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Comment by BombNullIsland | Hacker News Reader

My case was probably an extreme example, Salvation Army (in Australia) was a mostly volunteer organization for the brief time I was there.

Problem is the same everywhere regardless of pay structure, charity is used to as a crutch to wave off all criticism, a lack of retail competence, and any willingness to learn.

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There’s a big difference between Goodwill and Salvation Army. Salvation Army runs thrift stores to raise money to fund their homeless shelters and disaster relief efforts - thus they are generally staffed by volunteers. Goodwill’s charity is … running Goodwill stores. That’s it. They don’t donate money to anyone. They in fact pay their store employees below minimum wage, under the theory that they are providing “job training”.

They also make a big use of court ordered "volunteers". They might be a non profit but their regional directors are pulling in large salaries off an operation that runs essentially on free inventory and below market labor.

When MacKenzie Scott decided to donate billions of dollars to reputable charities, all of the Goodwills got million dollar donations and SA got nothing.

I’m sorry, what? What is their actual purpose then? How do they remain a charity if profits aren’t being used for charitable causes?

Having grown up in the UK I always assumed goodwill stores were just what we call charity shops over here, you’ll find three or four on most high streets, all run by different charities and staffed by volunteers with any proceeds going to fund the charity’s work.

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