 Well, thank you for being here and welcome to the nonprofit show. We are thrilled to have these two ladies joining us today, Ashley and Caroline, to talk to us about the last I'm Sorry DV campaign. So we'll hear from both of them here shortly. Julia Patrick is the CEO of the American Nonprofit Academy. She was able to take today off. I'm here as the host of Jarrett Ransom, your nonprofit nerd CEO of the Raven Group. And of course, we want to say thank you to our presenting sponsors. They keep these shows going and these guests coming on strong. So thank you so much to Bloomerang, to the American Nonprofit Academy, Fundraising Academy, Nonprofit Nerd, your part-time controller, the nonprofit Atlas, nonprofit thought leader, as well as staffing boutique. Please do check these companies out because they are here to help you do more good for your mission and in your community. If you missed today's episode or you want to share today's episode or any of our almost 500 episodes, you can find them on Roku, YouTube, Fire TV and Vimeo. But wait, there's more. We're now streaming on podcast. So if you're a podcaster and you really enjoy listening to podcasts while you're walking or traveling or doing whatever you do around the house, please do check out our episodes on your podcast and streaming system. Again, thank you to our sponsors and our executive producer that keeps that happening. Ashley and Caroline, welcome. We are thrilled to have you with us today. Thank you so much for that to be here. Yeah, absolutely. Ashley, why don't you start? Tell us a little bit about Teresa's Fund and the organization in which you are working with. And then let's pass it over to Caroline. And Caroline can share a little bit about her involvement with this process. Sure. Yeah. So Ashley, I'm seeing a CEO and president at domestic shelters at Oregon Teresa's Fund and what we are. We are an online resource for domestic violence information. We have the searchable database on our website that helps connect people with the different programs and resources they can turn to if they're experiencing domestic violence. Perfect. And we've had you on before. So we are so thrilled to have you back and to share more about the Purple Ribbon Awards, which we'll get into as well. But Caroline, this is your first time and I understand you're a recipient of the Purple Ribbon Awards from a previous year. I am. I was lucky enough to be in their inaugural class. So not only was I be named as a survivor of the year, but Safe and Harmless Way was also nominated as an organization, also nominated for our covid response and then also nominated for the best campaign. So we've won four awards in all of North America and Canada and Puerto Rico. So it was a really pretty big honor to have that many come through. Wow, that is a huge honor. And I'm so glad that you could join us to share a little bit about your story and your involvement. Let's move into this and truly the work in the in the domestic violence sector, you know, we shared earlier DV and for many of us, we live by acronyms. So I want to make sure that everyone knows what that stands for. But let's talk about this work, Ashley, in the domestic violence sector, what you're doing and how your organization is representing. Certainly. Yeah. So our focus is is really to be a digital space for domestic violence information and really empower people to start to make those connections between what they're experiencing, you know, in their relationship and domestic violence. I think that's one of the reasons Carolina and I connected so so well in the beginning is because we both really believe in this idea that once you can call it domestic violence, you can really empower yourself to tap into the resources that are already out there. So domestic shelters that really exist as an online digital space that people can feel safe to start to get those questions answered. And and start to recognize, escape and heal from abuse. And we focus on not just, you know, victims and survivors, but we also work really hard to support the professionals who are on a daily basis, you know, helping people, you know, recognize, escape and heal from abuse. Yeah, that's so important. And I can imagine and I believe I've seen the statistics read the statistics over the last three years, the the increase, the sad, unfortunate increase in the domestic violence space. Caroline, how are you addressing this? What are some things that you and your organization are doing to support? You know, when we work at Safe and Hermsway and Ashley mentioned it, it's always from a collaborative effort. And we align Safe and Hermsway aligns really closely with with what domestic shelters.org does. And so but in a little bit different way, because we are very much we're built entirely by survivors for survivors. I'm coming up on the sixth year anniversary of me crafting a very detailed escape plan, which took about 10 days to craft months to implement in order to remain safe. So in doing that, I realized or I felt as if there weren't any resources. Meanwhile, there's