Grant Thornton names Find Your Anchor its new Purple Paladin

Nonprofit offers resources to those thinking about or impacted by suicide.

CHICAGO — Grant Thornton LLP has named Find Your Anchor the eighth nonprofit in its Purple Paladin initiative — a program that helps emerging nonprofit organizations move from start-up to sustainable. As part of the program, Grant Thornton will provide funding, business advice and volunteer support to Find Your Anchor and use their platform to raise awareness of the organization.

Find Your Anchor is a grassroots movement focused on suicide prevention through awareness and education. To help people who are struggling to find hope, the organization creates and distributes boxes of curated items known as “anchors.” Each box includes a deck of cards titled “52+ Reasons to Live,” a list of suicide prevention resources and posters with hopeful messaging. But the box’s journey doesn’t end with one person. When ready, recipients are encouraged to add their own anchors and pass it on so the box can help others.

“There is an ongoing mental health crisis in the United States and across the globe, and the pandemic has only underscored the problem,” said Brad Preber, CEO of Grant Thornton. “That’s why a devoted organization like Find Your Anchor is vital. We look forward to helping them spark an incredible, pay-it-forward movement that creates hope when and where it is needed most.”

The movement began with Ali Borowsky. A survivor of multiple suicide attempts, Borowsky knows firsthand how hard it can be to seek help — and how impersonal resources may not provide the comfort people need. Relying on donations, she started sending thousands of boxes filled with color, warmth and, most of all, hope. Now, more than 20,000 boxes have reached people in 50 states and 36 countries. But Borowsky is far from done. She wants boxes in high schools, on every college campus, and supporting veterans and LGBTQ+ youth — anywhere struggling individuals can find them.

“For the longest time, I couldn’t see my own anchors, and it took a process of finding little joys to realize that they were there all along,” Borowsky says. “But the little things aren’t little at all. They’re life-saving.”

To learn more about Find Your Anchor visit www.grantthornton.com/PurplePaladins

Find Your Anchor joins seven other nonprofits that Grant Thornton previously selected as Purple Paladins: Foster Nation, Hope in a Box, Weird Enough Productions, Invisible Hands Deliver, Pal Experiences, Sneakers for Soldiers and Coming Up Rosies.

• Foster Nation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that helps former foster youth overcome the challenges associated with ‘aging out’ of the foster-care system. To learn more, visit: www.fosternation.org.
• Hope in a Box is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that provides educators with literature, detailed curriculums and coaching to improve classroom environments for LGBTQ+ students. To learn more, visit: www.hopeinabox.org.
• Weird Enough Productions is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that develops free, interactive online content designed to combat media misrepresentations of minority communities. The organization is best known for its hallmark comic book series, The UnCommons. To learn more, visit: www.weirdenough.com.
• Invisible Hands Deliver is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that taps more than 12,000 volunteers to deliver groceries, prescriptions and other necessities to people vulnerable to COVID-19 — including the elderly, disabled and immunocompromised. To learn more, visit: www.invisiblehandsdeliver.org.
• Pal Experiences is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that helps people with non-visible disabilities — such as autism — have more inclusive experiences at museums, entertainment venues and sporting events. To learn more, visit: www.palexperiences.org.
• Sneakers for Soldiers is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that provides properly fitted athletic shoes to deployed combat troops in all branches of the military. To learn more, visit: www.sneakersforsoldiers.org.
• Coming Up Rosies is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that provides “smile kits” to hospitals so children — particularly those suffering from hair loss — can engage in therapeutic art activities to create custom head scarves, neck scarves and superhero capes based on their own unique designs. To learn more, visit: www.cominguprosies.com.

Grant Thornton’s Purple Paladins program derives its name from the word paladin, a champion of a cause. Grant Thornton and its professionals have donated more than $400,000 to Purple Paladin nonprofits, and more than 350 Grant Thornton professionals have volunteered support to the firm’s Purple Paladins.

To learn more about Purple Paladins, or to nominate a nonprofit for potential support, visit Grant Thornton’s website: www.grantthornton.com/PurplePaladins.

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