Acts of Goodwill is Goodwill Industries of Southeastern Wisconsin & Metro Chicago's branded employee volunteer campaign. Acts support non-profit community organizations, including our own Goodwill Mission Services, that help people address barriers to work.

Acts of Goodwill, our employee volunteer program, creates a positive impact for the people in the communities where we live, work, and serve. We are also providing our Goodwill team members opportunities to engage within their communities. To give employees a concrete way to use our paid volunteer time off, we reimagined our annual community day initiative. We created a yearlong celebration of volunteerism to provide Goodwill team members with several options each month to participate in scheduled volunteer events throughout their communities. Each month’s activities are led by an executive leader within our organization. We are looking forward to seeing this effort continue to grow.

“If I had to choose one word for what Goodwill has accomplished through Acts of Goodwill, I would choose two, meaningful impact.” “Thank you to all our employees who embody Goodwill’s mission. Goodwill’s employees are creating positive impact for the people and communities we serve,” said Lirhonda Price, Director Community Relations.

Making a Positive Impact In Our Neighborhoods

A team of seven Goodwill employees spent 14 hours volunteering at Bernie’s Book Bank in Lake Bluff, Illinois. The organization partners with 900 Title I schools and early childhood programs across Chicagoland to give 300,000 children a mini library of eight books. Volunteers ensured each child received a set of books that was age-appropriate, high-interest and culturally relevant.

“What an absolute joy and honor to support our mission and Bernie’s Book Bank,” said Ann Newman, director, learning. “I’d do it all again in a heartbeat!”.

Goodwill Greater Milwaukee & Chicago also sent a team of eleven to volunteer to the Ray Graham Hanson Association Center in Burr Ridge, Illinois. The nonprofit provides services for people with disabilities and their families, including an accredited therapeutic horsemanship program, animal farm and accessible playground. Goodwill volunteers spent 38.5 hours painting six park benches and raking the organization’s front lawn and client drop-off zone.

Supporting Our Neighbors with the Essentials

This summer’s Community Days included two impactful events in the Chicago suburbs. Both events were sponsored by Clayton Pryor, chief mission officer, and focused on ensuring under-resourced communities have food and other essential items.

At an Act of Goodwill Roadshow, 22 Goodwill employees served, one hour each, 22 collective hours, by putting together hygiene kits for the Ray Graham Association (RGA) - a nonprofit that provides a loving community, stability, and personal care for people with disabilities. Volunteers packed kits with toothbrushes, toothpaste, deodorant, shampoo and conditioner, body wash, soap, and lotion. During the one-hour event, 250 hygiene kits were packed.

Six Goodwill employees then volunteered with the Christian Life Center (CLC) Food Pantry for a combined total of 12 hours. Volunteers worked with church employees to manage weekly food distribution for local families. Tasks included greeting families, handing out boxes to collect food items, managing the pantry line and sorting and packing a variety of food, including fruits and vegetables, meat, and canned goods. At the event, 138 families were assisted.

This month’s events remind us that making an impact on our communities is just one of the benefits of these volunteer opportunities. It also gives us a chance to build relationships within our Goodwill community.

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Caring for Our Neighbors

Goodwill hosted three Community Days events, all focused on serving our communities and neighbors. This month’s events were sponsored by Kent Walters, senior vice president of operations.
In February, our team assisted with the transportation of over 20,000 books.

Nine Goodwill employees volunteered a combined total of 45 hours at Junior Achievement of Milwaukee. Volunteers worked with students from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Elementary School at Junior Achievement’s BizTown. During the learning experience, students operated businesses including banks and credit unions, department stores and restaurants. They also shopped, received paychecks, and made bank transactions to practice real world skills.

Then 13 Goodwill volunteers traveled to North Chicago, Illinois to volunteer at the Midwest Veterans Closet, a supplier of life’s basic needs for military heroes that are experiencing or at risk of homelessness. Goodwill volunteers spent a combined 39 hours assisting in the food pantry, clothing, and houseware areas; unloading donations; or working outside in the organization’s vegetable gardens.

At Northern Illinois Food Bank, fourteen employees volunteered a combined 35 hours. The volunteers packaged 11,500 pounds of food to distribute to over 9,500 families.

This volunteer opportunity is a favorite. Many reported it was fun to work with team members at Goodwill Great Lakes.

Once again, a huge thank you to all the employee volunteers who continue to participate in our Community Days events. We are thrilled to make a visible impact in the communities we serve!

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38 Acts of Goodwill for Our People & the Planet

Our Goodwill’s Community Days gained momentum with National Volunteer Month and Earth Day. These events were sponsored by Dan Michael, vice president of retail stores and donation centers. There were 327 Goodwill employees who volunteered 556 hours at 38 events, which took place across 11 of our 23 counties. Here is a snapshot of a few Acts of Goodwill events and their impact:
In February, our team assisted with the transportation of over 20,000 books.

Over a series of three days, 23 Goodwill employees volunteered at Feeding America in Milwaukee. Volunteer teams worked to sort pallets of food to pack in boxes. In total, the volunteers processed 14,706 pounds of food that was delivered to hundreds of people in need.

