Goodwill Southern Rivers

Legal name: Goodwill Ind of the Southern Rivers Inc

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
586035822
IRS 990 coverage
2010–2025
Official website data refreshed
Sep 2026
Forms available
Form 990 2025, Form 990-T 2020
Location
Columbus, GA, United States
Phone
(866) 325-8265
Rating
88
Verdict
STRONG
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Goodwill Industries

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$45,317,200
Expenses
$44,032,885
Assets
$78,582,694
Liabilities
$34,994,513

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

28 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • HENRY WARDEN (President & CEO)

Highest reported compensation

  • HENRY WARDEN (President & CEO): $475,661 total reported compensation
  • JOEL GROSSMAN (VP OF OPERATIONS): $286,038 total reported compensation
  • TERRY REIS (VP OF FINANCE AND IT): $268,493 total reported compensation

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

Goodwill is a life-changing social enterprise that transforms lives and strengthens families and communities by using proceeds from donations to provide training, career resources and job connections that result in meaningful, sustainable employment for individuals who have struggled with unemployment or under-employment.

What it reported doing in 2025

During 2025, mission services aided 36,403 individuals and made 6,090 jobconnections. The organization assisted individuals with disabilities and other disadvantages through a host of services located in goodwillsr career centers and training facilities including: work evaluation, work adjustment, supported employment, work experience, custodial training and certification, retail training and certification, summer enrichment, ged preparation and test funding, english language learner classes, in-school supports, community vouchers, post-secondary educational supports, restaurant food service training and certification, and returning citizens training. All programs and services are provided at no cost to the client through a combination of funders and grants. Responding to an increasing hispanic population in the territory, the goodwillsr hispanic services program offers free services based on the unique challenges of the hispanic community, with bilingual career centers located in columbus, newnan, and valdosta, Georgia. Hispanic services aided 2,888 clients in 2025. Programs include bilingual workshops, job fairs, and english as a second language (esl) classes. The program also engages partnerships with local agencies, school districts, and organizations to reach the hispanic community. The hispanic youth program for employment (hype) encourages high school-aged students to finish school while preparing them for the workforce. The goal of hype is to help decrease the number of hispanic students dropping out of high school, which is higher than any other racial or ethnic group nationwide. In 2010, goodwillsr began offering free tax preparation services for families and individuals who met certain income requirements through an IRS sponsored grant called volunteer income tax assistance, or vita. In 2025, goodwillsr served 7,813 clients, resulting in refunds that surpassed $6.3 million. To learn more about goodwillsr's accomplishments, please visit us at www.goodwillsr.org.

Operating model

Revenue model
Earned-program. 63% of the money available for current operations came from fees and other program revenue.
Distribution model
Cannot be determined from the filing. The program-spending lines do not add up, so the filing cannot show reliably whether the nonprofit works directly or through others.

The verdict

STRONG - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Expenses are high relative to revenue and total assets are small relative to annual expenses; liquid coverage is unknown.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 88
  • Transparency & Controls: 87
  • Accountability: 100
  • Sustainability: 41
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 100%; rating input score 100
  • Program expense ratio: 97.2%; rating input score 97
  • Fundraising efficiency: Limited

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: 4 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 67
    • Compensation committee: Pass
    • Independent consultant: Pass
    • Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
    • Written employment contract: Missing
    • Compensation survey or study: Pass
    • Board or committee approval: Pass
  • Foreign activity oversight: Limited
  • Grant itemization coverage: 100%; rating input score 100; 76th percentile among comparable filings
  • Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
  • Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 9 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 100
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Pass
    • Document-retention policy: Pass
    • CEO compensation review process: Pass
    • Other executive compensation review process: Pass
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Pass
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Pass

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 2.8%; rating input score 36; 36th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.78; rating input score 48; 48th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.45; rating input score 29; 29th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 5.4%; rating input score 55; 55th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 8.2% per year; rating input score 100; 58th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 8.9% per year; rating input score 100; 68th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 13.3% per year; rating input score 100; 78th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • What they do: 10 programs and campaigns described on the official site · 1 operating location identified
  • Where the money goes: 100% of revenue deployed · 97.2% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 17 of 17 board members independent · 9 of 9 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 2 filed program accomplishments · $42.8M in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $476K · 28 people listed · 4 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
  • Highest-paid contractors: 1 contractor listed · $182K reported
  • Consistency: 33 of 33 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 8 filed schedules · includes major donors, grants, and executive pay
  • Filing history: 16 filing years from 2010 to 2025
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 11 filed money-flow records
  • Related organizations: 1 filed related-organization link
  • Grant readiness: Federal tax and exclusion status, award history, and grant-maker relationships.
  • People: Everyone the filings name, and which of them the filings identify by more than a name.
  • Staff and benefit plans: Retirement and health plans the organization files with the Department of Labor, and the people in them.

Key Signals

Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.

  • Moderate — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 36/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 48/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 29/100.
  • Review — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 55/100.