This year, Good360 marks a milestone decades in the making — our 40th anniversary.
That’s 40 years of getting the right goods to the right people at the right time. Forty years of partnering with corporate donors to get needed products directly into the hands of people and communities in need. Forty years of diverting inventory from landfills and helping companies to meet their sustainability goals while contributing to the circular economy.
Along the way, Good360 has touched millions of lives and distributed nearly $17B in product—that’s billions, not millions. In fact, in 2022 alone, we sourced and distributed more than $2.5 billion worth of donated goods.
As we look back on the most notable events in our history, we are reminded that reaching this milestone wouldn’t be possible without our corporate donors, nonprofit members nor the incredible partnerships we’ve been able to forge through the decades.
1983: Good360 is born as a nonprofit called Gifts In Kind International. It begins when 3M Corporation seeks to donate $12 million worth of office equipment to the United Way. Lacking the resources to handle such a large gift, the United Way establishes a new organization to distribute donated goods from companies to qualified nonprofits. In its first year, Good360 distributes $17 million in product ($52 million in 2023 dollars).
1987: Good360 makes its first major infrastructure investment by creating 10 regional warehouses to process and ship products to its growing network of nonprofit organizations. Prior to that, distribution had been handled by United Way locations.
1992: Good360 establishes the Retail Match Program to enable nonprofit organizations to partner with national retailers and pick up donations directly from local stores and warehouse locations. CVS, Advance Auto Parts, and Amazon are among the brands currently participating in this program, which allows nonprofits to establish relationships with donors in their area.
1995: It’s an eventful year as we work with FEMA and other organizations to respond to a number of large wildfires in California, the second busiest hurricane season in recorded history at that point, and the tragic Oklahoma City bombing. Disaster recovery continues to be a big part of the Good360 mission, with more than $115 million worth of donated product to help close the need gap for people impacted by more than 20 major catastrophes in 2022.
2000: The total value of donations sourced and distributed by Good360 since the organization’s founding reaches $2 billion. At this point, more than 500 of the world’s leading companies are working with Good360 in their corporate giving programs.
2011: Good360 launches its online donations catalog, making an early investment in e-commerce technology that continues to this day. The catalog allows our nonprofit members to request donations by the pallet or the carton, and have products in a number of different categories shipped directly to their door.
2015: Good360 and the NFL announce a unique collaboration to distribute unused apparel items from the AFC and NFC Championship games and the Super Bowl. This high-profile partnership has continued every year since, with thousands of hats, hoodies, and t-shirts distributed annually to people in need outside of the U.S.
2019: With the launch of its Community Redistribution Partners (CRP) program, Good360 creates a new model for distributing product donations at scale by partnering with nonprofits strategically located around the country. These nonprofits generally have large warehouse facilities and the ability to process large quantities of goods, vastly increasing our reach and impact nationwide.
2020: The COVID-19 pandemic creates unprecedented levels of need in communities all across America, prompting Good360 to activate its giving network like never before. By the end of this fateful year, Good360 reaches a major milestone: $1 billion in donated goods distributed in a single year for the first time in its history.
Among the many pandemic-related partnerships and initiatives in 2020, Good360 teams up with longtime partner, Nike, to distribute 30,000 pairs of the Nike Air Zoom Pulse, a shoe developed specifically with healthcare workers in mind. The shoes were distributed through Good360 to health systems and hospitals in Chicago, Los Angeles, Memphis and New York City, in addition to the Veterans Health Administration.
2021: Good360 partners with USA for UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, to improve the lives of refugees and displaced people around the world by distributing clothing. For the first initiative, the agency provides four million clothing items from Gap Inc. to restore dignity and hope to families and individuals experiencing the devastating effects of displacement in Burkina Faso.
2022: For the first time in the organization’s history, Good360 distributes more than $2.5 billion in essential items to people in need, the highest amount in any given calendar year.
2023: Good360 continues to grow its impact, breaking previous records for the amount of goods distributed. This year, we expect to cross the $3 billion mark for the first time.
Together with our corporate donors and nonprofits partners, Good360 has exponentially grown its impact across the country and the world. We have made good on our mission of closing the need gap for millions of people while opening up more opportunities for all.
Yet, as much as we arrive at this juncture with a sense of pride in our accomplishments, we also feel a sense of urgency to do even more as extreme weather events become common, violent conflicts fuel an already historic global refugee crisis, and persistent poverty and social injustice continue to affect communities across our country. We look forward to another 40 years of developing creative and impactful solutions in an increasingly complicated world.
