Talk:Goodwill Industries

message: The section "movie tie-in" is completely irrelevant. What we have are three goofy paragraphs that summarize the movie, and only one minor reference to Goodwill Industries. Was Goodwill actually mentioned in the movie? And what does the movie's MPAA rating have to do with anything?
Perhaps if this movie really does mention Goodwill, and if we could find some others, we could make a section called "References to Goodwill Industries in popular culture." Apatterno 04:08, 9 August 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  "Movie Tie-In"??? 

message: I remember the Portland scandal (I'm in Seattle), and while I don't recall the exact dollar figures, I do remember thinking that the salaries were WAY out of line (approaching pro athlete territory).  So... while the corporation might be non-profit, clearly somebody is profiting rather nicely.  Should the entire organization be discredited?  Well, since were talking about the head honcho... yes. Belchfire (talk) 21:22, 24 January 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Criticisms 

message: Would a photo of the logo and/or a Goodwill store be appropriate?Schnauf 04:25, 11 May 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Certainly it would. You got a good one? Be bold!Ranieldule 19:58, 28 July 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Photos 

message: Edited this out until someone finds a citation.  Never heard of this.  It is, perhaps, used in the editor's hometown or such, but is in no dictionary.  Retain it here so it can reinserted after the cite is added.
(the success of the stores has led to the term "Goodwill" being genericized - entering the English lexicon as the generic term for the second-hand resale shop)
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... "entering the English lexicon as the generic term for the second-hand resale shop" May be localised USA usage, but not used in Australia 60.242.247.177 (talk) 14:36, 7 July 2013 (UTC)
thread_title:  Needs Citation 

message: The sentence "More than 84 percent of Goodwill’s total revenues are used to fund education and career services, and other critical community programs." is misleading.
The education,career services, and other critical community programs mentioned are either self contained within the Goodwill Industries organization or indicate an investment in those programs which become a source of revenue for Goodwill Industries.
It's all there for the reading at http://www.goodwill.org.Goodpaster 22:41, 19 August 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Operations section 

message: I believe the need-citations tag can be safely removed.  If you concur, please remove it.
Wageslave (talk) 22:56, 27 April 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Need Citations tag 

message: The article contains mostly facts (financials and such).  The article seems like there isnt much POV at all, mostly statements of fact (history and such).  If you concur, please remove it or discuss.
Wageslave (talk) 22:57, 27 April 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  POV citation tag 

message: See WP:AVOID. Bearian (talk) 21:38, 22 July 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Is, not claims 

message: The article lists the founding date as 1902, but the Massachusetts Goodwill web site lists the founding as 1895, and that the name on founding was "morgan memorial goodwill industries".  cite: http://www.goodwillmass.org/about_history.html
Rmd1023 (talk) 19:15, 9 August 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Incorrect 'founding' date? 

message: It has come to my attention that a couple of anon edits  removed verifiable criticism from the article without explanation or discussion. I am restoring this content and advise editors to be wary of this in the future. Ham Pastrami (talk) 10:58, 26 January 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  Astroturfing 

message: I am removing the "Origin of name" section. The referenced article  doesn't say anything about it. In fact, a Google search of the whole  site doesn't turn up anything on the subject.
Goodwill was founded in 1902 (or 1895—see above) with "Goodwill" in its name, but Abraham Vereide was born in 1886 and didn't emigrate to the U.S. until 1905. In addition, the section is religiously biased and non-NPOV. Davemck (talk) 18:03, 24 January 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: Thank you for checking this, Davemck. I knew the section didn't belong in the Abraham Vereide article, and I thought the editors of this article would have the resources and interest to check whether it was verifiable or not.--Kevinkor2 (talk) 11:58, 25 January 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  Origin of name 

message: shopgoodwill.org is a web site operated by one of the regional Goodwills, not the parent Goodwill Industries International. I believe it is operated by the Goodwill agency in Orange County, CA, and offers its services (for a fee) to the other Goodwills in the organization. It is recognized by Goodwill Industries International, but is not the only Goodwill to offer online shopping. rather than totally bias my comments as a Goodwill employee, I'll suggest editors simply do a Google search for other Goodwills that have online stores not related to shopgoodwill.org.
Also, many Goodwill actively participate in sales on eBay and Amazon. 
Afrayer (talk) 19:10, 18 May 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  shopgoodwill.org 

message: The reference that Portland Goodwill stores received 84 million pounds of foods is false. Goodwill has never accepted food donations or given out food.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.160.155.87 (talk) 01:15, 16 May 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  84 Million pounds of Food is false 

message: Oddly enough, the citation that purports to indicate that Goodwill is a non-profit says the opposite. It claims that Goodwill is a "Social Enterprise". I suspect the S.F. chapter is a "B corp," explained here: http://www.innov8social.com/2011/09/2-social-enterprise-bills-in-california.html which could probably still be considered for-profit. Non-profit is pretty vague anyway.
However, that citation is only applicable to the S.F. chapter, as far as I can tell.
I know this is a little nit-picky and is bound to be divisive. Maybe there is a more neutral way to phrase this. "A group of independent, regional charities," perhaps?
70.103.72.210 (talk) 19:47, 8 May 2013 (UTC)
thread_title:  Not a non-profit 

message: Is there any listing available of these?
60.242.247.177 (talk) 14:40, 7 July 2013 (UTC)
thread_title:  International Affiliations? 

