Goodwill®-Google.org Partnership Recognized With 2019 Halo Award

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May 30, 2019, 15:55 ET

ROCKVILLE, Md., May 30, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- The Goodwill Digital Career Accelerator® — an initiative created in collaboration between Goodwill Industries International and Google.org to close America's skills gap by strengthening workers' digital skills — has been named a 2019 Silver Halo Award winner for employee engagement (skilled volunteering), a new category this year. The Halo Awards are presented by Engage for Good, a membership organization that fosters stronger relationships between businesses and nonprofits.

In October 2017, Google CEO Sundar Pichai announced Grow with Google, an initiative to help Americans gain the skills they need to earn jobs or grow their businesses through $1 billion in grants over five years and one million volunteer hours from Google employees. As part of this partnership, Google.org collaborated with Goodwill to launch the Goodwill Digital Career Accelerator, which is funded by a $10.3 million grant and supported by 1,000 Google volunteers. Through the initiative, up to 126 local, community-based Goodwill organizations will equip more than a million people — including youth, older workers, veterans and military families, people with disabilities or disadvantages, and people who are transitioning back into society — with digital skills over three years. To date, local Goodwill organizations have equipped 277,928 people with digital skills.

Skilled Google volunteers play a critical role in the success of the initiative by providing support to local Goodwill organizations with train-the-trainer services, career coaching for program participants, and digital skills trainings throughout the year. Volunteers also contribute during GoogleServe, Google's annual month-long campaign each to encourage Googlers to volunteer in their local communities. In addition, this year, five Google.org fellows worked full-time with Goodwill Industries International and ten local Goodwill organizations for three months to help enhance their use and reporting of mission impact data, providing an estimated 2,500+ hours of skilled pro bono support. Goodwill organizations report that Google volunteers have been integral to strengthening their organizations' capacity to equip participants with digital skills and incorporating G-suite products and information on internet safety into their digital literacy classes.

"We are excited that Googlers and Google.org are being recognized for their impressive and impactful work with Goodwill," said Wendi Copeland, chief mission and partnership officer of Goodwill Industries International. "Google's investment in the Goodwill Digital Career Accelerator expands and enhances Goodwill's ability to deliver on its core mission of being an organization people use to reach their full potential through learning and the power of work."

The Halo Awards recognize outstanding corporate social impact initiatives and cause marketing efforts. This year marks the 17^th event in which Engage for Good has honored businesses and nonprofits with Halo Awards for doing well by doing good.

"This award is a reflection of the hard work and dedication of hundreds of Google volunteers and Goodwill team members," said Chelsea Seabron, Google.org manager of U.S. economic opportunity employee engagement. "We will continue to serve our communities through volunteering to help produce meaningful change across the country and around the world."

A total of 24 category awards were presented to programs judged the best cause marketing campaigns of 2018 at the Engage for Good Conference in Chicago on May 30, 2019.

"The Halo Awards were created nearly two decades ago to publicly recognize best-in-class corporate social impact programs," said David Hessekiel, president of Engage for Good. "This year's winners are a wonderful representation of the effective and innovative ways companies and causes can work together to build a better world and the bottom line."

To read more about the collaboration between Goodwill and Google, visit g.co/goodwillreport.

To view a list of the Engage for Good Halo Award finalists, visit www.engageforgood.com/halo-awards.

ABOUT GOODWILL INDUSTRIES INTERNATIONAL
Goodwill Industries International (GII) is a network of 160 community-based, autonomous organizations in the United States and Canada with a presence in 13 other countries. For the past three years, Goodwill was ranked in the top five brands that inspired consumers the most with its mission in the World Value Index, commissioned by the creative agency, enso. Goodwill has been on Forbes' list of top 20 most inspiring companies for three consecutive years, the only nonprofit featured on that list.

Local Goodwill organizations are innovative and sustainable social enterprises that offer job placement and training services, and other community-based programs by selling donated clothing and household items in more than 3,300 stores collectively and online at shopgoodwill.com^®.

Goodwill helps people facing challenges to finding employment, including people with disabilities, veterans and military families, youth and young adults, older workers, people reintegrating into society, and others working to advance their careers. Local Goodwill organizations build revenues and expand employment opportunities by contracting with commercial, state, government and non-government organizations to provide a wide range of business services, including janitorial and grounds maintenance, flexible staffing, food service, manufacturing and contracts packaging, reverse logistics, document imaging and shredding, and laundry services.

Last year, local Goodwill organizations collectively placed more than 288,000 people in employment in the United States and Canada. In addition, more than 33 million people used computers and mobile devices to access Goodwill education, training, mentoring and online learning services to strengthen their skills, and more than two million people received in-person services.

Goodwill is both an icon and accessible neighbor: more than 82 percent of the U.S. population resides within 10 miles of a Goodwill location.

For more information or to find a Goodwill location near you, visit goodwill.org, or call (800) GOODWILL. Follow us on Twitter: @GoodwillIntl and @GoodwillCapHill, and find us on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube: GoodwillIntl.

ABOUT GOOGLE
Google's mission is to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful. Through products and platforms like Search, Maps, Gmail, Android, Google Play, Chrome and YouTube, Google plays a meaningful role in the daily lives of billions of people and has become one of the most widely-known companies in the world. Google is a subsidiary of Alphabet Inc.

ABOUT ENGAGE FOR GOOD
Engage for Good, producer of the Engage for Good conference and Halo Awards, helps business and nonprofit executives succeed together by providing practical information and inspiration, opportunities to build valuable relationships and recognition for outstanding work engaging employees and consumers around social good and cause-related marketing efforts.

A wealth of information on cause marketing, corporate social impact programs and Engage for Good's offerings can be found at http://www.engageforgood.com.

SOURCE Goodwill Industries International