{"id":92967,"date":"2019-07-16T01:38:59","date_gmt":"2019-07-16T01:38:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/goodwill-groups-merge-to-improve-efficiencies-long-term-sustainability\/"},"modified":"2019-07-16T01:38:59","modified_gmt":"2019-07-16T01:38:59","slug":"goodwill-groups-merge-to-improve-efficiencies-long-term-sustainability","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/goodwill-groups-merge-to-improve-efficiencies-long-term-sustainability\/","title":{"rendered":"Goodwill groups merge to improve efficiencies, long-term sustainability"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"A
A merger between Discover Goodwill of Southern & Western Colorado and Goodwill Industries of Denver seeks to increase the sustainability of the organizations and allow them to \u201chelp even more Coloradans with disadvantages achieve greater independence.\u201d<\/span>Patrick Armijo\/Durango Herald file<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

A merger between Discover Goodwill of Southern & Western Colorado and Goodwill Industries of Denver has gone into effect, allowing the two groups to increase the sustainability of their two organizations, according to a news release.<\/p>\n

The most important aspect of the merger is for sustainability\u2019s sake, said Bradd Hafer, director of marketing and communications for Discover Goodwill, in an interview with The Durango Herald<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u201cCombining all those operations will create a lot more efficiencies for us, and when you\u2019re more efficient as a nonprofit in particular, that helps with your sustainability, longevity. We want to be in this for the long haul,\u201d Hafer said.<\/p>\n

Goodwill operates thrift stores and donation centers worldwide. There are 159 independent Goodwill agencies across the U.S. under the Goodwill Industries International umbrella, but all operate autonomously and are independent of each other.<\/p>\n

The nonprofit uses proceeds to help people overcome challenges and build skills, find jobs, and grow their careers, according to Goodwill Industries International Inc. Goodwill was founded in Boston by the Rev. Edgar J. Helms with the philosophy of giving \u201ca hand up, not a hand out,\u201d according to its website.<\/p>\n

Combining the two groups will not have an effect on the day-to-day operations of the Goodwill store in Durango, said Tammie Burke, a manager at the local Goodwill. The local store opened in February 2018<\/a>. According to the local store\u2019s website, it helps people in the community through the sales at the store to provide job training and placement to those experiencing employment barriers.<\/p>\n

Discover Goodwill of Southern & Western Colorado and Goodwill Industries of Denver have similar characteristics in both longevity and in how they operate in terms of their retail and donation centers.<\/p>\n

The combined organization will serve all 64 counties in Colorado with 43 retail stores, four outlets and 12 stand-alone donation centers providing jobs for over 2,700 workers across the state, according to a news release from Goodwill.<\/p>\n

Under the merger, there will be one governing body with one president and board of directors rather than having two governing bodies as before.<\/p>\n

Although the merger recently took effect, the discussions of a merger began in June 2018.<\/p>\n

Karla Grazier, president and CEO of Discover Goodwill, has served as interim president since September 2018 and will lead the newly combined organization, according to a news release from Discover Goodwill. She was voted into office by the board of directors of both agencies and Goodwill Industries International in March.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis merger makes sense on so many levels,\u201d Grazier said in the release. \u201cWe will be stronger together and will create a better Goodwill for all of Colorado.\u201d<\/p>\n

Combining the two agencies existing in Colorado into one organization will allow the organization to operate without having to go through a process to determine which \u201cside of the house\u201d will oversee different programs or services offered, Hafer said.<\/p>\n

Discover Goodwill of Southern & Western Colorado and Goodwill Industries of Denver were a combined organization up until 1961 when Goodwill Industries of Denver became its own entity. Hafer said the two groups have had common ground for decades so the merger \u201cwas pretty intuitive.\u201d<\/p>\n

The new name had not been fully determined as of Monday, but the name \u201cGoodwill of Colorado\u201d has taken a foothold and has already been approved by Goodwill Industries International. There is not a definitive date for when the use of that name or another name will start. Hafer said there are many operational and due-diligence issues that have to be addressed before it can move into that arena. Until the process is complete, the organizations will continue to operate as Discover Goodwill of Southern & Western Colorado and Goodwill Industries of Denver while having one president and CEO.<\/p>\n

In 2018, both groups in Colorado served a combined 100,000 people within the state; Hafer is unsure how the merger will affect, if at all, the number of people served through the organization\u2019s services.<\/p>\n

bmandile@durangoherald.com<\/a> <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

operations won\u2019t be affected by consolidation<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":92968,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6034,5737,5736,5735,5741,5784],"tags":[431,28,29,1269],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-92967","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business-general","category-headlines","category-local-news","category-news","category-newsletter","category-nonprofits","tag-business-general","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter","tag-nonprofits"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92967","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=92967"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92967\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/92968"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92967"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92967"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92967"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=92967"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}