Then 17 Goodwill volunteers headed to American Family Field in Milwaukee to assist with a donation drive with the Milwaukee Brewers and Advocate Aurora Health. Going into the event, the goal was to receive 500 donations and fill two to three trailers. This team processed donations from 945 people and filled four trailers. 

To celebrate Earth Month, 27 of our Acts of Goodwill were dedicated to honoring Goodwill’s strong commitment to the environment and sustainable practices through community clean-up events in local parks and neighborhoods, tree plantings and more. Here are a few examples:

• At a clean-up event at the Prairie Bluff Preserve in Will County, Illinois, 32 Goodwill employees contributed 128 volunteer hours picking up trash along trails, roads, residential areas, and the preserve parking lot.
• During a clean-up event in the City of Kenosha, 12 Goodwill volunteers and a few family members picked up trash and debris in downtown Kenosha, including along the lake and in surrounding business and residential areas. Together, they collected 14 bags of trash that not only will keep the city clean but will prevent trash from entering the lake and water sources.
• At a tree-planting event with the City of New Berlin Parks Department, a dozen Goodwill employees helped to plant 30 large trees in New Berlin’s Gatewood Park.

A heartfelt thank you to all the volunteers who made Community Days events such a success. The volunteerism you have done this month, and each month, will continue to positively impact the communities we serve.

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Preparing 261 Students for Their Next Steps

Fourteen Goodwill employees headed to Kenosha’s Tremper High School and partnered with Educators Credit Union for “Reality Check Day” with 261 Kenosha young adults. During the 90-minute interactive simulation, Tremper students experienced what life might be like after the classroom heading out into the real world. Students were given the option of selecting their occupation, while other areas of their life were randomly assigned, such as credit score, marital status, and number of children. Students learned how to stay within their budget as they traveled to stations representing housing, insurance, clothing, groceries, and daycare. Goodwill volunteers contributed a combined total of 56 volunteer hours to the 220 Tremper High School students to help the students build financial literacy and planning skills.

In February, our team assisted with the transportation of over 20,000 books.

Then we partnered with Lead2Change, a career-readiness organization that engages young people in leadership opportunities. At the event, 10 Goodwill volunteers helped 11 students through an Interview Boot Camp. Two Goodwill leaders from Goodwill's Youth Engagement Department, Margarito Perucho and Benjamin Junious, gave a presentation on interview skills before students transitioned to a series of mock interviews. Goodwill employees contributed a total of 36 volunteer hours.

Thank you to all the volunteers who continue to show support to our youth!

Goodwill Employees Created 117 Hours of Impact

Goodwill continues to recognize the value that volunteer work brings to our employees, our organization, and our communities.  Community Days linked us to the community, with three events supporting our mission: Connecting people to work. Preparing people for life. Two events focused on advancing our commitment to youth by supporting literacy skills and the other on creating healthy communities. The events were hosted by the Executive Sponsor Clayton Pryor, chief mission officer.

Goodwill employees packed over 100 blessing bags at Peace Campus—bags of essential personal care items that are given to individuals that visit the campus and are in need of toiletries. The collective efforts of our Goodwill employees created 48 volunteer hours to clean out a cluttered basement at a Peace Campus home, resulting in a donation for a local Goodwill Store & Donation Center.

Then eleven Goodwill employees headed to Junior Achievement in Milwaukee to work with 55 students from Morse Middle School for the Gifted and Talented. Goodwill volunteers contributed 55 hours to help students build a foundation to make intelligent financial decisions related to income, expenses, saving and credit.

There were also nine Goodwill employees who volunteered at Bernie’s Book Bank in Lake Bluff, Illinois. Bernie’s Book Bank is a non-profit focused on increasing book ownership, improving literacy growth and delivering age-appropriate and culturally relevant books to children across six Illinois counties. Goodwill volunteers contributed 14 volunteer hours to pack book bags for local kindergarten and first-grade students. Each of the 610 book bags packed contained eight books, for a total of 4,880 books.

Employees Achieve 100 Volunteer Hours

Goodwill recognizes the value that volunteer work brings to our employees, our organization, and our communities.  To that end, Goodwill encourages volunteering opportunities amongst its employees and established the Acts of Goodwill employee volunteer program in 2019.

In 2024, we expanded Community Day to Community Days, a series of monthly volunteer events, providing more employees an opportunity to participate in Acts of Goodwill across our territory. At Goodwill, Community Days is a year-round campaign that picks up where the Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service leaves off. The campaign gives Goodwill team members an opportunity to participate in an Act of Goodwill in the community nearest to them, and a structured way to leverage paid volunteer time off (PVTO).

Goodwill's 2024 Community Days initiative kicked off with 20 Goodwill employees volunteering at two youth-focused events, resulting in 100 total volunteer hours at Junior Achievement of Wisconsin’s Milwaukee headquarters. More than 120 eighth grade students from two Milwaukee Public Schools—Hartford Avenue School and Golda Meir School—participated in a reality-based four-hour simulation where students learned about a variety of economic concepts. 

Thanks to all the volunteers who continue to support our youth!