message: They are wolves in sheep's clothing who look down with contempt on those they pretend to be helping and demand people take debilitating psychiatric drugs and see psychiatrists in community clinics before they will give any "aid". 2602:306:C518:6C40:94EE:7466:FCBE:4662 (talk) 01:13, 1 June 2014 (UTC)
thread_title:  Goodwill is evil 

message: It looks to me like Goodwills are actually separate, independent organizations that don't always abide by the same policies or even agree with each other.
For example, the whole subminimum wage thing. It turns out Goodwill SWFL doesn't pay subminimum wages but still tries to defend the practice, while Goodwill NNE outright opposes the legislation that makes the practice possible and supports its repeal.
(That's only 2 out of 165 organizations, though. Heck, I don't even know where to find a list of all 165 "independent Goodwill organizations" or "member agencies" or "headquarters" or whatever you call them.)
So, uh, what can or should we do with regard to these differences, exactly? Does something like this deserve to be noted in this article (seeing how Wikipedia seems to be a first stop for information nowadays)? ukuereh (talk) 03:29, 5 September 2014 (UTC)
replies: text: Another notable difference between the different Goodwill organizations is in the stores themselves. For example, the Goodwill Industries of the Columbia-Willamette has been aggressively building brand new stores with a standard design throughout Oregon and Southwest Washington, while Tacoma Goodwill generally locates stores in existing buildings after remodeling, although the design can vary depending on the building's layout. There are many differences in store design between these two organizations alone, including interior colors, and Goodwill Industries of the Columbia-Willamette also does not use the well-known Goodwill logo in any of its store signage, while the Tacoma organization uses the logo along with localized signage for the town where the store is located.Cascade1988 (talk) 03:12, 16 October 2014 (UTC)
thread_title:  Differences between Goodwill organizations? 

message: Goodwill was mentioned in Macklemore & Ryan Lewis's song Thrift Shop.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 172.56.26.161 (talk) 15:51, 27 October 2014 (UTC)
thread_title:  Goodwill in popular culture 

message: His own article clearly states that he was the founder of Goodwill, and yet this article not only lists another man, but Vereide's name is nowhere to be found.  Is there any good reason for this?  Trilobright (talk) 21:38, 20 August 2016 (UTC)
replies: text: Perhaps he founded the Goodwill in Seattle only. According to the article he arrived in America three years after the organization was founded in Boston. Added a cite tag in his article.--☾Loriendrew☽ ☏(ring-ring) 19:18, 21 August 2016 (UTC)
thread_title:  [[Abraham Vereide]] 

message: This article is seriously out of date. I’ve updated some fiscal info per Forbes, but much more revision is needed. Nicmart (talk) 05:00, 4 December 2020 (UTC)
thread_title:  Dated 

message: I'm wondering, is the founder of Goodwill notable enough for his own Wikipedia page? The only page for him is a redirect to the Goodwill history section. Untitled.docx (talk) 03:42, 9 November 2021 (UTC)
thread_title:  Edgar J. Helms 

message: This article and the organization represents a confusing and ambiguous trademark "GOODWILL" and the wordmark or trade name "GOODWILL" because they directly impede good search results and because the organization's associated intentionally dominate the term interfering with the English language and perhaps others where the trademark is translated into a term; trademarks do not gain meaning by translating them (nor is it legal); but they do confuse people and ambiguate the term into its original meaning making it too generic to serve as a trademark. Anyone can use the terms: GOODWILL, Goodwill, goodwill or good-will descriptively and legally; by adding a secondary meaning to the word, adding another word creating a new term, through the fair-use statute or without anything at all as long as the writer is talking about the defined idea and not the company. In writing the trademark of "Goodwill Industries" it must be written with the registered symbol Goodwill® or written out as Goodwill Industries. Goodwill® is Goodwill Industries representative of the organization and corporation, the short version of Goodwill Industries is not "Goodwill" there is no legal short or assumed name for Goodwill Industries, writing a check to "Goodwill" is the same as writing "Cash" or "Donation" on your check, anyone can cash it. Because of poor (non-headquartered) intellectual property management and inexperienced editors caused by independent individual organizations overreaching and misunderstanding their trademark rights the corporation is both intentionally interfering with the rights of others through poor IP management among associates and confusing the public to become their target for the sentimental activity of demonstrating goodwill by donating to them. 
Goodwill Industries has 3,200 retail locations plus they have regional centers that bear their name, like Goodwill Industries of Middle Tennessee, Inc., Goodwill Industries of Greater Detroit, etc, etc, etc... this is a good and correct way to display their name, no confusion, but other locations use names like "Goodwill of Western & Northern Connecticut" which is where the corporation is permitting ambiguous and confusing descriptive language to dominate the term. The corporate headquarters says "Goodwill organizations are locally controlled and operated ... they're really owned by the community.", but they should have said, [Goodwill Industries' organizations are...] or [Organizations using the Goodwill trademark are ...]. Some stores are based on state, region, city, county or metropolis; some locations have a web presence, some do not and not all collection centers have retail stores; all of them reverberate the word "goodwill" as if they owned it. Actually the image trademark is good, but the rules of genericide must also apply to the wordmark which will result in cancellation of it. Goodwill without the (R) is not Goodwill Industries, it must be clearly disambiguated and demoted in search engines because its use by the trademark owner is being abused and risks misappropriation of the public domain and language. Problemsmith (talk) 11:30, 30 January 2022 (UTC)
thread_title:  Confusion, Genericide or Smart? Causing chaos with the legal term (word)