We do not have a pick up program, but we welcome your donations at our donation centers across Northern Michigan. We cannot take TVs or mattresses — our donation guidelines list the things we can and cannot accept. Your donations make our food and housing community programs possible, thank you!

It goes to local programs that deliver 2 million pounds of food a year to food pantries and meal sites, and helps over 1,000 people experiencing homelessness a year access shelter and housing. Our programs include Goodwill Inn, Street Outreach, Food Rescue, and Patriot Place.

To make a meaningful impact on the complex public health challenges of homelessness and food insecurity, we also invest time and money to support the Northwest Michigan Coalition to End Homelessness and the Northwest Food Coalition. We collaborate to increase food and housing security for ever member of our community.

You can read more about what we do in our annual reports and financial information on our website.

• We help over 1,000 people a year access shelter and housing through programs like Patriot Place housing community for Veterans, the Goodwill Inn homeless shelter, Street Outreach, and housing support services.

• Our Food Rescue program rescues, harvests, repacks, and distributes about 2 million pounds of food to area food pantries and community meal sites each year.

• We also distribute $175,000 a year worth of Good Partner store vouchers to people in need throughout our service area.

Yes! Proceeds from our stores help fund our Housing, Food, and Good Partner Voucher programs, serving every county in Northern Michigan from Benzie to Alcona, and Wexford to Cheboygan.

Yes! Goodwill Northern Michigan is a community-owned 501c3 nonprofit. We are governed by a Board of Directors made up of community leaders who live and work in Northern Michigan. We are also a member of Goodwill Industries International, one of more than 150 independent Goodwill nonprofits in the US and Canada.

Our stores, and our prices, are designed to support our community programs. Purchases and donations help fund our food and housing programs for people in need in Northern Michigan. Our stores teams work hard to fill our racks and online auctions with good deals on high-quality items from good brands. Another benefit of thrifting with Goodwill: it’s good for the earth and gives items a second chance!

We do!

—Every Wednesday, Seniors age 60 and older get 20% off.

—Every Thursday, Veterans, Active Duty Military, and their families get 20% off.

—Every time you donate, you get a 10% off coupon good in all of our thrift stores.

—We have a Loyalty Program in the works.

—Each month a lucky customer who completes the customer survey found at the bottom of our store receipts wins a $100 store gift certificate.

Yes. We try to maximize the value of the donations we receive. Some items are sold in our thrift stores to generate revenue for our community programs. Some items generate more money for our programs being sold on our online store. Items that can’t be sold are salvaged or recycled, generating additional revenue for our programs and diverting almost 5 million pounds from landfill each year.

We were grateful to be chosen by MacKenzie Scott to receive a $5M grant in December 2020, one of 384 organizations who were carefully screened for proven management teams and high potential for making a positive impact.

We are investing the gift in a strategic plan to increase food and housing security in our region, spending in three categories:

60%: Homelessness/Housing Insecurity/Housing Development

20%: Food Insecurity

20%: Building systems and accountable, transparent, and beneficial regional collaborations between agencies and systems that impact our clients

No, that’s viral misinformation you can read more about on Snopes. As reported on our most recent Form 990, last year Goodwill Northern Michigan spent a total of $287,318 in salary and benefits for all key personnel including our Executive Director. Our Board of Directors hires our Executive Director and sets his salary in line with leaders of other Northern Michigan organizations. Our Executive Director is Dan Buron, who brings 20 years experience in leading organizations much like ours to his role. Dan moved to Traverse City with his family in 2016. In 2019, he completed Ironman 70.3 Traverse City Triathlon to raise money for Food Rescue. Read more about Dan Buron and our staff.

We do! All 200+ of our employees make well over minimum wage, and we work hard to provide empowering jobs that help our employees reach their full potential. We invite you to take a tour and learn more about our work in Northern Michigan!