Independent Sector to Present Goodwill Industries of San Francisco, San Mateo and Marin Counties with the 2006 Leadership IS Award

(Washington, DC, September 20, 2006) – Independent Sector will honor Goodwill Industries of San Francisco, San Mateo and Marin Counties with this year’s Leadership IS Award recognizing its innovative job training programs and leadership development initiatives for its own staff and local charitable organizations. San Francisco Goodwill will be presented with a plaque and a gift of $10,000 at the Independent Sector Annual Conference in Minneapolis/St. Paul from October 22 to 24, 2006.

The Leadership IS Award was established in 1999 to recognize outstanding organizations for their leadership in investing in the people of the charitable sector. The award supports this important principle by honoring an organization whose programs and policies develop future leaders, both within the organization and among the people it serves. The 2006 Leadership IS Award is funded by Chevron Corporation.

One of the over 200 autonomous members of Goodwill Industries International, Goodwill Industries of San Francisco, San Mateo and Marin Counties creates solutions to poverty through workforce creation and environmental stewardship. With 17 retail stores, a growing online store, and an extensive reuse/recycling operation, San Francisco Goodwill helps people overcome barriers to employment, build sustainable livelihoods, and transform their lives and communities.

San Francisco Goodwill’s retail operation is structured to facilitate leadership development for both participants and employees. As participants gain skills working in Goodwill’s stores and processing plant, they are given opportunities to become permanent Goodwill employees and grow with the organization or to secure career advancing opportunities with other businesses. For employees, San Francisco Goodwill has established formal structures to infuse a culture of distributed leadership across the agency at all levels. This structure gives staff multiple opportunities and expectations to take on different leadership roles ranging from long-term strategic planning to daily operations to special events.

Deborah Alvarez-Rodriguez, president and CEO of Goodwill Industries of San Francisco, San Mateo and Marin Counties, speaks to February 2006 graduates of Goodwill's job training program.

San Francisco Goodwill often partners with nonprofits, businesses, and public agencies to develop innovative leadership development programs. One such partnership, Back on Track, was developed as a collaboration with the San Francisco District Attorney and Superior Court. Back on Track is a job training and case management program targeted for young adults arrested on felony drug charges. The program aims to keep clients out of the criminal justice system by providing them with opportunities to start on a career path, earn legal wages, and develop leadership potential by, among other activities, mentoring younger peers.

San Francisco Goodwill also builds leadership for the charitable sector beyond its own organization. Staff work with nonprofit leaders in communities of high need to help them develop their own leadership capacity. Goodwill has recently partnered with a local community-based organization to enhance services to ex-offenders by providing them with mental health and substance abuse counseling. As part of this relationship, Goodwill and its partner agency are creating formal job training opportunities where staff from each organization share knowledge in their areas of expertise.

“San Francisco Goodwill has developed a state of the art and invaluable job training program. Not only does Goodwill help individual participants in their wide range of rehabilitation programs become leaders, they are also reaching out to work with other charitable organizations in their community,” said Diana Aviv, president and CEO of Independent Sector. “San Francisco Goodwill exemplifies the spirit of the Leadership IS Award and we commend its innovative work.”

“At our Goodwill, we have developed a model for organizational transformation based on the premise that leadership can be learned and cultivated in just about anyone, not just in the chosen few who might be considered to be ‘born leaders’,” said Deborah Alvarez-Rodriguez, CEO and President of the Goodwill of San Francisco, San Mateo and Marin Counties. “We have seen leadership emerge on our production floor, on our docks, in our classrooms and in our community partners. We do everything we can to cultivate this personal and organizational transformation wherever and whenever possible.”

Learn more about the award and past recipients.

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Independent Sector is a nonprofit, nonpartisan coalition of approximately 600 charities, foundations, and corporate philanthropy programs, collectively representing tens of thousands of charitable groups in every state across the nation. Its mission is to advance the common good by leading, strengthening, and mobilizing the nonprofit community.