Pillsbury Once Again Takes Home United Way Bay Area’s Big Koko Award

The United Way gives this award annually for the best fundraising campaign by a law firm whose San Francisco office has more than 100 lawyers. The victory means that the Big Koko award will continue to reside in the office’s 22^nd Floor reception area.

“Pillsbury first joined the Koko Challenge in 1992 in the spirit of competition to give back to the community.  We are very proud that this is our 17th win in 26 years,” said Roxane Polidora, the Managing Partner of Pillsbury’s San Francisco office. “Last year, we embarked on a firmwide initiative focused on homelessness and charged each of our offices with building new partnerships with like-minded organizations such as the United Way Bay Area. Consistent with our annual holiday tradition, the firm also has given more than $100,000 to local groups that feed the hungry every year since 2015—all as part of our ongoing dedication to help those most vulnerable in our communities. We are grateful to be able to work with organizations like the United Way that do just that.”

Anne Wilson, CEO of United Way Bay Area, emceed the Feb. 7 award presentation event, which was held in Pillsbury’s San Francisco office. She praised the firm’s commitment to the United Way and the Bay Area community, including the hard work and dedication of Pillsbury’s Homelessness Task Force Initiative members. She also commented that Pillsbury went “above and beyond” by donating $100,000 to support those affected by the Northern California wildfires. For the first time, Pillsbury partnered with the Salesforce Philanthropy Cloud to coordinate the campaign.

“Pillsbury made a commitment to the Bay Area community to focus on homelessness initiatives, and aside from their pro-bono work, they volunteered with food banks and legal clinics around San Francisco, racking up the award for highest number of volunteer hours of any firm around the Bay Area,” Wilson said. “Their dedication to solving one of the rising challenges we face in the Bay Area of housing insecurity has supported the work that United Way does to create pathways to stability within the community.”

Wilson specifically praised the firm’s work with homeless youth through the Larkin Street Youth organization, its commitment of time and money in working with food banks and its work with Project Homeless Connect. Project Homeless Connect is a nonprofit organization that strengthens and utilizes collaborations with city agencies, businesses, organizations, and the community to provide comprehensive services through Community Day of Service events and in house continued care for those who are at risk of becoming homeless, are currently experiencing homelessness, or are transitioning from homelessness to housing. Wilson bestowed Pillsbury with the Pathways out of Poverty award for the firm’s work around homelessness in the San Francisco community.

In addition to winning the big prize, Pillsbury’s San Francisco office also won the following awards: Highest Overall Participation; Greatest Per Capita Gift; Top Banana; Greatest Increase in Giving; Greatest Number of Volunteer Hours; Pathways Out of Poverty, and the Poverty Fighting Champion.