Social Service/Public Welfare/Human Services

At a time when many Central Texas nonprofits are shrinking or struggling to tread water, Goodwill Industries of Central Texas is booming. Since 2002 , revenue has more than doubled from $25.4 million to $52.7 million. The number of people being placed in jobs has more than tripled. Goodwill has expanded beyond its traditional thrift store model and started new money-making ventures such as a staffing company, a computer store and an online book sales enterprise.

UPS announced grants totaling $7 million to more than 80 nonprofit organizations whose mission is to support diverse populations. These grants will fund programs that develop leadership skills, promote education and encourage inclusion of all individuals.

Organizations receiving grants include the Human Rights Campaign, National Council of La Raza, National Urban League, NAACP, Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, Paralyzed Veterans of America, National Federation of the Blind, and Girls Inc.

Clover, the small business Web design platform, announced its partnership with Homegirl Café, the award-winning, Los Angeles-based eatery, a division of the nonprofit Homeboy Industries, employing formerly incarcerated and gang-affiliated men and women  to launch the restaurant’s first stand-alone, professional marketing website. In addition providing the new turnkey website at www.homegirlcafe.org, Clover also made a $1,000 donation to the organization.

Francisco and Pam Cruz will become first-time homeowners, helped by one of many nonprofit groups that can snag foreclosures at a discount - sometimes free - before banks make them available to speculators.

Rebuilding Together obtained the home for free from JPMorgan Chase & Co., the bank that foreclosed on its previous owner.

In a market hot with speculators snapping up cheap foreclosures, Rebuilding Together's program is one of many that give a leg up to nonprofits and redevelopment agencies trying to stabilize neighborhoods dotted with vacant houses.

Donors to The Salvation Army can double their donated dollars to the charity during this holiday season. The Salvation Army announced Tuesday that three anonymous donors have offered to match all donations up to $300,000 given to the charity's red kettles in the Chicago area through Friday. A fourth anonymous donor has offered to match gold coins found in the kettles up to 100 coins.

AFP CEO Paulette Maehara shares her thoughts on Convio's positive 2010 Holiday Giving Survey findings.

In the spirit of holiday giving, Little Cupcake Bakeshop has teamed up with charity:water — a nonprofit organization dedicated to bringing clean, safe drinking water to people in developing nations — to launch “Jingle Wells” holiday campaign with the aim to raise money to fund clean water projects such as building water wells

Collaboration is a catalyst for nonprofit growth and improvement. And the newly formed Catalyst Fund for Nonprofits was created to help foster that collaboration.

mGive announced that it is powering the mobile donation industry’s first $25 text donation campaign launched by the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ). Through this campaign, individuals can text LIFE to 50555 to donate $25 to the ACLJ, an organization dedicated to protecting freedom, life, and religious liberties in the United States and internationally.

Now Mr. Breslin, the head of Water for People, a global water and sanitation group in Denver, is trying to do something to reverse the track record of failure. His group is seeking to rewire its relationship with donors by sharing information on failures as well as successes, developing technology that provides real-time information on the status of projects, and persuading philanthropists to pay less attention to simple measures like how many people have been reached by a project and more on whether it will still work a decade from now.