Skip to main content

ABOUT THE DONATION DRIVE

Join Goodwill Industries of the Southern Piedmont and WCNC Charlotte for the Goodwill Day of Giving on Saturday, May 11, from 11 a.m. – 3 p.m. at the Charlotte Premium Outlets! Clean out your closets, declutter your drawers, and drop off the items you no longer want at this special donation drive. Not sure what you can donate? Check out our list of items we can and cannot accept!

HOW YOUR DONATIONS DO GOOD

FOR THE COMMUNITY:

We’ll sell the donations we receive from this special drive in our retail stores and online shops, and use the proceeds to fund job training programs, job search support services, family stability services and more – all of which we offer free of charge to thousands of people in our community each year. Last year, your donations and purchases allowed us to help more than 9,000 people in our community advance their careers and improve their lives.

FOR THE PLANET:

When you donate your unwanted items to Goodwill, you give them a second chance. Goodwill stores play a big part in the circular economy, which is a system that keeps products in circulation for as long as possible. Goodwill helps communities extend the life of usable items, which lessens the amount of material sent to landfills or incinerators. Millions of donated items are given a second life through your local Goodwill each year.

CAN’T MAKE IT?

If you can’t make it to the Goodwill Day of Giving, don’t worry! Goodwill accepts donations every day at its 36 retail stores and 10+ drop-off locations.

 

Did you know that donating your electronics and gently used items to Goodwill helps the earth tremendously? Help keep our planet safe and healthy while you declutter and start your spring cleaning this season.

RECYCLE YOUR ELECTRONICS WITH GOODWILL

Electronic waste is the fastest-growing waste problem in the world. Did you know that you can donate your used electronics to Goodwill, whether or not they work? Through our partnership with Dell Reconnect, we’ll refurbish your donated electronics to sell at our tech store, the GRID: Powered by Goodwill. If we can’t sell your electronic donations, we’ll recycle them responsibly, ensuring they don’t end up in a landfill. Here are four ways you can recycle your tech this Earth Month:

We accept the following items in all conditions and all brands:

MAKE A DIFFERENCE

In addition to helping the planet, donating your electronics and other items makes a difference by connecting people in our community to resources and job training at no cost. Goodwill Industries of the Southern Piedmont uses the revenue generated from the sale of donations throughout its stores and online to provide job placement and training, certifications and credentials for anyone looking to grow their careers. Read about just a few of the thousands of people we’ve helped thanks to your donations here. 

Goodwill is hosting a donation drive in partnership with the Charlotte Knights! Stop by and donate your gently-used clothing, electronics, household items and more.

DETAILS

ENTER TO WIN PRIZES

When you donate your gently-used items, not only will you be giving back to your community – you’ll also be entered to win an XBOX One or a 50-inch flat screen TV!

THANK YOU, VETERANS!

In honor of Veterans Day, any veterans, military members or their dependents who donate will receive a coupon for 25% off donated goods at any Goodwill Industries of the Southern Piedmont retail store, excluding its outlet store, Second Editions. Donors must show their veteran/military/dependent ID at the donation drive to receive the coupon.

YOUR DONATIONS MAKE AN IMPACT!

You can feel good about donating to Goodwill because your gently-used items will do good for our community! The revenue we generate from selling items in our stores funds career training courses, job search support, family stability services and more – all of which we offer free of charge to thousands of people in our community each year, including our own team members.

ABOUT THE DONATION DRIVE

Join Goodwill and WCNC Charlotte for the Goodwill Day of Giving on Saturday, April 29, from 8 a.m. – 2 p.m. at Goodwill’s Ballantyne – East retail store! At this special donation drive, WCNC Charlotte will broadcast live, and you’ll have the opportunity to meet Larry Sprinkle, WCNC Charlotte’s beloved weatherman. 

DONATIONS WE CAN ACCEPT:

DONATIONS WE CAN’T ACCEPT:

HOW YOUR DONATIONS DO GOOD

We’ll sell the donations we receive from this special event in our retail stores and online, and use the revenue to fund career training courses, job search support, family stability services and more – all of which we offer free of charge to thousands of people in our community each year. Last year, your donations and purchases allowed us to help more than 7,000 people in our community advance their careers and improve their lives.

Plus, when you donate to Goodwill, you’re helping more than our community – you’re helping our planet too! More than 17 million donated items were given a second life through your local Goodwill just last year.

If you can’t make it to the Goodwill Day of Giving, don’t worry! Goodwill accepts donations every day at its 31 retail stores and seven drop-off locations.

 

by: Amy Share, Grants Manager at Goodwill Industries of the Southern Piedmont

March is Women’s History Month, and we’re excited to highlight a valued supporter of Goodwill Industries of the Southern Piedmont’s mission, the Sisters of Mercy of North Carolina Legacy Foundation.

