Goodwill forced to decline donations
Pause needed through February to free-up space; stores remain open
HARRISBURG » Goodwill Keystone Area is temporarily halting donations throughout its 22-county service area until the end of February.
It is the second time in the past six months the agency has temporarily paused donations — citing the generosity of donors over the past several months.
According to Tuesday’s announcement, the action will provide the agency time to get current inventory sorted and out to its retail locations — that remain open. The organization operates 44 locations throughout the 22 counties it serves in central and southeastern Pennsylvania — including five locations in Berks County, seven locations in Chester County and four locations in Montgomery County.
“We are grateful for the incredible generosity of our donors over the past several months,” Rick Hill, Goodwill Keystone Area’s president and CEO, said in a press release. “Because of this overwhelming support, we need to temporarily stop collection of donations and are asking the community to hold their donated goods until we reopen. When we do, we will gladly accept all that you have saved for us.”
The agency took a similar action in August, halting donations through mid-September. At that time, Hill said it was a “good problem to have,” because the large quantity and quality of donations “can be sold to help fund our mission of providing critical job-training programs and services for people with disabilities and other barriers to independence.”
Goodwill also said it has a number of job openings in its processing department, to help move inventory and open up storage capacity at its donation centers. Full- and part-time sorting and processing positions are available for various shifts, and include flexible schedules. A listing of openings can be found at yourgoodwill.org/employment.
“We encourage those who may be looking for work to check out these job opportunities,” Hill added.
As a nonprofit, 75% of Goodwill Keystone Area’s revenue is generated from the sale of donated goods in its retail stores, directly supporting its mission to help people with barriers to employment build skills, find jobs and grow careers. Goodwill offers job training, career development and education services to those in need.
For more information, visit yourgoodwill.org.