Thank you for your interest in the Coat Drive Program!
The need for coats is great, but thanks to thousands of volunteer Coat Drive Organizers who hold coat drives each year, more than half a million children and adults receive free coats each winter through One Warm Coat’s program.
When you register to become a Coat Drive Organizer, you receive:
- A custom coat drive webpage to help promote your drive, track your coat goals, and accept financial donations
- A link to helpful tools and resources to ensure a successful drive
- Access to more than 1,500 nonprofit partners across the United States, so you can find a local agency that will distribute the coats you collect to people in your community
Table of Contents
- 3 Easy Steps to Success!
- Coat Drive Page Login
- Coat Drive Information Kit
- Coat Drive Page Guide
Three Easy Steps To Success!
Follow the 3 easy steps below to make planning and holding your coat drive a breeze!
Already know where you’re headed? Jump to Step 1, Step 2, or Step 3
Here’s how the Coat Drive Program works:
You pick the dates and register to hold a coat drive.
You collect coats and financial donations.
You deliver the coats to a local nonprofit organization.
(They will distribute them to people in need!)
Step 1 – Plan & Register
You’ll need to do a small amount of planning before registering your coat drive.
Start by choosing the dates of your coat drive and the location (or locations) of your collection sites:
Choose Your Dates
A coat drive can last for any amount of time and can be held anytime of year. Most coat drives are held in the fall and winter months. However, our nonprofit partners love to receive coats BEFORE the cold weather sets in, so holding a drive in the summer and early fall months is also great!
Many people organize coat drives around special events/milestones, some even ask for coat donations in lieu of gifts. Here are just some of the reasons our Organizers have held a drive:
Anniversary
Back to School
Bar Mitzvah
Bat Mitzvah
Birthday
Block Party
Book Club
Casual Friday
Corporate Event
Conferences
Confirmation
Corporate Challenge
Fall Festival/Trunk-or-Treat Events
Graduation
Grand Opening
Holidays
In Memory of
In Honor of
In-Store Sale
Local Event
MLK Day of Service
Mother’s Day Fathers Day
Scout Activity
Service Project
Spring Cleaning
Choose Your Location(s)
Choose where your coat drive will take place and how many drop-off locations you will have. Many Ambassadors have coats dropped off at their homes, at their school or at their place of employment. Some local businesses or local government offices may also allow you to set up a drop-off location. During registration, you can add up to 5 locations to be added to the map. If you want to register more than five locations, please click here to connect with OWC staff.
Next, decide if the Coat Drive Map is right for you!
All coat drives (except for internal employee-only drives) have the option to be listed on the Coat Drive Map. This map is the most popular page on our website and allows the general public to find your coat drive. The coat drive will only appear on the map during the dates you set during registration, and it will display the address of the coat drive as well as the contact email and contact phone number (if provided). Check out the map!
5 Location Maximum! When registering, Organizers are able to add up to 5 collection sites to the map with one registration. If you have more than 5 locations, please contact us before registering.
Register Now!
Step 2 – Promote & Collect
One Warm Coat provides many free tools and resources to help you promote your coat drive!
Custom Coat Drive Webpage:
All coat drive organizers receive a receive a custom coat drive webpage, for:
- Promoting your drive: Tell people how and where they can donate, then share the link through email, social media and a QR code
- Tracking coat donations: Keep track of all of the coats you receive throughout your drive and see your progress toward your goal in real time on your homepage.
- Tracking monetary donations: Monetary donations to your coat drive will display in real time and update your goal tracker. (Please note, any funds raised stay with One Warm Coat and support the Coat Drive Program.)
- Sharing pictures and updates: Update the display and profile images on the page to reflect your drive and share updates and pictures throughout the drive.
Check out the free resources!
Among the many free tools provided to registered organizers, includes: coat collection bin ideas, graphics, posters, press releases, stickers and tools specifically for students & youth!
Free Resources
Let’s get social
Like/Follow One Warm Coat on Facebook, X, Instagram, LinkedIn and TikTok and tag us (@onewarmcoat) in your pictures and videos using #sharewarmth or #sharingwarmth – we love to see coat drives in action!
Step 3 – Sort & Deliver
Your Coat Drive Is Over – Now what?
Count Your Coats
If you didn’t update the coat tracker on your coat drive webpage during your drive, please do so before you donate your coats. From the top bar of your coat drive webpage, click “Coat Totals” to report how many coats you collected.
Sort Your Coats
Sort the coats to make sure they are freshly laundered, clean and wearable. Use the Delivery Tags provided to help you organize the coats. Consider adding pocket notes to spread extra love. Any coats that are not wearable and cannot be donated can be recycled! Google “textile recycling” near you, many of our partners offer it.
Deliver Your Coats
It’s time to decide where you will deliver the coats you collected!
- Use the Nonprofit Locator Map to find a One Warm Coat partner agency near you and contact them to ensure they can accept your coats.
- Please note that many of our partners are small organizations and may take a few days to get back to you, especially during the holiday season. Please call them if you don’t hear back to an email.
- If you cannot find a nonprofit partner near you on the Nonprofit Locator Map, we suggest contacting a local nonprofit such as a food bank or a homeless shelter.
- If you would prefer to donate your coats to a local nonprofit that is not on One Warm Coat’s Nonprofit Locator Map, that’s fine as long as the coats will be given away for free and without discrimination. Also, please encourage the nonprofit to register to become a member of One Warm Coat’s nonprofit network. (They can access the free registration form here)!
