748. How One Founder's Lived Experience Created 116,000 Anchors - Ali Borowsky, Find Your Anchor
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About This Episode
A note before you listen: This episode discusses suicide and suicide prevention. If you or someone you know is struggling, you’re not alone. In the U.S., call or text 988 to reach the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, available 24/7. Outside the U.S., visit findahelpline.com to find support near you.
Ali Borowsky used to design for the NHL Winter Classic. Now she designs something far more personal: a small blue box that tells whoever finds it that strangers care. 🩵
Rooted in her own lived experience, Find Your Anchor brings color, creativity, and humanity to suicide prevention. Guest co-host Aila Malik brought Ali to the mic to share how a grassroots nonprofit with a product reached 116,000 boxes through handwritten notes, community box builds, and partners from middle schools to the San Francisco 49ers.
In this episode, you'll hear:
Why letting partners lead is the fastest way to reach communities you could never reach alone
How staying "unapologetically analog" helped a small nonprofit scale without losing its soul
What happens when 3,500 requests arrive in 24 hours and your business model is karma
How to protect your own wellness when your heart work becomes your job
You'll walk away with a fresh take on partnership, scale, and the small things that keep people going. 🩵
Episode Highlights:
(4:42) Ali's story: creating what she wished she'd had
(5:41) What's inside the box, and what an "anchor" really is
(10:39) Three ways the boxes get into the world
(13:17) Customizing boxes with nonprofit partners
(16:21) From box one to 116,000: staying unapologetically analog
(21:37) A nonprofit with a product: when your business model is karma
(24:05) What Ali has learned about win-win partnerships
(27:04) Staying well while doing heart work
(35:41) One good thing: learn three people's anchors
Meet Ali: The Designer Who Turned Lived Experience Into a Community of Strangers Who Care
Ali Borowsky is the founder and executive director of Find Your Anchor, a Long Beach, California-based suicide prevention nonprofit. Before launching Find Your Anchor, Ali was the design lead for the NHL Winter Classic and Stadium Series. She speaks openly about surviving multiple suicide attempts, and built Find Your Anchor around a simple belief: if strangers show you they care, it gets easier to believe your friends and family do, too.
Under Ali's leadership, Find Your Anchor has partnered with organizations from Wounded Warrior Project to the San Francisco 49ers. Her anchor lately? Anything ube.
Guest Co-Host: Aila Malik is a lawyer, children’s book author, and former adjunct lecturer in juvenile justice at Santa Clara University School of Law. She is the founder and co-principal of Venture Leadership Collective, where she draws on more than 20 years of experience helping mission-driven organizations in education, justice, and community work launch, expand, and grow.
Powerful Quotes
"If I could create something that showed you that strangers care about you, maybe it won't be so hard to believe that your friends and family do as well." - Ali
"It's not solving anything, but it's something to get you through another night, another two hours, another 10 minutes." - Ali
"It's hard enough to ask for help. The follow-up question shouldn't be, what's your credit card number." - Ali
"We have remained unapologetically analog." - Ali
"Let partners lead the way. They know their communities better." - Ali
"There's not a one size fits all solution to this." - Ali
"Every box is tied to a human." - Ali
"I see you. I don't even have to know what to say, but I see you and I want to be there." - Ali
"Stepping more into other people's worlds and learning how to show up in how they are telling you they want you to show up." - Ali
"The definition of philanthropy is love of humanity." - Aila
Resources Mentioned
Find Your Anchor: suicide prevention nonprofit sending free boxes of resources and good vibes to anyone struggling
Find Your Anchor on Instagram: see the boxes come alive — @findyouranchorbox
Find Your Anchor box request form: request a free box for yourself or a friend
Gottman's "bids for connection:" Dr. John Gottman's research on turning toward the people you love
Venture Leadership Collective: Aila Malik's firm helping mission-driven organizations launch, expand, and grow
988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline — call or text 988 (U.S.) — 988lifeline.org
Join fellow changemakers, share takeaways from this episode, and keep collaborating in a space built for connection, inspiration, and real impact: www.weareforgoodcommunity.com