thousands. But because I wasn't properly using the vocabulary of what was happening to me, because I didn't know it and Ashley talked about it. When you can recognize it, right? You can act. So Safe and Hermsway was really built to start with vocabulary, sadness, worry, lies, fear, screaming, pain. Are those parts of your relationship? But those are parts of your relationship. Then here's some tools and resources. And we do that by calling out survivor stories, having them write their stories either as themselves or under a pseudonym. And then within the story, if we say, hey, if this sounds familiar, this is actually emotional abuse. And then we give the links to emotional abuse because coming out for me from violence, I would have never labeled myself as being abused. And people, even when covered with bruises, will deflect as such. So we work in telling survivor stories, giving them every kind of modality possible for healing, including a whole lot of music. We tell the stories. We give the resources and we're built for those tiny, quiet moments at 2 a.m. when someone's on the couch and for the 12th time in that day, crying over their relationship, that they have immediate access to the resource that they need right then. And starting with that vernacular, the language, as you said, I can imagine is so helpful. You know, I think as as children and I am a parent and I remember having a chart of emotions, you know, and let's select the emotion. What are you feeling right now? And that seems so basic, but it's it's different for us as adults, especially as we're experiencing, you know, challenges in in different ways. So thank you for for sharing that piece. Actually, let's dive into this campaign. You've reached out to us and you're really excited. I'm excited to learn more about the last I'm sorry campaign. What is this? What does this entail? What does it look like? Yeah, so I'll start with just kind of what it's about. But I love to talk about how it kind of came to came to be as well. But really, it's it's a campaign that focuses on targeting people where an abuser can't control what they're seeing. And so that would be when they're out and about in the world. So if they're driving in their car, they're walking down the street, you know, the things that they see when they're out, you know, an abuser can't control those messages. And so through just a wonderful circumstance of the right people in the right time, I met Caroline, who had some connections with the Out of Door Advertising Association of America with the ability to to kind of push out for profit messages on billboards. And so we connected then with a New York based marketing firm who we had a relationship with. And this campaign has just grown from that. It's it's all been in kind donations, donation of time, donations of resources to kind of bring to fruition this message that really focuses in on imagery that isn't traditional when you think about domestic violence. It's it's the this one specifically saw the imagery there focuses on the empty promises of an abuser. So flowers that are in different different stages of decay. And this idea that, you know, are you living in fear of the next? I'm sorry, just really trying to create messaging with the help of the amazing team at Neon out of New York that really just is going to strike a chord with someone who isn't yet using that language around domestic violence. Very powerful. That sounds amazing. And I'm curious if you can talk to our viewers and listeners about how this campaign came about. You mentioned, you know, that a little bit. I can imagine, you know, billboards are highly sought after. Everyone, of course, is looking at the digital space, right? Because that's that's a huge platform for for information. But talk to you how you were able to develop these relationships and take this campaign to such a national level. How how has that come about? Caroline, could you speak to that? Because really, it was all your driving force of those relationships that you built. Thank you. I would be honored to, you know, the. In a very simple way, if you want to have one sentence, it came down to burnt hot dogs. I I knew there was a gentleman that our kids grew up together. And I woke up randomly. And if somebody pops in my head, I immediately reach out to them. And I reached out to Vince. And I said, Vince, you know, I have moved from St. Louis to Kansas City and Kansas City has great barbecue, but no one burns hot dogs better than you. And Vince replied, Caroline, I think you need to know that I do more than burn hot dogs. He said, I own billboards. And he said, I've watched what you've done at Safe and Harm's Way. What could you do if I gave you eight billboards? So he gave me eight billboards in St. Louis, we extended that to Kansas City at each step along the way, collecting the data, you know, at that iteration for Safe and Harm's Way, we grew access to our resources by close to 450 percent at the height of COVID. And then Vince turned around and said, well, what if I connected you to the CEO