COHORTS: Cohorts will meet four times during the conference and will be facilitated by GII Team Members. The purpose of the cohort discussion groups is to identify problems/issues/solutions pertaining to a particular area or topic of interest. During cohort meetings attendees will have the opportunity to shape the conversation, dig deeper to synthesize information learned during other conference sessions and enhance relationships with a smaller network of colleagues. Once you select a cohort it is the expectation that you will remain with your cohort for all four meeting times.
Business Engagement
The Business Engagement cohort will explore the process of engaging existing partnerships and building new ones with businesses, their representatives and their employees who help Goodwill to build support for mission and its social enterprise, ultimately leading to increasing numbers of people in communities finding work and attaining family sustaining wages. This cohort’s activities will build off of key elements of successful business engagement strategies and practices, providing participants the opportunity to design and/or refine their Goodwill’s business engagement thinking. The facilitator will rely on participants to identify their key learning objectives to finalize the topic discussion. Facilitated by Sara Huber, Manager, Cause Partnerships, GII.
Building and Maintaining a Culture of Safety & Risk Management to Support Planned DGR Growth throughout the Goodwill Enterprise
This cohort will engage participants with responsibilities in Operations, Donated Goods/Retail, Asset Protection and Risk Management. Cohort discussions will focus on sharing best practices to solve common problems and build stronger, safer and more productive results. Participants will be encouraged to gather emerging evidence gleaned from conference sessions and take charge of change. Active participation in cohort discussions is intended to offer an added benefit that extends beyond the close of the conference by building a stronger network of colleagues facing similar challenges and opportunities throughout the Goodwill membership. Facilitated by Annette Grove, Accreditation and Organizational Assessment Consultant and GII, Kate Pile, Director of Risk Management and Safety, Goodwill Industries of Central Florida.
Business of Mission in Retail
This cohort is intended as an opportunity to take a deeper dive and explore business practices being employed throughout the enterprise to establish a continuum of effective mission/business collaborations and the related emerging innovations to facilitate this process. Through various dialogue, brainstorming, workshops and peer presented sessions, participants will gain resources and best-practices that enhance integration of mission into social enterprise operations while preserving productivity and profitability. Topics of discussion will include: defining mission integration, the business case for mission in retail, spectrum of mission in retail activities, self-assessment tool as well as potential performance measures to benchmark retail mission activities against others in the enterprise, review of community needs assessment data sources relative to retail store planning and mission integration as a strategy to combat competitive threats. Facilitated by Wandia Gachari, Donated Goods Consultant/Analyst and Joylin Kirk, Director of Mission Services, GII.
Contracts and Business Development Cohort
The Contracts and Business Development cohort will explore how to plan for future growth and opportunities in your Goodwill. The discussions will build off cohort member questions; lessons learned; and best practices from across the Goodwill enterprise. It will give cohort participants time to participate in some “deeper dive” discussions on contracts and business development issues such as the future of government contracting opportunities, partnering across the membership, government e-waste opportunities, creating a quality work environment, TFM commercial and government opportunities and other issues selected by the cohort members in advance and voiced during the cohort meetings. The cohort meetings will provide cohort participants the opportunity to discuss how they will use the information gleaned from the conference sessions and the discussions to develop a growth strategy for the contracts division of their Goodwill. This cohort is intended for Chief Operating Officers, VP of Contracts or Business Services and others with contracts or business development responsibilities within their Goodwills. Facilitated by Margaret O’Brien, Sr. Director, Organizational Strengthening and Accreditation, GII and Mike Winckler, Vice President of Workforce Development, Goodwill Industries of Central Virginia.
Cross-Channel Storytelling
The new generation of Goodwill shoppers and donors engage with multiple forms of media every day. These are the people who wake up and check their latest Facebook updates, read the morning paper over breakfast, check Twitter from their mobile device on their way to work, answer email in the morning, watch a YouTube video over lunch, surf the Internet in the afternoon, then jump on to a video chat with friends in the evening. With each of these channels offering a unique opportunity for your Goodwill to engage with stakeholders, it’s important not to put all of your storytelling eggs in one basket. This cohort will delve into the types of stories Goodwill agencies have to tell, the elements that make a strong story on any platform, and how you can use specific channels effectively to communicate your Goodwill’s retail and community initiatives. Facilitated by Jenni Baker, Online Content Program Manager and Charlene Sarmiento, Senior Public Relations Specialist, GII.
