Goodwill: Protecting the Brand and Growing the Mission

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Abstract

Reputation can be one of an organization’s most valuable assets—especially for non-profits like Goodwill Industries International (GII). GII’s member organizations rely on the Goodwill® name to secure the donations that help generate the revenue to fund job training, employment placement services, and other community-based programs for people who have a disability, lack education or job experience, or face employment challenges. Knowing that operational disruptions or lapses in integrity could significantly damage its reputation, GII leaders were determined to understand where the organization might be vulnerable to such disruptions and lapses and what could be done to reduce the risk of their occurrence.

The Challenge

Goodwill is a global non-profit brand composed of 166 independent community-based Goodwill member organizations in North America and 14 international affiliates, all of which operate under trademarks and membership standards managed by the GII Board of Directors and the GII Member Services Team (MST) located in Rockville, Maryland. Although GII unifies member organizations in a common mission and provides a national brand platform, Goodwill members retain a large degree of autonomy in the way they approach their individual missions, strategies, and operations. Due to the structure of the organization, the independent actions of one member can represent not only a challenge to its own local brand, but potentially compromise the reputation of Goodwill as an organization—a risk that GII needed to address.

With the assistance of a national risk consulting team from Deloitte, GII set out to develop an enterprise risk management (ERM) program that would help selected member organizations improve their risk management practices and, in doing so, yield findings that could be used to help all Goodwill members improve the way they manage risk. In addition, the program aimed to identify key organizational risks that GII could influence through its strategic planning and investments.

GII chose to pilot the risk management program at the MST as well as at nine U.S. Goodwill members selected as a representative cross-section of GII’s U.S. membership. At each participating member, the local management team, with the assistance of Deloitte’s risk and governance professionals, facilitated a combination of surveys, interviews, and workshops aimed at identifying, evaluating, and prioritizing the member’s risks. A list of key risks was developed based on input from the member organization’s leadership, representatives from the board of directors, management, and other staff. Individuals were asked to rate the potential impact of each risk and the member’s vulnerability to its occurrence, and the insights obtained through these ratings were refined through interviews with selected managers and members of the board. Each member’s senior executive team then participated in a facilitated workshop to review and prioritize the risks identified and, in some cases, begin to develop mitigation strategies and assign accountability. Management teams presented the risk assessment results and action plans to their board of directors to validate findings, obtain the board’s perspective on top risks, and establish the board’s expectations with regard to future risk management efforts.

The results of the assessments at the nine participating member organizations were compiled into a summary report and distributed to all Goodwill members as a benchmark against which each member could evaluate its own risks and the effectiveness of its risk management programs. The report also included high-level recommendations for managing several risks that were identified as most significant, as well as suggestions on how to create and sustain a formal ERM program.

How We Helped

Although the nine member organizations participating in the pilot varied in size, location, and the sophistication of their operational infrastructure, the assessments revealed a number of areas that were common risks across the nine members and that could potentially affect members’ ability to identify and pursue growth opportunities. This newfound visibility into common risk areas opens the door to greater collaboration and information-sharing among members to support each other’s efforts and address these concerns. Insight into cross-member risk concerns is also helping GII leaders prioritize strategic investments in other risk mitigation support programs that they may offer to local members.

Solution

As a result of this ERM effort, GII has gained a level of insight into the risks facing Goodwill member organizations that has never before existed. Management teams and boards now have a common understanding of risk—including risk categories, risk definitions, impacts, and vulnerabilities—that can be used to facilitate discussions on appropriate risk response strategies. Participating members are continuing to track their top risks; some have assigned an executive to own each key risk, while others are responding with corrective actions to identified risks and providing periodic updates to their boards.

In addition, at both GII and several of the participating members, executives and boards are incorporating the risk assessment outcomes into their strategic planning process. Said Bill Kacal, Chair of GII’s Strategic Issues Planning Committee and a Deloitte & Touche LLP Partner: “I invited the Deloitte team to kick off GII’s recent strategic planning retreat by presenting the results of the enterprise risk assessment. We then used two of GII’s ‘Top Five’ risks to frame and drive the agenda for the day-long effort. Task forces have been assigned and corrective actions are moving into place.”

As used in this document, “Deloitte” means Deloitte & Touche LLP, a subsidiary of Deloitte LLP. Please see www.deloitte.com/us/about for a detailed description of the legal structure of Deloitte LLP and its subsidiaries.