RGI could better serve the disabled and disadvantaged population in the underserved counties of our service region by hiring additional Employment Specialists in the next two to three years.
Work Crews (Community Based)
Community-based work crews are groups of people with disabilities who are trained and then integrated into the regular workforce with Goodwill supervisory support staff on-hand to assist with their integration into the workforce and a particular job. RGI would like to expand into all areas of our Goodwill territory with work crews.
Equipment and capital improvements are always needed particularly during expansion and growth. One area that has been identified for future expansion, and which will require additional funding, is worker transportation. When a work crew (see above) is created and finds a business partner for employment opportunities, RGI will need to secure funding to fund new transport vans and/or buses.
Gifts of specific amounts approved by the Board of Directors can become a named endowment fund and will serve as a reminder of the vision of the benefactors who support the mission of Rappahannock Goodwill Industries and will be an encouragement to others to respond generously. Such naming gifts will be recognized by the placing of commemorative plaques within the office building with the name of the donor(s) or the name(s) of those who are being honored or memorialized.
Gifts to named endowment funds may be made during lifetime or through estate-related means. Endowed funds may be designated for specific uses to support RGI’s funding priorities or may be given without restrictions on their purposes and uses. An important aspect of an endowed gift is its perpetuity, for it is the income from the gift rather than the gift itself that is used. An endowed gift continues giving indefinitely.