Ambassadors

Nearly 4,000 children, adults, companies, groups and organizations held a coat drive this past winter! One Warm Coat’s Ambassadors amaze us every year with their creativity and goodwill.  Every coat drive is different and special, but the end result is the same: warm coats are provided to your neighbors who need them the most.  Here are some highlights from each type of coat drive with just a few of the incredible stories that you have shared with us.

Nonprofit and Faith-Based drives accounted for 8% of all coat drives this year.

The Orinda Association’s (OA) third annual coat drive, held Nov. 1- Dec. 14 concluded with 374 coats donated. Ambassador Kate told us, “we love this project!” “This was an amazing year. The generosity of our local residents and our partnerships with Sleepy Hollow School and Orinda Rotary resulted in this sizable jump from last year’s 165 donated coats,” said OA member and OWC Ambassador Kate. One of the biggest local supporters to OA’s drive was Sleepy Hollow Elementary School, which asked families to donate new or gently used child-size coats in bins outside the school office. Fifteen fourth and fifth grade student council volunteers at Sleepy Hollow, helped sort, count and bundle coats. “The kids really took the job seriously,” says OA staff member Cathy G. “They were very focused on the task and understood who the recipients would be.” Coats garnered from this community-wide effort went to White Pony Express, and some were distributed to Camp Fire victims and residents of Contra Costa County in need.”

School drives accounted for 11% of all coat drives this year.

Students from St. Finn Barr School held their 6th annual coat drive as part of a yearly service project to spread warmth in their community. They told us, “because of our school community’s generosity, we were able to give warmth to homeless families in San Francisco. This year we collected 154 coats and winter accessories that were given to the St. Anthony Foundation to distribute.”

Youth Led drives accounted for 6% of all coat drives this year.

Ten-year-old Gabriel organized his third annual coat drive this year as part of his Team Life Changer initiative, looking to provide warmth and hope to his neighbors in need. Gabe’s slogan is, “one coat changes one life” and he has changed thousands during the last three years. This year, he had 7 drop-off locations around New York City, collecting 378 coats and $830! Gabe said, “This was our biggest year yet. We got more than the last two years combined. It was so fun delivering the coats and working with the great volunteers at New York Cares. I love helping to give warmth to people in need.”

Individual drives accounted for 11% of all coat drives this year.

In February 2018, 90 year-old Charlotte Goldberg passed away. The beloved mother, grandmother and great-mother hated to see anyone cold and spent many years reminding her family to bundle-up before heading outside in the winter. With this sentiment in mind, Charlotte’s family asked for donations to be made to One Warm Coat in her memory. In addition to the many donations One Warm Coat received, Charlotte’s daughter Randy decided to extend her legacy by hosting “Nana Charlotte’s Coat Drive” this past fall/winter. Randy told us, “The outpouring of support for Nana Charlotte’s Coat Drive was beyond anything I could have imagined. I was so touched by the courage so many shared when they told me that this drive prompted them to donate coats from loved ones who were no longer with them. Each coat had a story and I am certain that the people receiving them felt the warmth of everyone’s beloved. Many, many of those beautiful coats were handmade, with extra loving care, which I’m sure meant so much to the recipients.” Randy continued, “The generosity of so many did not go unnoticed. I think that when my Mom told me to wear a coat, she was expressing love in so many ways. Now, we as a community have helped share her love with almost 13,000 people! I know she would have been thrilled and I am so overwhelmed by the magnitude of my mom’s impact.”

Community Group drives accounted for 7% of all coat drives this year.

The Parque Zaragoza Neighborhood Association held a coat drive in East Austin Texas from January – February to provide new or like-new coats, gloves, scarfs and hats during Austin’s winter months to youth and adult homeless shelters, women and children’s domestic abuse safe houses and/or anyone in need. They said, “Together, our East Austin community can spread warmth to our most vulnerable members in need. Let’s ensure that everyone in our community is healthy and warm.” The PZNA had three drop-off locations around East Austin and collected 209 coats! Their coats were delivered to SAFE Alliance, Casa Marianella and Posada Esperanza shelters.

Business drives accounted for 24% of all coat drives this year.

