“Domestic violence is no stranger to any race of ethnicity; it knows no economic station, and Becky’s Fund has found compelling ways to confront it in all of its forms and in all its hiding places.” — excerpt from Becky’s Fund mission statement.

If you can find the office that was donated by the law firm of Wiltshire and Grannis in Washington D.C., you will find the starting point of Becky’s Fund, a 501 (c)(3) national nonprofit organization dedicated to bring attention and awareness to domestic violence.

Becky Lee, front middle, and some of the Girl Scouts she works with and teaches about healthy relationships.

Founder and Executive Director Becky Lee began this nonprofit in hopes of preventing domestic violence. Lee first became aware of the issue after a college lecture by a criminal attorney whose cases focused on acquitting women who had been incarcerated for killing their abusers in self-defense. After this eye-opening experience, Lee switched from her pre-med track to women’s studies at the University of Michigan. She went on to receive her law degree from the University of Pittsburgh School of Law. For the past 12 years, she has been working on issues surrounding domestic violence survivors as an advocate, a policy associate, and an attorney. One thing she quickly learned was that there is little public discussion about domestic violence and almost nothing is done to address it openly.

Becky Lee and a friend.

One of the reasons Lee decided to try out on the CBS prime time reality show Survivor: Cook Islands was to garner enough funds to begin a nonprofit. She won second place and used all of her prize money to start Becky’s Fund. Though it initially started out to help domestic violence survivors by supporting small domestic violence organizations who were already working to serve battered women, since then, Becky’s Fund has expanded its goals to foster awareness, encourage advocacy and activism, and provide support directly to victims.

Becky's Fund works with women and girls of all backgrounds to help teach them about domestic violence.

With this mission, Becky’s Fund provides many resources to assist domestic violence victims which include but are not limited to transportation/health care providers, lawyers, and social workers. It also works to serve the specific needs of abused immigrant women as the challenges they face also include cultural and language barriers. With a culture of shame and silence in many Asian cultures, immigrant women are even less inclined to come forward to seek help. One in three women are victims of domestic violence. This is a sister, a friend, a mother, a co-worker. In order to empower them, we must listen. And Becky’s Fund aims to do that with their mission and their participation in the Pepsi Refresh Challenge. You can help, too. All it takes is a click.

With the $50,000 Becky’s Fund hopes to get through the Pepsi Refresh Challenge, Becky’s Fund wants to create the first ever domestic violence phone application. By the end of its development, it will include a GPS/panic button for women who are in a crisis situation; a zip code locator for nearby shelters, hospitals, advocates; photo logging capabilities; and a privacy/security feature that will prevent their abusers from seeing or hacking into the application.

You can help victims of domestic violence by voting for Becky’s Fund today and every day for the entire month of August.

How you can vote:
- Online here.
- Texting 101506 to PEPSI (73774)
- Through Facebook (allow the application on your wall)

Voting can happen all three ways every day. The top 10 projects will receive $50,000 from the Pepsi Refresh Challenge. Help make it Becky’s Fund!

To find out more information about Becky’s Fund, please visit www.beckysfund.org.

Photos courtesy of Becky Lee.