About Goods Bank NEO
GBNEO is a nonprofit providing surplus goods to community organizations, to enrich the lives of those they serve, while reducing waste and protecting the environment.
Picture a community where everyone has what they need to thrive.
No one has to make impossible choices between essentials like hygiene products, clean clothes, reading glasses, a bed to sleep in, or shoes that fit their growing children.
Envision nonprofits empowered to focus fully on their mission.
Organizations can access items they need to operate without sacrificing resources meant to directly serve the people who depend on them.
Consider the possibilities when surplus turns into opportunity.
Companies can easily redirect new, quality products from landfills to nonprofits, ensuring these goods reach those who need them most.
At Goods Bank NEO, we see this community — and we’re working to make it happen.
By connecting nonprofits, schools, and faith-based organizations with essential goods, we help those who help others, building stronger communities where everyone has the chance to thrive.
Goods Bank NEO helps bridge the gap between those able to give and those in need of support.
For the community
We enable the community to thrive, be more resilient and help ensure no one is left behind.
For the people
We enable people in need to receive new household goods and basic necessities so they can worry less about simply surviving day-to-day and build hope for their families’ futures.
Sustaining the environment
We enable companies to donate new and overstock goods that otherwise would be scrapped as waste and destined for a landfill.
Supporting nonprofits
We enable nonprofits, schools and faith-based organizations to access at a nominal handling fee the new, quality goods companies donate.
The Story of Goods Bank NEO
In 2020, the national poverty rate stood at 11.4%—but in the City of Cleveland, it reached an alarming 30.8%, the second highest rate of poverty in any American city.
Recognizing this harsh reality and understanding the myriad of challenges faced by nonprofits tackling this problem, our founder, Judy Immerman Payne, was driven to find a way to help by making it easier for changemakers to get tangible resources – goods.
During her search for organizations with a similar mission, Judy discovered Good360, a national nonprofit with a 40-year history of redirecting returned and overstocked products from landfills to other nonprofits. While any nonprofit could join Good360, only a select group of Community Redistribution Partners (CRPs)—79 at the time—were authorized to distribute products to other organizations to amplify community impact.
Hoping to bring this powerful model to Cleveland, Judy met with several nonprofits to explore whether they would take on the role of establishing a CRP in the region. When none stepped forward, she decided to create one herself—and thus, Goods Bank NEO was born.
Drawing upon her experience as co-founder and executive director of the Cleveland Kids’ Book Bank, Judy knew what it would take to launch and lead a nonprofit from the ground up. She devoted herself to every detail—from governance and operations to marketing, outreach, and staffing—building the foundation required to become an official Distribution Partner of Good360.
In the summer of 2021, Judy reached out to Scott Garson, a longtime friend and expert in Cleveland’s commercial real estate market, to help find a facility for the new organization. Inspired by the mission, Scott joined the effort. A year later, after months of planning and preparation, Judy and Scott secured the keys to the warehouse that would become the organization’s home.
With Judy serving as Executive Director and Scott as Founding Board Chair, Goods Bank NEO opened its doors in September 2022 at its current location on Bittern Avenue—ready to stretch the impact of community organizations, schools and faith groups across the region.
Meet Our Team
FOUNDER
Judy Payne
BOARD
Scott Garson, Founding Board Chair, community leader and retired commercial realtor
Josh Mayers, Treasurer, Senior Vice President, KeyBank Real Estate Capital
Cory Cottrill, Manager, Technical Solutions, Swagelok
Sally Ingberg, Principal Consultant, Forming Bridges, LLC
Kathryn Kramer-Gaydos, Partner, Benesch Friedlander Coplan & Arnoff LLP
Barbara Langhenry, retired Law Director, City of Cleveland
Carolina Masri, former Executive Director, MedWish International
Eileen Saffran, Founder and former CEO, The Gathering Place and Founder and CEO of MTNStrategies
Shanice Settle, Director, Content & Communications, The NRP Group
Meg Slifcak, retired Director of Real Estate Solutions – Ohio, IFF
STAFF
Michelle Walsh, Executive Director
Andrew Bidwell, Operations Director
Khayree Davis, Engagement Coordinator
Paulette Chambers, Warehouse Associate