For the third year running, Saint John’s will be participating in the Purple Purse Challenge, a 31-day national campaign that unites nonprofits in a competition to raise funds for life-changing services to help domestic violence survivors. Sponsored by the Allstate Foundation, one of our strongest supporters, this fundraising effort is held each year throughout the month of October, recognized nationally as Domestic Violence Awareness Month.
Some eye-opening, heart-wrenching statistics that motivate us all to participate and to give:
One in four women will experience domestic violence in her lifetime
99 percent of women experiencing domestic violence also face financial abuse
More than three million children witness domestic violence in their families each year
More than 70 percent of our clients at Saint John’s have fled from a domestic violence situation
Last year, the Purple Purse Challenge raised a total of $3.5 million in support of more than 220 nonprofits, and engaged the support of more than 15,000 donors nationwide. In addition to funds raised by each individual nonprofit, Allstate offers incentives, prizes and weekly bonus challenges to encourage participation, which provides us an opportunity to earn extra funding from Allstate of up to $100,000! We’d love to win some of these extra prizes and funds for our clients and their children!
So, why the purple purse? Purple is the color used nationally to represent domestic abuse, and Allstate decided to use the purse as a symbol to represent a woman’s financial domain. Please help us by getting out your “purple purse” to donate (generously and often!) throughout the month of October (don’t worry, we’ll remind you!). Funds raised during this campaign will go directly to support Saint John’s client population of up to 1,000 women and children annually.
Blog by Sue Cawdrey
Grants & Communications Manager
Saint John’s Program for Real Change
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