CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Goodwill Industries of the Southern Piedmont is one group in North Carolina receiving a large donation.

What You Need To Know

  • Goodwill Industries of the Southern Piedmont will receive a $10 million donation

  • The historic gift is unsolicited and unrestricted

  • The nonprofit organization plans to use it to serve more community members with career services and training programs

Last month, philanthropist and author Mackenzie Scott announced she would donate $10 million to the nonprofit organization, taking into account the community needs and program results.

“It was unexpected. It was unsolicited. So as you might imagine, when I received the phone call about that, they really just took my breath away, but it took me a little while to process that,” Goodwill Industries of the Southern Piedmont CEO Christopher Jackson says.

Lauree Sheppard is grateful Goodwill allowed her to pursue her passion for construction.

After being laid off from a job in the medical field at the beginning of 2020, Sheppard took a free construction basics course at Goodwill. The course was mostly virtual due to the pandemic.

"I feel like Goodwill not only helped me get my certifications, but helped me to be able to know how to present myself in a field that I was trying to break into,” Sheppard says.

Sheppard was able to land a job in construction after she completed the program.

Jackson says the donation will allow the organization to help more people like Sheppard needing career services and training programs.

"Because it's unrestricted, we could use it to build capacity so that we could offer even more of what we currently offer, or we could offer or something new that's needed,” Jackson says.

The gift is also historic, being the largest single donation in their more than 55-year history.

"I think, at the end of the day, access to opportunity is so critical and whether that's virtually, whether that's in-person, and so ensuring that as much access as possible is available is what we're going to focus on,” Jackson says.

Sheppard says the donation is especially important amid the pandemic when some people may be considering a career change.
 
"They are able to be self-sufficient and to be able to contribute back into the community and be able to support themselves,” Sheppard says.

Sheppard is between jobs at the moment after her company moved out of state. However, she says thanks to Goodwill, she has a couple of good job opportunities.

Scott also donated to other 383 organizations, including Goodwill Industries of Northwest North Carolina, Food Bank of Central and Eastern Carolina, and North Carolina and Technical State University.

For more information on Scott’s donation, click here.