Established in December 2007, Smitten With Mittens was founded by Adriana Gascoigne. Smitten With Mittens is a 501 (c) 3 non-profit organization and is headquartered in San Francisco, California.

After traveling to Mexico every Christmas and spending a significant amount of time at Ciudad de Los Ninos, an orphanage in a small city in the countryside called Aguascalientes, Adriana realized that during the cold, winter months these orphans did not have the proper attire to go out and play – they didn’t even have MITTENS. So, she set out to start the organization, ”Smitten With Mittens”.

The Smitten With Mittens staff and supporters have their hearts set on helping as many orphans throughout the world as possible. That is why the organization has partnered with a variety of fair trade, textile manufactures and distributors that ensure safe, secure mitten deliveries to locations even in rural developing countries. Currently, the organization depends solely on donors, partners, supporters, fundraisers and volunteers to help keep the organization alive and functional. The Smitten With Mittens team thinks that it is important to help underprivileged orphans and children in developing regions live a healthier, happier and more comfortable lifestyle.

Smitten With Mittens is excited that you have visited this site to learn more about the cause. Together, we can help keep kids little hands warm when it’s cold outside, and with your support we can have an even bigger impact by helping to meet other basic needs such as education, healthcare, and advocacy.

Smitten With Mitten’s very first mitten drop is scheduled for winter 2010. Smitten With Mittens is primarily focusing on delivering mittens to orphans in regions including Latin America, Northern China, India, Middle East, Northern Africa, Eastern Europe and parts of the USA.

We hope that you’ll be Smitten With Mittens!

Officers

Adriana Gascoigne, Founder and Executive Director

Adriana is the Vice President of Marketing at SecondMarket, the global marketplace for illiquid assets. She is responsible for SecondMarket’s marketing, branding strategy, event production and digital media efforts. She assists in formulating the strategic direction and branding of the company as well as public relations efforts. Prior to joining SecondMarket, Adriana worked at a variety of technology start-ups spearheading marketing, communications and analytics. She worked at hi5, SocialGamingNetwork (SGN), Jambool’s SocialGold, GUBA as well as Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide as the Vice President of 360 Digital Influence and Edelman as the Vice President of the Digital Group.

In March 2007, Adriana launched Girls in Tech, an organization focused on the empowerment, engagement and education of women in tech. She is an “Intel Insider,” serving as a brand and product advisor for Intel. She is an advisor to a variety of start-ups including Involver, DooChoo, and Change.org. In 2009, Adriana launched SmittenWithMittens, a 501 (c) 3 providing fair trade mittens, clothing, uniforms and resources to orphans in developing countries.

Adriana holds a bachelor’s degree in Sociology and Economics from the University of California at Davis, received a degree from El Tecnologico de Monterrey in Aguascalientes, Mexico in 2000, and participated in Semester at Sea, University of Pittsburgh in 1997. She is currently enrolled in USF’s MBA 2012 program. Adriana is fluent in Spanish and speaks some Japanese and French.

Matthew Gonzales, Director of Business Development and Partnerships

In 2008, Matthew moved to San Francisco, where he currently resides, to take the Director of Local Sales position at Zvents. Zvents is a white label solution for media companies to aggregate local events listings. The company’s media network reaches millions of users and includes partners like AOL, MTV, AT&T, NBC and many more. Matthew was a key contributor in developing a new premium listings service for Zvents that allowed the company to up sell event listings to small businesses

Currently, Matthew works as an independent consultant and adviser to various start-up and int’l technology companies including: SF New Tech, appbackr, MogoTix and TinkerLabs.