Digital Strategy
Digital Strategy involves the outcomes, goals and objectives your agency intends to accomplish online. This cohort will review and help you determine the appropriate digital strategy for your agency and how it can be implemented to meet your mission, business and other strategic goals. While tactics will be discussed, the focus of this cohort will be to link the activities and engagement you build and sustain through your digital channels with your agency's broader strategic plan and objectives to ensure that your efforts are aligned with the "big picture." When executed correctly, digital can not only help you build business and grow mission engagement, but it can be used to strengthen your employees and leadership within your community. Facilitated by Adam Stiska, Director, Mobile and Digital Strategies, GII
Donated Goods Retail Aftermarket
The aftermarket side of our Goodwill donated goods retail business continues to be a strong driver of revenues, a key component of maximizing donation value, and an engine for job creation and waste reduction. Across all Goodwills in 2012, aftermarket accounted for over $418 million of revenue, representing 12.7% of total DGR revenue. This cohort presents a great opportunity to share information and network with like-minded Goodwill colleagues who have a stake in the aftermarket arena—which includes salvage, recycling, outlets, auctions, and other waste reduction activities. This cohort will explore topics and challenges that are relevant to members’ businesses today including topics such as: outlets, salvage pricing/budgeting, vendor management/selection, recycling and “hard-to-recycle” items, auctions, and innovative waste reduction strategies. We hope your cohort experience will inspire you to develop an action plan to improve aftermarket operations and revenues at your Goodwill. Facilitated by Mark Gustafson, Donated Goods Retail Consultant, GII.
Donated Goods Retail Beyond Traditional Revenue
Since its inception, 111 years ago, Goodwill has been ahead of its time both in its “hand up not hand out” approach using social enterprise to support and accomplish its mission. Across the membership Goodwills are not only continuing their innovative approach to fulfill their mission but expanding on it. As we open more retail outlets and capture a greater share of the donated goods market many agencies are thinking “outside of the box” and looking to non-traditional revenue streams to support their mission. This cohort is perfect for the maverick thinker who is looking for ways to extract more value from existing “assets”, as well as creating new revenue streams. In this cohort you will have the opportunity to explore business practices used throughout the membership to develop revenue streams outside of the traditional. Topics discussed will focus on E-commerce, new goods, benefits of a well-developed Halloween program among others. Facilitated by Rob Walker, Donated Goods Retail Consultant, GII.
Donated Goods Retail Operations
As Goodwill® continues its focus on growth, the internal operations of a Goodwill DGR program must be solid in order to sustain momentum and further evolve with the times. Acquiring more donations is only helpful if you have the capacity and systems in place to effectively process and maximize the value of each and every donation. This cohort will be member driven, and will explore various topics that relate to operating our DGR business. The scope of this cohort could include topics such as; efficient processing, inventory rotation, logistics/fleet management, safety and loss prevention, mission integration, and metrics to manage the business. Network with your peers from other Goodwill agencies as we jointly work together to solve operational challenges. We hope your cohort experience will inspire you to develop an action plan to improve DGR operations at your Goodwill. Facilitated by Kevin Meier, Donated Goods Retail Consultant and Megan Witty, Donated Goods Retail Consultant, GII.
Donations Acquisition & Territory Maximization
The Goodwill® enterprise faces continued fierce competition for donations due to the convergence of an increasing number of thrift, salvage, and recycling operators attracted by record high prices; a stagnating supply of donations; and a high consumer demand for thrift value goods. This cohort will focus on strategies and business practices to substantially increase donations in order to sustain retail growth goals. Discussions will include strategies and innovative practices for increasing sustainable and supplemental donations; the importance of utilizing marketing research as well as site analytical tools to identify and maximize donor and customer rich areas within a territory; and strategies to blunt the competition’s efforts. Facilitated by Wandia Gachari, Donated Goods Retail Consultant/Analyst and Bill Parrish, Donated Goods Retail Consultant, GII.
Financial Strategic Growth
The Financial Strategic Growth cohort will explore how to plan for future financial growth and change in your Goodwill. The discussions will build off cohort member questions; lessons learned; and best practices from across the Goodwill enterprise. It will give cohort participants time to participate in some “deeper dive” discussions on strategic growth issues such as Return on Investment (ROI) modeling; self-funding of mission services; planning revenue diversity for the future; and other growth issues selected by the cohort members in advance and voiced during the cohort meetings. The cohort meetings will provide cohort participants the opportunity to discuss how they will use the information gleaned from the conference sessions and the discussions to develop a financial growth strategy for their Goodwills. This cohort is intended for Chief Financial Officers, Finance Directors and others with financial planning responsibilities within their Goodwills. Facilitated by Gretchen Evans, Strategic Planning Consultant, GII and Tony Van Slyke, CFO, Goodwill Industries of Houston.