of the Out of Home Advertising Association and you could pitch him on being the preferred PSA? And he said, and be prepared like they might just do a relation to domestic violence, not necessarily Safe and Harm's Way. And my viewpoint was I want the awareness for people and it's desperately needed. I'll take what I can get. And so I created a pitch set, gave them the information and they agreed to not only saying yes to resources for domestic violence, but yes into Safe and Harm's Way. So then I asked them, we collected that data and our resources grew by 833 percent, the ability to access them. And so I asked for a year for another iteration. And at that time, I had made the very big discovery that within the nonprofit world in domestic violence that people operate in silos. You can even you can listen to a lot of podcasts, even from the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence. It says it's a problem. And I thought our tagline at Safe and Harm's Way is, join us, take our hand and let's go change the world. And I thought I'm going to sit down and think about whose hand I'd want to hold. I thought, I'm calling Ashley. I'm calling Ashley and I'm going to say. I've got an idea on messaging. Bring your ideas. Let's discuss this. I have billboards. We've got another opportunity. We've grown so much at Safe and Harm's Way. And if we can grow this bigger, then there's no one's hand. No one's hand I would rather hold than yours. And Ashley said, well, you know, we've got this advertising agency in New York that I think might be interested and from there, I said, then Ashley takes this morning. I said, I miss you. Like the past few weeks have been a little busy. I miss you. You know, we've been building this for a year and a half close. You know, so we all got together and through this great time with Neon, which is an ITG health community or company international and the Out of Home Advertising Association. They brought in fabulous award-winning illustrators like Sarah Coleman and Johnny Miller. And Health to Craft and the beautiful thing about all of this is after every meeting was. Ashley and I would text each other and it was just it was tears. I mean, they were goosebumps and tears. Yes, lots of them. Everything, right, Ashley? I mean, there wasn't a visual that we sent to them that they didn't come back with things that exceeded the wildest dreams we had come up when we thought we had come up with the wildest dreams. Wow. And that speaks so much to the power of collaboration, the willingness to work together. I love that, Caroline, you really set aside like your organization and you said this is about awareness in general. And I think, you know, for us as nonprofit leaders, when we can do that and really focus on what is the advocacy that needs to be done in our community, right? And not ironically, our guests yesterday, we talked about mergers and acquisitions and so ego came up, right? And so when we can set our egos aside and really focus on what we're here to do for the greater good of the community, that's where, you know, so many amazing miracles happen. And for those of you that are watching the episode, maybe not listening to podcasts, you can see the billboard here on the screen in front of you. So to the flowers that you talked about, Ashley, and kind of the different phases, that's a very powerful image. So thank you for sharing that backstory. And if I could just interrupt really quickly, I just want to make sure that it's known that that photo there and people that aren't able to see it kind of visualize. That's in Times Square. That's in New York City in Times Square. And those billboards were donated to us. So they were in two different locations. So sorry to like just sneak that in there, but I wanted to just make sure that was really clear. That was kind of the crown jewel of what we were hoping to do. Yeah, and you know, I forget the stats. Or I think it's like 100,000 people come through Times Square every day. So there was a lot of eyes on that. And we would see it in the background of like CNN and stuff. So it was just it got in front of a lot of people. So I love that. In fact, it's like we've got it. We've got to check the Goosebumps radar. I know they do. And I was at the out of I checked in anticipation of today, the Out of Home Advertising Association tells me that this campaign reached over one billion people. Wow. Wow. Yeah, that's fantastic. And the Purple Ribbon Awards helps to reach so many others to do so much more good. And we don't have too much time left on our episode. But I do want to make sure that we talk and, you know, about the the Purple Ribbon Awards, because this is for organizations, nonprofits that are working in the domestic violence space. And again, you were recipient of this. So so that partnership and collaboration. Ashley, tell us about this year's Purple Ribbon Awards. Certainly, yes. This is the second annual Purple Ribbon Awards. And again, we're just recognizing the people who are just making a difference for victims and survivors of domestic