Morgan Memorial Goodwill Industries Review

Morgan Memorial Goodwill Industries- www.goodwillmass.org

• Founded in 1895
• Annually serves over 7,200 low-income, unemployed and underemployed adults in job training and career service programs
• Headquarters are located in Boston (for Morgan Memorial Goodwill Industries)
• Over 1,000 young people are in the youth services program

When I think of the Goodwill, the first thing that comes to mind is second-hand stores.  I found many a treasure in my poor, college years by rummaging through a Goodwill.  The second thing I think of is my mother.  She is an exceptional pack-rat in the worst kind of way.  The woman had a box of clothing stored in a crawl space dated to 1978. 

I found it in 2004. 

I know. It’s impressive.  Slightly disturbing. But impressive nonetheless. Anyway.  She goes through binges every few years and tries to get rid of some of her cool stuff. “Goodwill binges”. 

I hope someone, somewhere, is wearing a slightly tattered rainbow sweater vest with a smile on their face. It’s vintage, isn’t it?

“Goodwill” is inarguably a household name and therefore, is easy to find online.  The header for Morgan Memorial Goodwill Industries, however, does not provide a set of very strong language for those individuals who may conduct searches that are less specific.  The organization uses “Providing a wide range of employment, training, and job placement services” to describe their work.  Perhaps including their mission statement and name would beef up their SEO/SEM capabilities for Morgan Memorial Goodwill Industries specifically, but, even with that being said, it probably isn't necessary with their name recognition.

When I searched for partnerships the organization keeps, I navigated my way from the “Business Services” tab to “Business Partners” and eventually found a list of businesses and organizations (of which there are over 1,000) that support job trainees, Boston Career Link members and youth.  A few examples from the extensive list are: Au Bon Pain, Boston College, The Boston Globe, Citizens Bank, Dunkin’ Donuts, Macy’s, NSTAR, and Rosie’s Place, among many others.

On the homepage there is a box prominently displayed with a link to Facebook (smartly, a picture of Tom Brady volunteering is featured here), as well as a YouTube-hosted video that you can open at their YouTube channel (right click on the video to choose this option).  Otherwise, links to social media accounts are tucked far away inside the website-- click on “About Goodwill”, then “Related links”, and then on your desired social networking site button. 

GoodwillBoston- the YouTube channel the organization supports- is very small, with 0 subscribers, 219 channel views, 4 uploads and 4 favorites.  The Facebook page is much larger, with 473 fans, an active wall with links, posts and “likes”, as well as boxes for photos, videos, events and notes.  Twitter falls somewhere in between, with 167 followers, lots of tweets going in and out, and lots of direct tweets to followers (a nice touch that connects an organization more directly to their supporters). 

At the homepage there are a few small links to the Morgan Memorial Goodwill Industries “Newsletter Sign-up” that ask for a first name and email.  I am not entirely sure whether a registrant receives a newsletter by mail or email with this sign up; it is unclear as an outsider, but there are past newsletters available to download as PDFs .

Otherwise, I was unable to find any other joiner-level options for those interested at the Morgan Memorial Goodwill Industries site.  (i.e. There were no other ways for me to make myself known to the organization-- beyond the newsletter sign-up, I was simply a transient passer-through.)

As I mentioned above, there is a great newsletter that supporters can sign up for, but this unfortunately does not seem to offer any potential for knowledge sharing (i.e. commenting on content, or discussing issues transparently at the website).  There are no blogs or forums at the Morgan Memorial Goodwill Industries site either, although there are “Success Stories” featured in boxes on the side bars of the site that highlight individuals who have benefitted from the many programs that the organization carries out.

From the “Business Services” tab, there is a “Volunteer Opportunities” link that highlights different volunteer options for supporters.  There is a small blurb at this page that describes volunteer actions and provides a contact email and phone number to learn more.  This page states that volunteers often are an “extension of existing and often long-standing corporate and community partnerships” and that they participate in holiday events, youth mentoring, sorting donated goods, and more.

The main tab bar throughout the site features two separate “Gifts” and “Donations” tabs.  To peruse through financial giving options click on “Gifts” (“Donations” is for donating goods to Goodwill stores).  You can make a financial contribution online, by mail or phone, as a planned, stock, or matching gift, as a tribute or memorial gift, as well as monthly by joining “The Goodwill Monthly Donor Club.”  In addition, there is also a Capital Campaign that is in order to help renovate the Goodwill headquarters in Boston, which seeks to raise $6 million.

There is a “News” tab at the bottom of the website that features an “Events” link that offers a great calendar of upcoming events for supporters to peruse through. The events page features pop-out descriptions of events, maps and a section highlighting the author of the event (I wonder if this means a supporter could add an event to the page?), but in that vein, all of the authors seem to be “Goodwill”. 

There are lots of PDFs available for download if a site visitor is seeking to gather more information about the organization, but no banners, buttons, widgets or share links to support advocacy or recruitment online.  “Recruitment” is discussed online under the “Business Services” tab, but it is “Onsite Recruitment” information that is provided for participants, but not supporters.

Without many joiner-level options to supporters who visit the Morgan Memorial Goodwill Industries website, there are similarly very few booster-level options (tools or pathways for individuals who are energized enough to galvanize their own network or community to support the work of the Goodwill). 

There is much information about career options with Goodwill-- from the “Careers at Goodwill” tab there are links to pages for job postings and job applications.  The job postings page offers those interested a searchable database (as well as information that lays out benefits offered by Goodwill to their staff).

Without any blogs or forums, there are no options for individuals who wish to add or edit content at the site (by blogging, starting forum discussions or even simply commenting or sharing content with other supporters).  There is potential that some volunteers could engage in booster-level actions (by bringing together other individuals in a collectivized volunteer action or service project) but from simply visiting the website, it remains unclear if this happens specifically. 

There are tons of donating and financial giving options, but not many “boosting” options (i.e. fundraising pages, toolkits for starting fundraisers, etc.).  There is also lots of great information about upcoming events at the site but no tools that would allow supporters to highlight or add their events to the calendar at the site, or encourage individuals to host their own events in support of Morgan Memorial Goodwill Industries.  Additionally, I was unable to find any booster-level tools for advocacy or recruitment, although it seems these strategy areas may not be a particular focus for the organization.

From clicking on the “Our Mission” tab, and then “About Goodwill” you can find links to the Executive Team and Board of Directors pages.  The Executive Team is listed by name and title, with only the name of President/CEO, Joanne K. Hilferty, linked to an additional biography.  The Board of Directors are listed by name, title and external job.