How One Warm Coat uses LinkedIn's Volunteer Marketplace to build a national board and recruit skilled volunteers.

1. One Warm Coat operates on a simple mission: to
ensure that anyone who needs a coat has one. By
helping thousands of groups across the country
organize coat drives, One Warm Coat has
provided over three million coats to those in
need.
Operating online and lean, with a voluntary board
and small staff, One Warm Coat builds
organizational capacity by leveraging the unique
talents and networks of its volunteers and board
of directors.
“Do you believe one person can make a
difference? We do.” says One Warm Coat’s
founder, Sherri Lewis Wood. “Harnessing the
power of the internet and social media, we
support thousands of volunteers who are making
a difference in their community.”
With a strategic planning process approaching,
and an immediate need to expand the geographic
diversity of the board, One Warm Coat’s Board of
Directors turned to LinkedIn.
LinkedIn’s Volunteer Marketplace gave the board
a targeted pool of well-qualified board and
volunteer candidates. Not only did One Warm
Coat find their perfect board members—with the
right skills, backgrounds and networks—but they
also recruited two strategic planning facilitators to
help the organization develop its three-year plan.
Volunteer Kanoti Kim, a Program Manager with
over ten years of experience at companies
including Oracle and GE shared, “The Strategic
Facilitator opportunity for One Warm Coat
popped into my LinkedIn Jobs feed and I jumped
at the chance to use my professional skills to
support a compelling cause. LinkedIn seamlessly
connected me with the organization, and from
there, the experience just kept getting better.”
We believe that people want to help, but often don’t know how. LinkedIn
makes it easy for us to tell talented and giving professionals where the need
is in a simple and clear way that shows the value of what they have to offer.
-Sherri Lewis Wood, National Founder & Chair, One Warm Coat
Challenge Solution
LinkedIn volunteer posts
made it easy to target and
screen qualified applicants all
over the country, leading to
80+ candidates for board and
volunteer positions.
Results
Three new board members
filling skill and experience
gaps and two volunteer
strategic planning consultants
to facilitate board retreat
Building a geographically
diverse network of supporters,
volunteers, and board
members
How One Warm Coat Found Passionate Volunteers Across
the U.S. with LinkedIn
Volunteer Marketplace