IT Roadmap
This Cohort will help attendees pull together their various IT wants and needs into an integrated roadmap through interactive three day Cohorts and breakout sessions. Most of us have an endless bucket of projects and plans, but typically with little coordination between affected departments, resulting in unclear action plans, and less than optimal outcomes. The IT roadmap will provide an opportunity to measure progress, and set direction over multiple years to create a strategy - not just a wish list. The roadmap will guide all affected parties to critical decision points for future objectives, and answer the why’s, what’s, how’s and when’s. We will also provide several breakout sessions to focus on specific technologies that the group would like to discuss in detail. We will have SME's from various vendors and Goodwill locations to elaborate on their experience and lessons learned. Day one will focus on assessing your current environment and risks. Day two will focus on identifying your goals, strategy and general direction to develop a plan. The last meeting will focus on funding and implementing your plan. Facilitated by Joe Shaw, Director, Information Technology and Sarah Newhard, IT Software Specialist, GII.
Knowing and Engaging Your Community
How much do you really know about the people in your community? Do you have a feeling that you’re missing some groups in your outreach? Do you need a more definitive analysis of your community so that you can learn and deploy strategies for being more inclusive and effective? This cohort will examine best practices in market research and offer a deeper dive into engaging everyone in your community. We’ll examine how data, targeted strategies, and key partnerships and relationships can attract specific groups in your community and increase awareness, engagement, and involvement in your business and mission. Join us for this series of dynamic, participatory, collaborative sessions around reaching all the potential stakeholders in your community. Facilitated by Arlene McCrehan, Sr. Director, Online Media and Rachel Morales, Manager, Marketing and Brand Development, GII.
Leadership in Changing Times
This cohort will explore the effect of the ever changing environment on leadership effectiveness. We will discuss the leadership skills that have been identified by experts as being critical for success in leading in the 2020 workplace. We will take a closer look at the critical areas of agility, sustainability, integrity, diversity and innovation and how these competencies contribute to building an effective team.
Facilitated by Jacquie Hamp, Senior Director, Leadership Development & Susan Gabriel, Director, Senior Leader and Management Development Programs, GII.
Leverage Buying Strategies
Goodwill members employ several leverage buying models to reduce the cost of commodities and services to ultimately drive more money into mission and growth. The national agreements offered through GII’s Purchasing Partnership Program (Sprint, Cintas, Mood Media, Penske, etc. ), the pricing contracts developed by regional associations such as MAGIC, and the cooperative buys facilitated by individual Goodwill Members on behalf of other Members, are examples of the leverage buying models used throughout Goodwill. This cohort will discuss the operational challenges and best practices of each approach and brainstorm commodities and services that would work best in each. The cohort will begin developing a new national cooperative buying framework, which, if agreed upon, will be used to purchase retail bags, hangers, tagging supplies, etc. The cohort will also explore the participant’s key purchasing learning objectives. This cohort is perfect for the finance and purchasing professionals who have maximized the savings that they are able to negotiate on their own and are looking for ways to secure additional savings (through leverage buying) to help finance mission and growth. Facilitated by Tina C. Ozturk, Business Development Manager, GII.
Sustainability Across the Goodwill Enterprise
The Goodwill Sustainability Program has built on Goodwill’s value of environmental stewardship and positioned us to take a leading role among nonprofit organizations in applying the principles of sustainable operations and design. Over the course of three sessions, take a deeper dive into the concept of sustainability and how it could apply to the various aspects of your Goodwill's daily operations. In the process, you will learn what is being done across the Enterprise to support the Triple Bottom line (People, Planet, Profit). Through innovative initiatives Goodwill continues to provide opportunities for our stakeholders in support of the environment, revenue generation and those we serve! How can we infuse sustainability throughout Goodwill? How can Goodwill be profitable, do mission and have a positive impact on the environment? How can you implement sustainable practices at your Goodwill even if this is not within your job description or core competency? Facilitated by Susanne Fredericks, Sustainability Specialist, GII.
