Goodwill Industries is an extremely recognizable organization, but last winter when Goodwill of Orange County decided to focus on major gifts and individual donors for the first time, they found themselves facing a serious obstacle—changing perceptions about what they do and conveying the need in the community for the services they provide...

"So many people think of Goodwill as a place to donate your things or to buy a good Halloween costume," says development director Nicole Sudyam. "People think they know what Goodwill does, but there is a real story behind the stores, and that's what we wanted to get across."

At their Benevon 101 Workshop in Las Vegas, Sudyam and her team of volunteers, board members, and staff from Goodwill of Orange County came up with a concept for their Point of Entry^® that spoke to their challenge. "We came up with 'The Real Goodwill' because it was catchy, but also because it showcased our mission," she says.

Coming up with the language to convey their mission—which is to provide people with disabilities and other barriers the opportunity to achieve independence—is something that Denise Desmond, the group's assistant director of development, credits to their Benevon coaching. "Our coach really helped us realize that although our mission statement is a guiding star for us, it isn't user-friendly for the public. I remember the moment during our coaching call when that light bulb turned on. We realized that many of the people who would be at our Point of Entry may be hearing our mission for the very first time."

The group's coach, Sharon Ervine, helped them use action words to describe their work and create visuals for their guests in order to show need. "With a large organization and budget, you have large numbers. That can be too overwhelming for anyone to see. You have to break it down in terms of what you do in a day, a week, a month to show how many people your group affects," suggests Ervine.

Sudyam and her team estimate that there are over 100,000 people in Orange County who could benefit from their services. "That number is hard to get your arms around," she says. "So when we were presenting our Point of Entry to Sharon, she gave us the idea of filling our local stadium. For us, that's the Anaheim Angel Stadium. We determined that we could fill it three times with the number of people who need our services. Everyone really responded to that."

Benevon also taught the team to help donors visualize their yearly pledges in terms of smaller, more manageable amounts. At the Ask Event^™, board member Gary Anderson, the team's Pitch Person, explained that a $1,000 gift is the equivalent of just $83 per month, or a latte a day. "There was an audible 'a-ha' moment at our Ask Event when we said that," says Desmond. "Everyone chuckled and said, 'I do that!'"

But coaching doesn't stop with numbers and figures. Goodwill of Orange County's CEO, Dan Rogers, had their coach help him with his Visionary Leader^™ speech.

"It's easy for me to be passionate about Goodwill because you see the results all the time. Almost every family is touched somewhere along the way by someone with a disability," says Rogers. "But it was amazing to me how effective Sharon was at seeing what was important and getting to the meat of the matter. At the end of our work together, I realized that was all that needed to be said."

After an exceptional Ask Event that had guests out the door in under an hour, Sudyam, Desmond, Rogers, and their team had much to celebrate—over $430,000 in gifts and pledges, 54% of which came from first-time donors.

"We worked so well together. We were just floored," says Desmond. "We called Sharon and our volunteers right away. We always knew we had a compelling story, but when people heard about the 'real' Goodwill, there wasn't a dry eye in the house. The previous conceptions of who we are and what we do were thrown out, and all that was left was the passion."