The Sisters of Mercy of North Carolina Legacy Foundation helps provide access to opportunities that foster self-sufficiency, especially for women. As a grantor of the Goodwill Career Navigation program since 2018, they have created lasting impact for those pursuing equitable access to career opportunities. Last year, Goodwill supported over 340 women through career navigation.

Antonia “Toni” Voliton moved to the Charlotte area in 2010 seeking economic opportunities and stable schools for her children. After being employed in social work supporting those with mental illness, she was soon introduced to Goodwill’s services and was inspired by her Career Navigator to become one herself.

“I was so excited to begin my career journey at Goodwill. I figured out very quickly, that my social work background would be an asset to my role. Eight years later, I remain in my position, helping participants to develop essential employability skills and gain family sustaining employment.”

Support from Sisters of Mercy of North Carolina Legacy has helped ensure Antonia’s work can continue, providing customized one-on-one coaching and aiding participants to bridge the skills gap to pursue the life they want to achieve.

“This is why grants are essential in executing Goodwill’s mission. Those who provide grants help Career Navigators provide our varied participants current, beneficial career guidance.”

Thank you to the Sisters of Mercy of North Carolina Legacy Foundation for continuing to support team members like Antonia and our Career Navigation program. These services are vital to providing a clear path for participants to pursue career opportunities, advance and thrive.

Did you know that shopping secondhand and donating your electronics and gently used items to organizations like Goodwill helps the earth tremendously? Help keep our planet safe and healthy while you declutter and start your spring cleaning this season.

DONATE YOUR GENTLY USED ITEMS

Do you need to clear out your old furniture to make space for that new piece you just bought? Are you ditching skinny jeans and jumping on the mom jeans trend? Donate your gently used items to Goodwill to give them a chance at a second life, helping them stay out of landfills. Goodwill has 35+ donation locations in the region to drop-off your gently used items.

RECYCLE YOUR ELECTRONICS WITH GOODWILL

Electronic waste is the fastest-growing waste problem in the world. Did you know that you can donate your used electronics to Goodwill, whether or not they work? Through our partnership with Dell Reconnect, we’ll refurbish your donated electronics to sell at our tech store, the GRID: Powered by Goodwill. If we can’t sell your electronic donations, we’ll recycle them responsibly, ensuring they don’t end up in a landfill. You can donate your electronics at any of our stores and donation centers on any day, or attend one of our four upcoming electronics donation and recycling drives:

*These electronics drives will also accept documents to be shredded and recycled.

MAKE A DIFFERENCE

In addition to helping the planet, donating your clothes, shoes, household goods, electronics and other items makes a difference by connecting people in our community to resources and career training at no cost. Goodwill Industries of the Southern Piedmont uses the revenue generated from the sale of donations throughout its stores and online to provide job placement and training, certifications and credentials for anyone looking to grow their careers. Read about just a few of the thousands of people we’ve helped thanks to your donations here. 

Entering a new year frequently inspires positive life changes like decluttering and simplifying. If getting organized has topped your list of New Year’s resolutions, check out these decluttering methods to help you reach your goals in 2023:

REVERSE HANGER METHOD

For this method, take just a few minutes to go into your closet and turn all of your hangers around backward so the open end of the hanger faces toward you. Then, each time you wear a clothing item, make sure to hang it back in your closet facing forward as you normally would, so the opening of the hanger faces away from you.

Set a calendar reminder for June 2023. When your reminder goes off, you’ll know exactly what items you wear and don’t wear. Chances are, if you haven’t worn it yet it could be time to let it go!

ONE IN, ONE OUT METHOD

Grab some new tops at a sale? Purge the tops you never pull out of your drawer! Get a new pair of shoes for your birthday? Donate your older pair! In this method, each time you buy something new, a similar item must go. If you keep removing as many items as you add, you declutter regularly without noticing or putting in a lot of effort, and you won’t accumulate more items than you already have.

FOUR BOX METHOD

This method makes decluttering easier by speeding up the decision-making process. Find and label four boxes – the throw away box, the donate box, the storage box and the keep box. As you go through a cluttered room in your house, pick up each item and ask yourself how often you use the item. Put items you still use regularly in the “keep” box, and items you still use but not as regularly in the “storage” box.

For items you no longer use, ask yourself if the item is gently used. One thing to consider when deciding whether to donate or throw away an item is if you’d feel good getting it as a gift or a hand-me-down. If you wouldn’t want to receive it, chances are someone else probably wouldn’t either. Toss those items!

YOUR DONATED ITEMS MAKE A DIFFERENCE!

Once you’re organized, you’ll be in a perfect position to donate what you no longer need to your local Goodwill. Those items will then be sold to fund career training courses, job search support, family stability services and more – all of which we offer free of charge to thousands of people in our community each year. Not only will your efforts help you be better organized, less stressed and more productive, but they’ll also help someone else in your community.