violence. We have about 30 categories this year. And so we're recognizing, of course, the domestic violence programs and shelters and people that make them work, but also the communities and allies that that help them to support survivors. So community organizations, law enforcement, judges. We're also looking at podcasts this year and documentaries. We really just want to bring attention to the great work being done to end domestic violence in order to not only recognize people, just to, you know, give them support and inspiration, but also to inspire others and to help them to set the bar even higher. Yeah. What was it like, Caroline, going through as, you know, submitting your award, going through and being awarded? Tell us the process that you experienced, if you would. It was to apply. It's a very easy process. DomesticShelters.org makes it really streamlined for people to be able to apply. So that's really important to know because there's a lot of great work being done. So if someone has an intent on applying, it's a great thing to do. DomesticShelters keeps you posted every bit of the way. And of course, then, you know, I'm sitting on pins and needles wondering what we would win. And and this, you know, was I was sending out messages to everybody. I said, I need you to understand the level of premier status. This is this is like the Oscars. You know, this is if I could, I would be wearing a crown and, you know, also a really slinky dress to this, which I did have on for the. I was going to say, why weren't you? I didn't have that on. But that's that's what this is. It is a true acknowledgement. And I think for Ashley and I to be able to collaborate and create such a big thing in our organizations, right? It's a lesson for everybody. See who else is out there doing the work, see who else you can partner with. Before you build something else, see who else does it as good, if not better than anything you can build and work together because you can create so much more together. And Ashley's organization with domestic shelters.org being able to call that out for people is not only an opportunity to raise awareness on what somebody does, but we should all be looking around that virtual room saying, I'll partner with her. I'll partner with them and really start those collaborations I'm so proud of the work that Teresa's found in domestic shelters.org does and Ashley in particular, it's just a pleasure to work with them. And this component of what they do is amazing. I love that. One of the things we talk about often on these episodes is the amount of registered nonprofits in the US, one point eight million registered nonprofits throughout the United States. And, you know, I mentioned earlier about ego. We talk also about collaboration. But really competition and how sometimes, you know, we're afraid to go to that other organization of fear that, you know, they might take our intellectual property or what if they are, you know, doing something better than we are doing? But as you just spoke, it's so important, I believe, and I'm hearing it from the two of you to have this vision of collaboration. And I think, you know, if our viewers and listeners don't walk away with the very basis and the willingness to have open dialogue with people that are out there moving the needle for the same mission, for the same cause. That is what I have learned tenfold from the two of you, you know, truly, truly from today's discussion and to see the milestones that you've been able to achieve together, right, together, that is a win-win. So thank you, Ashley. Let's let's go into some of the logistics, right? Like when when are the awards open? How do we submit? When do we find out the the awardees? What's the process? Certainly. So we are accepting nominations through the end of March. So we've got about 20 days, 21 days left. And those nominations will then be reviewed throughout April, May and June by our panel of expert judges. I see, well, Jared is one of them. I'll spill the beans on that. And then we will review those. And then we'll announce the winners in July and send out these lovely little medallions. Like this in here, yes. And then in September, we're still finalizing the date for this, but we'll have a virtual celebration. We're looking at some other formats, too, that will kind of help to foster more inspiration. So sharing more of the winners' stories and information. So we've really got, you know, we're really planning to try to really elevate the winners as much as possible. So we've got about 20, 21 more days for the nominations to to to get in. And like Caroline said, it's a very easy process. You know, we we try to make it very quick and easy that way. As many people as possible can be recognized. And this is across the nation, right? Is is there it's open geographically? It's open to the world. Really, we really are looking for anyone that's making a difference because, you know, what really matters here is we're all humans. We're all it's a human issue. And so anyone that's making a difference, the support people