Wells Fargo Surpasses 50,000 Winter Coats to Chicago Students
This season, bank volunteers fit 10,000 students with warm jackets at 11 local schools
Wells Fargo Surpasses 50,000 Winter Coats to Chicago Students
CHICAGO, November 14, 2017 /3BL Media/ - Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE: WFC) volunteers will surpass the 50,000 mark this week in the bank’s eighth-consecutive year of delivering winter coats to Chicago students across the city. Children at 11 schools will receive free outerwear ahead of frigid winter temperatures.
This year, Wells Fargo’s Coats for Kids campaign raised nearly $180,000 from employee donations, company contributions, and private matching grants to buy 10,000 jackets. Wells Fargo employees in Chicago have raised nearly $1 million since the local program launched in 2009.
Each year, Wells Fargo collaborates with Operation Warm, one of the nation’s largest nonprofit providers of new coats to children in need. The organization uses the funds raised by Wells Fargo to provide a majority of the high-quality outerwear to the schools, and more than 150 Wells Fargo volunteers distribute the gear before Thanksgiving. Wells Fargo contributed 2,500 of the coats to low-income city children at a Chicago Housing Authority event on Oct. 27 and will help fund 2,750 additional coats for children served by Children’s Home + Aid and Rainbow Push Coalition in December.
In addition, Wells Fargo employees in Rockford, Illinois, also raised $9,000 to provide coats for area schoolchildren for the third-straight year. Rockford volunteers will distribute 380 coats on Nov. 15, ensuring that every child at McIntosh Elementary School receives new outerwear. In three years, the group has donated 1,200 coats by raising $30,000.
“At Wells Fargo, we understand that cold weather can prevent children without proper coats from making it back and forth to school safely,” said Carter Wellford, Chicago branch manager for Wells Fargo Advisors. “Our Chicagoland team members take pride in giving back to our community each year and making it easier for students to be outdoors when temperatures drop.”
“Operation Warm is excited to continue our collaboration with Wells Fargo Coats for Kids,” said Rich Lalley, development director for Operation Warm. “We like to say that our coats are more than a coat. When Chicago students are personally given a brand-new coat by a Wells Fargo team member, they know that someone cares about them. This gives them more than warmth; it gives them hope and happiness.”
In addition to supporting the free coats distribution, Wells Fargo’s more than 1,800 local employees volunteered more than 22,300 hours and contributed $1.7 million to local nonprofits through the annual Community Support and United Way Campaign in 2016. That same year, Wells Fargo donated more than $2.8 million to 400 Chicagoland nonprofits and other organizations through foundation and corporate giving. The bank also contributed $716,900 to match local employees’ gifts to educational institutions and foundations.
More than 50 Wells Fargo lines of business serve a broad range of commercial, corporate, and individual customers in Chicagoland. The bank provided 3,400 small business loans totaling $194.4 million to Illinois businesses in 2016.
About Operation Warm
Since 1998, Operation Warm has inspired hope and empowered communities by manufacturing and distributing high-quality, new winter coats to over 2 million children in need throughout the U.S. Each year, over 40,000 Chicago‑area children in need receive the gift of a new Operation Warm winter coat. The nonprofit works with organizations at a community level, assisting local advocates to help children receive coats in their own backyard. Operation Warm's vision is that every child wearing a new winter coat is warm, feels valued, and is empowered to get to school and gain an education. To learn more or start your own community coat program, visit http://www.operationwarm.org/.
About Wells Fargo
Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE: WFC) is a diversified, community-based financial services company with $2.0 trillion in assets. Wells Fargo’s vision is to satisfy our customers’ financial needs and help them succeed financially. Founded in 1852 and headquartered in San Francisco, Wells Fargo provides banking, insurance, investments, mortgage, and consumer and commercial finance through more than 8,500 locations, 13,000 ATMs, the internet (wellsfargo.com) and mobile banking, and has offices in 42 countries and territories to support customers who conduct business in the global economy. With approximately 273,000 team members, Wells Fargo serves one in three households in the United States. Wells Fargo & Company was ranked No. 25 on Fortune’s 2017 rankings of America’s largest corporations. The Chronicle of Philanthropy ranked Wells Fargo No. 3 on its most recent list of the top corporate cash philanthropists. In 2016, Wells Fargo donated $281.3 million to 14,900 nonprofits and Wells Fargo team members volunteered 1.73 million hours with 50,000 nonprofits. Wells Fargo’s corporate social responsibility efforts are focused on economic empowerment in underserved communities, environmental sustainability, and advancing diversity and social inclusion. News, insights, and perspectives from Wells Fargo are also available at Wells Fargo Stories.
Contact:LaTrina Shepherd
(312) 630-2315
Latrina.shepherd@wellsfargo.com
@trinashepherdWF
