YOUR SAY: The truth about Goodwill is easy to find

Winston Churchill famously said, "A lie can travel halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on."

Or maybe it was Mark Twain who said, "A lie will go 'round the world while truth is pulling its boots on."

Actually, it was C.H. Spurgeon who said it in 1859, says researcher Fred Shapiro in "The Yale Book of Quotations." An earlier version of the quote says, "Falsehood will fly from Maine to Georgia, while truth is pulling her boots on." The earliest reference, Shapiro says, is to a quote from Jonathan Swift from 1710: "Falsehood flies, and the truth comes limping after it."

How do we know all this? A search of the Internet finds Shapiro's work, among others, in .39 seconds.

That blindingly fast result is a tremendous contrast to the world of 1710. In his day, Swift would have hunted for literary references at a brick-and-mortar library. It's not much different than how we would have conducted research in high school or college until recently. It would have required a visit to the library and a tedious card catalog search, and then a hunt through the stacks in hopes that the book was on the shelf and would have the information needed. If not? Back to the cards.

Fast-forward a couple of decades, and searching for information is now absurdly simple. We've even coined a verb for the task: "Googling."

You might think such ease of access would slow the spread of falsehoods. Sadly, lies now spread infinitely faster than in Swift's day, even though the truth is easier to find than at any point in our planet's history.

It's an especially sore subject for many nonprofits because of an absurd message that circulates through social media this time of year. This brainless infographic, ironically labeled "Think before you donate," spreads pure nonsense about executive compensation of national nonprofits and funding for the missions of those agencies.

As an example, it says Goodwill is "owned" by a man named Mark Curran who makes $2.3 million a year, with no revenue going to its mission.

The truth? Goodwill is made up of 185 autonomous nonprofit affiliates, worldwide, each governed by an independent, volunteer board of directors. It has no "owner," and no one named Mark Curran has ever been associated with Goodwill.

Thankfully, blogger Rachael Mercer helped correct the record on this piece in her recent guest column in the Telegraph, "Saving Centsably: Why I sometimes don't 'round up'." Unfortunately, she or The Telegraph's editors skipped a logical step when publishing her piece for Macon-area readers.

Goodwill retail training stores throughout Middle Georgia, including those in Macon, don't ask customers to "round up" their purchase price to the nearest dollar.

If Mercer had looked a little deeper, she also might have discovered that autonomous Goodwill organizations use their revenues — including those collected through purchases and donations at the cash register — to fund job training and education services each year for millions of individuals across the country.

That's how Goodwill Industries of Middle Georgia provided career services last year to more than 25,000 people: by spending more than 86 cents of every dollar in revenue on our mission.

All of this information is easy to find, just as Mercer quickly discovered the untruths behind the "Think before you donate" meme. Our website is a good place to start: www.goodwillworks.org/donationfacts. We're also happy to arrange a tour of our campus for anyone, including Mercer, who would like to learn more about Goodwill's life-changing mission and the services we provide to the community as good stewards of donated clothing, furniture, household goods, money and vehicles.

We urge everyone to think before donating to any organization. We're confident that when you do, you'll generously donate to Goodwill.

David Becker is chief operating officer of Goodwill Industries of Middle Georgia.

This story was originally published December 17, 2015 at 9:03 PM with the headline "YOUR SAY: The truth about Goodwill is easy to find ."