Honoring OUR 10 Years of Exploration and Discovery!

Move over, Columbus! Today, as we honor the explorer and discoverer in all of us, we celebrate 10 years of discovering new ways to bring awareness to the need for warm coats and make it easy to donate a coat to someone in need. Over the years, countless friends have shared the best parts of themselves - their creativity, skills and dedication to helping others - with us. With you, One Warm Coat has grown from a one-location coat drive in San Francisco to a national network of thousands of drives each year! And in this 10th year, we are on pace to collect and distribute our 3 millionth coat! Thank you all for joining us on this journey. We were recently asked what the next 10 years will hold. Our answer? Infinite possibilities! C'mon along! Who knows what we'll discover together?

Refresh-ing! Check Out Our New Website!

The One Warm Coat website has a fresh, new look and all the conveniences of a "home" designed to help YOU find what you need! Our architects helped make it even easier to get started with your coat drive, register your agency, find news about our terrific sponsors or read a feature story about a caring supporter. (We even refreshed our Tools and Resources.) Why not stop in for a visit today - and bring a friend!

Stay in Touch!

Announcing a One Warm Coat special summertime project! New COO (Chief Operating Officer) Doug Selee & his team are putting the final touches on their "Stay in Touch" plan to reach out to ALL our Agency friends this summer. Through fun, informative group activities like special calls and webinars, they hope to "meet" you and learn how we can serve you better! Watch your inbox for messages from Doug  - and then Stay in Touch with us!

Appreciate Your Team With a One Warm Coat Certificate!

You and your team put the "drive" in coat drive! Have you gotten your Certificates of Appreciation this year? (Have you requested additional certificates for key members of your coat drive team?) If not, click Share Your Success and complete our short request form. One Warm Coat team member Larinda will happily create this special thank you for contributing your time, energy and organizing power in the collection and distribution of warm coats this year - and send it with our heartfelt appreciation for all you do.

On My Way - To GMA!

"I'm leavin' on a jet plane..." to New York today to join Robin, George, Juju, Sam and the team on Good Morning America tomorrow! Tune in for a special One Warm Coat message – and thanks for making this year’s Warm Coats & Warm Hearts campaign truly phenomenal! We cherish our wonderful sponsors and partners!

Warmest Wishes...

Warmest wishes to you from One Warm Coat.

A Light to Brighten the Winter Darkness

Today, we recall the first day of Winter in 2006, the day that One Warm Coat was recognized as a Daily Point of Light. The Points of Light Foundation, established in 1990, honored us as a "...great example of how a single citizen, and eventually a group of citizens, can make a positive difference; that our communities are enriched by programs such as these." We honor our founder Lois Pavlow and all of YOU who continue to keep the light shining through the winter darkness year after year.

I Left My Coat...In San Francisco!

Girl Scouts from 30 area troops joined volunteers and the One Warm Coat team on the day after Thanksgiving for the annual kick-off to the San Francisco Bay Area coat drive. This "flagship" coat drive featured multiple drop-off locations, including The Ferry Building in San Francisco, BayStreet shopping center in Emeryville, Broadway Plaza in Walnut Creek, and Santana Row in San Jose.
Thanks to the generosity of thousands of Bay Area friends - and day-long coverage from KTVU Channel 2 TV  - WE COLLECTED  ALMOST 4,000 COATS! With such dedicated supporters, it's no wonder someone wrote, "I left my heart.." about this great city and its people.  (And the drive goes on! To find your area's drop-off location, check our "Donate A Coat" map.)

Serving Two Ways!

The US Air Force Expeditionary Center has joined forces with us to hold coat drives in 3 locations! The team at the Center develop and deliver training courses for over 6,500 US Air Force members each year. This year, they’re collecting coats on behalf of the Family Crisis Center. We honor the role they play in our nation’s security and salute their extra support of their home communities!

Feeling very sassy!

Living in San Francisco has lots of benefits!  This year I've been able to attend three major conferences because there were no travel costs involved. 

This week I am attending dreamforce -- the annual Salesforce "conference".  I put the word conference in quotes because this is really a HAPPENING!  Close to 18,000 people (most with a techie mindset), learning sessions that are jam packed, cloud bean bag pillows scattered along the halls, a "campground" that is full of vendors, experts and gee-whiz tools.  My mind is "in the cloud" as I try to come away from this with at least one new idea for how the Salesforce platform can help us even more. 

BTW we receive our Salesforce product as a donation from the Salesforce Foundation.  This is an in-kind donation worth up to $10,000 to non-profit organizations -- for which over 7,000 non-profits have taken advantage of this very generous donation.

Got to have a fun photo taken of me with "SasSe" (Sassy!) -- the "no software" character --

The power of Craigslist!

I didn't have any time to "blog" this week as we were reviewing over 300 responses to our Craigslist posting for a Part-Time, Seasonal "administrator".  I've used Craigslist in the past to look over resumes that people have posted -- and found two fantastic support folks,  Beth Lipski and Larinda Ives.  I decided to be "proactive" this time and list the type of person we were looking for.

Posted the listing Saturday afternoon and by Sunday morning I was already swamped.  Monday turned into a scene from "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" where Mickey Mouse kept trying to keep up with the water buckets!  Deleted the posting Monday afternoon as it became apparent that there was LOTS of talented people looking for this type of job.

To the many people who responsed, I am sorry that we are not able to get back to each of you individually.  At this time of the year, we need to be totally focused on organizing coat drives, matching stores and sites with agencies, reaching out to learn about agencies who can distribute coats, etc. 

We are so pleased to welcome Maureen Murphy as "Agency Coordinator" to our team.  Maureen is a Domestic Engineer (yes, she had that listing on her resume -- I loved it!) in the Bay Area with an MBA from Clemson University. 

Stay tuned for news on our activites -- we have some amazing partners coming up in the new few months.