Goodwill Industries of Middle Tennessee

Founded in 1957 as a not-for-profit, Goodwill Industries of Middle Tennessee's mission is to help people with disabilities or others who face various obstacles to getting and keeping a job. Our goal is to help those individuals through job training and job placement. We're not picky about who we help, as long as he or she wants to work.

At Goodwill, we believe in giving a hand up, not a hand out - a saying we use often that was coined by our founder, Edgar J. Helms.  After doing missionary work in the slums of Boston in the early 1900's, Rev. Helms found that the people he worked with so often needed help, but didn't want to just take something without giving something in return.  Their dignity would remain intact if they could pay a small price or perform a task to get the things they need.

We accept the things donors don't want or use anymore, sell them in our stores or online, then use the revenue from that sale to pay for job training classes and programs.  Goodwill funds its programs primarily through the sale of donated items in our retail stores but other sources of revenue play a part as well.  We have a Commercial Services program that employs people with disabilities to do light manufacturing, assembly, and production jobs for other companies. State and local grants also help fund our programs.

The corporate office for Goodwill Industries of Middle Tennessee is based in Nashville, Tenn. The agency, which employs over 1,300 people, serves 46 counties in middle and west Tennessee and is middle Tennessee's largest employer of people with disabilities with 80 percent of our workforce reporting some type of disability or other disadvantage. 

We have over 60 donation sites throughout our territory and 33 retail stores.

Although affiliated with Goodwill Industries International in Bethesda, Md., we operate independently through our own governing board of directors.