10 Reasons You Should Reconsider Donating to Goodwill

Donating to Goodwill is easy — but you may want to reconsider. Questionable business practices at this national thrift store make giving things away less appealing once you do some digging. 

Instead of giving stuff away there, consider donating it to a local thrift store that isn't putting huge sums in anyone's pocket or — depending on the condition — try selling it on eBay or other online reselling sites.

Note: Each Goodwill is operated independently and is governed by a board of directors, practices may vary widely across locations.

While you might be giving to charity, that doesn't mean some people aren't living well off your good will (pun intended). Salaries can be as high as $440,000 for executives and at least one executive decided to take more, embezzling $1 million from MERS/Missouri Goodwill Industries Inc. He was sentenced to 70 months in prison.

While Goodwill boasts about hiring people with disabilities, it doesn't mean they're necessarily paying them a decent wage. While making too much can mean these workers can't get benefits, under the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 employers like Goodwill can apply for a special wage certificate that allows them to hire people with disabilities at a subminimum wage, according to a 2013 report from NBC News. Goodwill uses the special minimum wage exemption on 7,300 of its 105,000 employees.

If you go to a Goodwill location in upscale areas, you might find castoffs being sold for big money (I have), in some cases for higher prices than Walmart and Target, according to GoBankingRates. If you're hoping your items might help people who need reasonably priced clothes or furniture, guess again.

On Reddit, more than a few people mentioned items going directly in the trash rather than being marked down or put on the sales floor. You may think your old glassware is going to someone who needs it, but you might be wrong.

Goodwill gets too much stuff to try to resell everything, so anything that doesn't seem profitable in their stores or outlet locations could be pitched out. You may feel great having cleaned out your closet, but some of those old clothes may go straight to the landfill. According to The Huffington Post, roughly five percent of donated clothes eventually end up in a landfill, which may not sound like a lot, but at scale that can add up.

That said, many Goodwill locations are much more thorough with sorting through donations and take great efforts to find a purpose for the majority of donations while minimizing the amount sent to landfills.

Wondering how your donations are used? Pondering the impact they have on your community? Goodwill tends not to make that information readily accessible, so it's anyone's guess. 

If you add to the Goodwill supply chain with a few bags of old things, those bags join many, many others. Realistically there are logistical challenges and inefficiencies, and what happens to your donations is anyone's guess. Giving to a smaller, local shop might be a better bet. 

Goodwill is an international nonprofit, which means when the organization gets around to giving, it may or may not benefit people in your town. If you want to help people near you, choose a smaller local charity.

Maybe you envision your old uniforms going to a new worker, your old prom dresses to teens who'll wear them, your suits to interview candidates. Goodwill, if you're lucky, will just chuck them on the sales floor. Look for charities like Dress for Success that will give to specific audiences. It's an extra step, but one that will make you feel you've done something good. 

These days you can give directly, which can be a great way of meeting people in your neighborhood. Apps like Freecycle, Nextdoor, and Buy Nothing groups on Facebook can get your stuff into the hands of people who want it. And that's all you want with your Goodwill donation, right?

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