is something worth recognizing. And so that's what we're aiming to do. Yeah. And thank you. I'm honored that you spilled the beans. I'm very much looking forward to serving as as a reviewer. And so I'm thrilled to learn more and to hear more, you know, through the sector and to hear what leaders are doing. And I'm curious, Ashley and Caroline, if you can both talk about what's next with your collaboration, like once you hit Times Square, where do you go from there? Right. We go back to Times Square, right? How do you raise the bar? I have space on I mean, what can we do from like anybody looking up into the sky is kind of it's a dream. But yeah, actually, I'll I'll I'll let you answer that. Sure. Yeah, I think that I mean, we have we have more campaign plans. This is a part of I think we broke it down into four different campaigns. And the visuals are in in process right now. I I I know the name of the star studio. Is it Kario or I can't think of the name right now. But there's a great studio overseas that is working on the artwork for the next campaign right now. And so we're just going to keep putting this messaging out and fine tuning it and try to reach as many people as we can. I know Caroline did did promise me that she was going to get us on the day show or the morning America. So that is also our next our next step is that we want to bring this this message as far and wide as we can. You please let them know that you were here first. We we we had you first. So yeah, absolutely. I hope that that does happen. We'd love to see that and cannot wait to see the progress. It again, you know, I've said this already today, but it just speaks volumes to working together to that collaboration. And I love it. I love Caroline that you you're like the sky's the limit, literally. Like there's so many more, you know, ways in which you want to collaborate. And I have a sneaky suspicion you two are open to bringing on more into this collaborative energy and space. So again, kudos kudos for all of all of what you're both doing in and around the communities for this. It's very important. Thank you. I appreciate that, Jared. Thank you. Yeah, of course. And I cannot wait to see who's going to receive those medallions for the Purple Ribbon Awards. That's very exciting. And I don't have any plans to be in New York not anytime soon, but I'm curious how long that that billboard will be will be up. So they actually wrapped up at the end of February, but we did get them there for four weeks. Wow. Yes, they were there for four entire weeks. And it was pretty neat. We all got to go out not all at the same time, but we all got to go out and see them in person. And it was just it's pretty special. Very, very special. Well, Ashley, thank you so much. Ashley, CEO, President Teresa's Fund, domestic domestic shelters.org. I always want to put domestic violence like that word. So if you are interested in the work that Ashley's doing, are you know anyone that needs resources? Please do take a look at the website and Caroline. Also, it's been a huge pleasure learning more from you and about safe and harm's way. I just I love the energy. The two of you share the support that you provide one another and learning more about you and your story has been very powerful as well. Thank you. I thank you for the honor of being on here. And in front of everybody, I'm raising my hand and say, I'm putting pressure on Ashley to help me write a book on this collaboration. So I'm putting it out there so the world and whomever sees and hears it knows that I'm actually. Well, you let us know when you do. We have a book club list on the American Nonprofit Academy. So it would be more than honored to add that book on collaboration there to the site. Julia would love to see it and hear more. Julia Patrick is the CEO of the American Nonprofit Academy. She missed a great episode. But every now and then we have to take a day off and recharge. So that's really good and important. But I'm thrilled to have joined the two of you, your rock stars. You are leaders in the space. And again, I'm just so honored to be a part of the Purple Ribbon Awards this year. Thank you to our sponsors that keep this conversation like the one that we had today. And you heard it here first that there will be a book coming out. Between these two, so no pressure. No pressure. I've got that down. Absolutely. So thank you to our sponsors that include Bloomerang, American Nonprofit Academy, your part time controller, Nonprofit Nerd, Fundraising Academy, Nonprofit Atlas, Nonprofit Thought Leader and Staffing Boutique. So thank you because you allow us these conversations like the ones we just had today with Ashley and Caroline. Thank you both cannot wait to see what what's next. I know that it's going to be a lot of fun. And again, I'm so thrilled that you spent some time with us today to share more about your campaign as well as the upcoming awards. So thank you both. And thanks to all of you that tuned in to listen. I hope that you stay well so you can do well. And we'll see you back here tomorrow.