LaFauci Tile held a coat drive for the month of December to give back to their local community and make sure that no man, woman or child goes cold this winter. They said, “New England Winters can be brutal especially without proper attire. We plan on trying to collect enough winter clothing to donate back to local shelters in efforts to help those less fortunate this winter season. Any customer donating will receive a 10% discount off their current purchase.” At the end of their drive, they had collected 320 warm coats, plus sweaters, scarves and hats – they needed to use a truck to deliver all of the generous donations they received! They told us that they had a great time dropping the coats off at a local community center.

Impact

You changed lives for the better this year.  Thank you for every coat and dollar donation that provided much needed warmth across the country. 

Our Coat Drive program would not be possible without you, of course – or without our nonprofit partners.  We have more than 1,000 nonprofit partners across the US who distribute the coats our Ambassadors collect. We are so grateful for their partnership and the amazing work they are doing in their communities.  Below you’ll find testimonials from three of those partners and the impact One Warm Coat Ambassadors have on those they serve…

The Marcus E & Sharon B. Gunter Foundation, Inc. – Cumming, GA

This was the first year we received coats from One Warm Coat to help support our mission.

We received just under 400 coats from four drives. Feeling an urgency to place these items into the hands that needed this help, we contacted two local elementary schools and one middle school and with the coordination of the social workers and counselors, we placed items for all the children. We also distributed coats during our Food 4 The Hungry event and delivered coats to two local shelters and families that had reached out for emergency food deliveries.

Nearly 400 people in Forsyth County, GA who really needed coats this winter, received one! To add to the blessing, we have a variety of coats to store as a start for the 2019/2020 winter distribution. It truly is more blessed to give than receive!

Thank you to all the partners, schools and individuals who made this possible.”

The Ruth M.Kirk Learning and Recreational Center – Baltimore, MD

“The Ruth M. Kirk Learning and Recreational Center signed up to partner with One Warm Coat and it wasn’t long after that we started getting calls from people and businesses that had coat drives and wanted to donate coats.

One Warm Coat has been instrumental in making all those connections, they even reached out in our desperate time of need and found a donor who donated $500 worth of coats, at the same time we were having our Food Drive!

The Ruth M. Kirk Learning and Recreational Center is a non profit that helps families and children with the essentials for everyday life in Baltimore, Maryland.” 

St. Vincent de Paul – Seattle, WA

“We are very grateful for the support and broad awareness One Warm Coat drives provide for us on a continuous basis.

We receive email and email and phone call after phone call from businesses and families wanting to donate coats. We really appreciate that because we give hundreds of coats away to homeless neighbors who come to our Georgetown Food Bank in South Seattle. We need and appreciate your support!

The coats shown in the photo were donated to us through Bertschi School in Seattle.” 

Listen first-hand to the impact that giving and receiving a coat had on people last winter.

Financial Highlights

Summary of Donations:

In-Kind: Value of Gently Worn Coats$1,330,863
In-Kind: Value of New Coats & Outerwear$305,107
Cash: Sponsorships$26,452
Cash: Contributions$346,338
Total Value of Donated Coats and Contributions: $2,008,760  

Summary of Expenses:

Program: In-Kind Coats & Outerwear$2,031,701
Fundraising$91,006
Administrative$36,185
Total Value of Coats Distributed and Costs:$2,158,892 

Sponsors

We are so grateful to our sponsors who help make our Coat Drive Program possible!

In-Kind Donations

Five companies and one individual donor provided in-kind donations to One Warm Coat this winter, giving the gift of warmth to more than two thousand people. Thank you to these generous donors!

UNRL
PBS

Spyder
Leather Gloves Online

U.S. Soccer Federation
Lisa Salecker-Lisiecki

SmileFaith – KY

One Warm Coat’s nonprofit partner, SmileFaith, located in KY, was the recipient of a coat donation from UNRL this year. “We are so grateful for the donation of new coats. To date, we have distributed 138 coats throughout our community to various groups and centers. The last 200 coats will be saved to hand out at our annual community Christmas Outreach. At the Christmas Outreach we have been short on coats every year and have not been able to provide new coats for all of the families until your generous donation arrived. We usually have 300+ people in attendance at this event.

My two young sons, aged 3 and 5, as well as my 4-year-old nephew, (shown in the second picture) are shown helping distribute the coat because they wanted ‘to help be a part of keeping our community warm’. It melted my heart that they were so excited to help. Thank you so much to One Warm Coat and UNRL for all that you do.”