A little effort can go a long way. Spending just a few minutes each day to get organized will help make your life healthier and happier! January is the perfect month to make it happen. Wishing you a positive, productive and healthy 2023.

It’s Black Philanthropy Month (BPM), and this month we sat down with Renee Ford, Divisional Sr. Human Resources Manager for Walmart. She also serves as the Vice Chair of the Board of Directors for Goodwill Industries of the Southern Piedmont. Renee’s incredible energy and passion for developing people make her a valuable partner in Goodwill’s work in the community.

BPM, held every August, is an annual global celebration of African-descent giving. In our interview with Renee, she shares the importance of giving back year-round and her mixed emotions around BPM.

 

 

 

Donor support of Goodwill is essential to the ongoing success and continuity of Goodwill programs and services. Investing in Goodwill helps provide the most relevant opportunities for people in our community to reskill, upskill, launch a career and create pathways to prosperity. Join Renee and many others who invest in people to help them achieve their goals. Click here to learn more or make your gift today.

Before you buy new this back-to-school season, consider cleaning out your closet and helping others by donating to Goodwill. You can drop off your donations at any of our drop-off locations in the region during operating hours or at one of our upcoming back-to-school donation drives.  

Here are three ways donating to Goodwill does good for our community.  

1. You support our mission of building pathways that help people pursue the life they want to achieve. 
We rely on donations to support our mission. The money acquired from donations and purchases at our stores funds career training programs, employment services, job search support, family stabilizing services and more  to people in our community, offered free of charge. Last year, Goodwill invested over $6 million to assist more than 6,000 individuals with the resources, tools and support they needed to pursue the life they want to achieve – all thanks to donations and purchases from the community.  

2. You support  job creation in our community. 
Currently, Goodwill Industries of the Southern Piedmont employs more than 1,200 people in 18 counties in North and South Carolina. Our bold plans to open 25 stores in the next five years will create more jobs and employ more people in the area.

3. You help the  planet. 
Secondhand shopping not only saves money, but it also contributes to a cleaner, safer environment for all! Goodwill Industries of the Southern Piedmont  sold more than 15 million items last year, giving those donated goods new homes and diverting them from the landfill. We were also able to recycle, refurbish or resell more than 1 million pounds of electronics.  

Four different organizations are providing funding to support the construction and trade training program offered by Goodwill Industries of the Southern Piedmont. CTE, Stanley Black & Decker, Lowe’s Foundation and Ally Charitable Foundation all recently awarded grants to the program, totaling $375,000.  

“It’s really exciting to receive these grants,” said Marvin Kelley, director of Construction & Trade Training for Goodwill. “I think this is our third iteration of funding with the Lowe’s Foundation, so the fact that they’re continually willing to invest, shows the level of will for our program.” 

Grants include $75,000 each from CTE and Stanley Black & Decker, $200,000 from the Lowe’s Foundation and $25,000 from Ally Charitable Foundation. 

Donations and shopping at Goodwill retail locations help fund the nonprofit’s mission of providing career training and wraparound services to community members, in programs like construction, free of charge! This additional funding for the construction program will support the increased costs of instruction, materials and equipment for the in-demand program.  

“Because so much of our course work is hands-on, we’re trying to constantly ensure that we have the equipment, materials and the projects that allow our participants to get the training necessary so that when they walk on a job site, they look like, and feel like, they’ve been there,” Kelley added. 

The Goodwill Construction Skills Training Center was opened in 2019 to create a pathway for upward mobility through the trades, while also addressing the labor shortage of local construction companies. Since then, the Goodwill program has graduated hundreds of adult students, increased its list of employer partners and has begun to create a pipeline of talent to local construction companies. 

“In May, there were 36,000 new jobs added in construction. In April, there were 494,000 openings, up 40 percent from the prior year. So, there’s a huge demand for our programs,” Kelley explained. 

The need for labor in the industry is the reason Stanley Black & Decker has made vocational skills training a priority through its corporate social responsibility (CSR) mission.  

“Our purpose is to support ‘Those Who Make the World,’ and being able to fund educational programs and nonprofits that are revitalizing trade careers directly connects to our core mission. By helping provide a pathway for trade professionals, we are also setting our sights on constructing a better future that can uplift the hardworking tradespeople who build our world to meet the ever-changing needs of society,” said Stanley Black & Decker’s Vice President of Social Impact, Diane Cantello. 

Goodwill Industries of the Southern Piedmont is one of 59 organizations selected to receive funding from Stanley Black & Decker to enable vital trade skills training and reskilling programs in the construction and manufacturing sectors. 

We encourage you to learn more about construction skills training and other training courses offered through Goodwill Industries of the Southern Piedmont.