Goodwill South Florida needs your help
Here's a copy of Goodwill's email to me today, as a past supporter of their's.
Please see my additional comments below their message.
Goodwill Must Survive. The workers we employ need us to succeed and thrive. They need a special place; with the social services and programs we provide. For them, Goodwill is their family, their livelihood, their place to belong.
Please consider donating to the "Goodwill Employee Emergency Fund." With a gift of $25 or more you can help our financially neediest employees with a variety of necessities - from healthcare coverage to other specific needs - that will help them get back to recovering as soon as it is safe. Every dollar counts.
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7,000+ People are Served each year at Goodwill S. Florida
Where would they go? Goodwill MUST survive for them. They Need Us. We Need You.
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We have all suffered greatly on so many levels due to the effects of the COVID-19 crisis. Unemployment is seeing unprecedented numbers and we, as a nonprofit, are no exception. We have been forced to lay off 2,400 of our workers and are at risk of laying off more.
While the CARES Act has relief programs, they have not gone far enough to ensure larger nonprofits will be able to meet the needs of their communities as our nation recovers from this crisis. Because we have more than 500 employees, we are not eligible for many of the federal aid packages, but we are working hard to have our voices heard to speak up for those who can't.
Many of our employees are part of the most marginalized work force; working under a triple threat of disabilities, limited work skills and living paycheck to paycheck. These characteristics make it difficult for them to find a job elsewhere.
Please watch the :45 sec video below to hear their voices.
Goodwill Must Survive. The workers we employ need us to succeed and thrive. They need a special place; with the social services and programs we provide. For them, Goodwill is their family, their livelihood, their place to belong.
Please consider donating to the "Goodwill Employee Emergency Fund." With a gift of $25 or more you can help our financially neediest employees with a variety of necessities - from healthcare coverage to other specific needs - that will help them get back to recovering as soon as it is safe. Every dollar counts.
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Be A Part of the Solution.
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| Make Your Emergency Fund Gift! |
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| Video above can also be seen at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7bghMHteJI
More information on the reality that Goodwill is facing is at:
Today I wanted to discuss a wonderful South Florida organization that helps LOTS of often overlooked people in our community that other non-profits don't help, and I mention them now specifically because they could really use any help you can offer: Goodwill of South Florida.
When I lived and worked in Washington, D.C. for 15 years, until returning to South Florida in late 2003, part of my job, the non-writing, non-analysis/strategy part, often consisted of spending lots of time working for some well-known and well-heeled clients at endless (often-neverending) meetings on Capitol Hill with staffers and Members of Congress, or representing my clients and showing the collective flag at seminars or workshops at very nice Washington hotels/convention centers put on by well-known Think Tanks, and powerful trade associations. Then, the following morning or afternoon, going to very nicely-appointed law firms and telling those clients and their attorneys in conference rooms with great views, often over catered meals with great coffee and sandwiches with all the fixings, exactly what I had heard and learned that would be helpful to us in the future. And, what other people who were there seemed most interested in. It wasn't always like that, of course, but I worked very, very hard, and when I had those moments, I made sure I got my share of delicious roast beef or Club sandwiches and Starbucks coffee before I made my exit.
One of the things that helped me keep my sanity -besides going to over 20-plus Baltimore Oriole baseball games a year, roughly 25% of their home games- was the time I spent on behalf of groups that gave me a lot of very emotionally-rewarding experiences from helping in ways most of the people I knew at the time -or folks down here in South Florida- never knew about.
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One of those groups was the D.C. Chapter of the American Cancer Society. Another was the local D.C. chapter of Goodwill.
My hard work on behalf of ACS at a series of very successful events around Washington eventually led the top administrators and charitable giving people of the DC chapter to recommend that I be put on their Board of Directors for their Young Adults division.
Apparently, they needed to be be making more of a positive difference than had been the case, for whatever reason, and you know me, I'm a problem-solver. I fix things.
Apparently, they needed to be be making more of a positive difference than had been the case, for whatever reason, and you know me, I'm a problem-solver. I fix things.
I was happy to do it for a few years, specializing in -surprise- creating and organizing fundraising events and event management, because of my extensive campaign experience nationally, in Florida, and in Miami-Dade County.
Except here, the opponent was high costs, irrational expectations, and an inability of some to accept that sometimes the answer is no, no matter how many times you try to reframe a proposal.
Unlike many non-profits at the time, in large part due to the national United Way scandal some years before, we operated under very strict rules with respect to what was allowed in the way of overhead, i.e. the actual costs of throwing.
Fees, rental expenses, minimums that must be spent in order to use certain catering firms that had contracts with that site, etc. Yes, these costs could often be much higher than you might imagine, even when hosts understood that we were a non-profit with a thin line for actually making more money than we spent.
So, after awhile, despite my own fondness for brainstorms and great ideas, I got to be the person in our group who had to say no a lot, no matter how good the idea sounded in the abstract, because I simply couldn't put the ACS in a bad position by having a successful event where too much money was spent on costs and labor.
With help from smart and influential friends I had around DC, and especially relying on good contacts I had at the German Embassy, we were able to have some events at their beautiful and quite extensive grounds on Reservoir Road that raised a considetable amount of money for the parent ACS.
While living and working in D.C. and Arlington, because of my involvement with so many people at not just ACS and Goodwill but lots of other charities and non-profits, too, I was fortunate enough to have personally met LOTS of people in DC who personally benefitted greatly as a result of their efforts.
So, that all said, it should not come as a surprise to you that the American flag that proudly hung on the front porch of my Arlington, VA home, both before and after the deep trauma of 9-11 and the deaths of so many people in Arlington at The Pentagon 4 miles away, was one that was made with care and precision by the employees of Goodwill.
My friends at the time knew how constant I was about imploring them to purchase their U,.S. flags from Goodwil instead of at Home Depot or at Lowes or some other hardware store.
I took it personally.
In comparison to the D.C. area, for obvious reasons, I see considerably less American flags flying in front of homes or businesses in South Florida, even when they have extant flagpoles or flagholders on the property. But no flag, which, me being the way that I am, is very disappointing.
I suppose I should be used to it by now, yet when I'm walking around the area and see a flagpole or flag staff without a flag, I just shake my head.
In my opinion, there are far too many businesses that fall into this category in Hollywood and Hallandale Beach, and Downtown Holllywood in particular. This is perhaps nowhere more self-evident, in the opposite way, than at the NE corner of Young Circle, in front of The Circ Hotel.
There, for several months, a number of severely-ripped, torn or otherwise falling apart American flags have been allowed to be whipped around or lay limp high above walking passersby on the sidewalk, without anyone calling them out publicly and insisting they do the right thing.
Until now, that is.
So I'm here to ask whether you're in a place to directly help Goodwill financially now with the Goodwill Employee Emergency fund.or perhaps by placing an order NOW, in advance of Labor Day or July 4th for some new American flags to hang in front of your home or your business, please know that every little bit helps.
I only wish that i could do much more than I plan on doing now and next week.
Dave
David B. Smith
Hallandale Beach/Hollywood Blog: http://www.
Twitter: @hbbtruth, https://
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