2013 Annual Report
e write this year with hearts full of gratitude and minds full of possibilities. As a best practice model for a residential community and social enterprise, we’ve been humbled and invigorated by hundreds of visitors from across the country, by sellout crowds at our first national conference and annual fundraising event, and by growing national media coverage. While nurturing a national movement to end the sexual exploitation of women and children, at home we’ve celebrated 10 new Magdalene graduates, opened a café and sewing studio and launched our Shared Trade Alliance in partnership with five social enterprises. Our first quarter indicates a 100% increase in sales at Thistle Farms which translates into more full-time, managerial positions for Magdalene graduates. In 2014,
with your support, goodwill and prayers, our sights are set on a new house, a new Magdalene community inside prison walls, and increasing our workforce at Thistle Farms. Our goal is to hire graduates from Shared Trade enterprises in Houston, New Orleans and St. Louis as regional sales and marketing representatives. We believe that love heals. We’re finding that it also makes for good business. Women at Thistle Farms and Magdalene are thriving. Come visit us at the Thistle Stop Café. It’s a healing, joyful enterprise where everyone is welcome to experience firsthand the power of community and love. BECCA STEVENS
Executive Director, Thistle Farms
CARY RAYSON
Executive Director, Magdalene
Education Workshops and First National Conference
S ince 2010, Magdalene and Thistle Farms have welcomed more than 1,250 visitors from Atlanta to Canada to our free monthly Education Workshops. These “immersion days” are designed to offer a forum for sharing inspiration, education, resources, and best practices to help women recover and heal from poverty, addiction, trafficking, and prostitution. In October, we hosted our first national conference in Nashville – Welcome to the Circle: A Global Movement for Community Healing. The sold-out three-day conference brought 250 attendees together from 31 states across the country. Speakers included experts in the fields of global social enterprise, human rights, support for trafficking victims, recovery for sexual assault victims, law enforcement, and much more. Plans are underway for another conference in fall 2014.
2013 Highlights for the Women of Thistle Farms & Magdalene 10 women graduated
9 women obtained permanent housing
18 new women welcomed into the program, 3 beginning before the New Year
16 women began employment at Thistle Farms
2 women became car owners and 2 regained full custody of their children
15 graduates employed full-time at Thistle Farms, additional 20 residents and graduates working part-time!
Meet 8 Women & Learn about the Work of Thistle Farms & Magdalene ANIKA - INTERNET SALES & SHIPPING Anika Rogers, a Magdalene resident, is the lead member of the Shipping Team. She pulls both online and wholesale orders, double checks orders, and prepares all the packages for shipping. With a strong work ethic and leadership ability she is helping grow internet sales that have increased by 112% in the first quarter. The shipping team attributes the growth to: • Finding less expensive shipping options for packages under 25 pounds. • Developing the monthly Purple Monday sale. • Improving customer communication and reduction in errors.
SHANA – HOME PARTIES & EVENTS A 2013 graduate and member of the sales team, Shana Goodwin is one of Thistle Farms’s most passionate speakers. Shana has traveled throughout the United States speaking at churches, seminars and home parties. She is able to educate the wider community and bring in income through sales of Thistle Farms products. • In 2013 employees participated in over 300 events across the US. • More than 30 employees spoke in private homes, businesses, churches, conventions, health clinics, fairs and retreats. • Events comprise approximately 40% of our annual revenue.
• Events are opportunities for employees to learn marketing, public speaking, sales, and aesthetics of product displays.
ARLEATHA - THISTLE STOP CAFÉ Since opening day in May this year, Magdalene graduate Arleatha Walton has worked hard to move into management. As Manager, she is in charge of tracking inventory, ordering food, and daily operations. The Café began functioning in the black within the first month of its operation, employs five Magdalene graduates, and is served by an incredible team of volunteers. Highlights include: • A beautiful space designed by Hastings Architecture that features vintage red California pine flooring,
cabinets handcrafted by Turney Center inmates, and teacup chandeliers designed by artist James Worsham. • A menu featuring locally-prepared food, and fair-trade teas and coffees. • Thistle Thursdays that showcase live music. • Private rentals to host birthday parties, professional events, and receptions.
TAMMY - MANUFACTURING A graduate and a manufacturing supervisor, Tammy Martin helps manage materials, equipment, supplies, and inspects for quality control on the manufacturing floor. Her leadership includes motivating a team of workers, resolving conflicts, and maintaining order in a constructive way. Highlights for the department include introducing three new products, with another in the testing phase. The team has made improvements to keep up with increased demand including: • Point-of-Sale (POS) technology for all events. This increases computer skills and understanding of how technology improves both company and employee experience. • Cross-training of women to produce a wider variety of products than ever before. • Material Requirements Planning Matrix to help achieve professional and effective levels of production planning and purchasing. • Management and workforce training sessions.
JOAN - STUDIOS Joan Mayfield, a soon to be graduate, is a lead seamstress in the Studios, the paper and sewing department of Thistle Farms. As an enthusiastic member of the production team, Joan’s work involves sewing coasters, teaching new seamstresses, and sewing thistle cards. The Studios employ two residents, three graduates, and has a remarkable team of volunteers. Highlights for the Studios included: • The May launch of the sewing studio adjacent to the paper room— and in honor of board member Carlana Harwell with a gracious gift by Mary Ann Houghland. • Bookbinding and paper craft product commissions. • The 8’ Circle of Love quilt designed and coordinated by volunteers Gayle Happell and Babs Knieriem, and displayed on the Ryman stage for our fall fundraiser. • Hosting of the Thistle Stop Marketplace in early December — a handmade holiday shopping event involving employees and volunteers.
RONZA - WHOLESALE Graduate Ronza Williams has worked in many departments, but it was not until trying out sales that she found her niche. Now Ronza travels around the country serving retailers who carry Thistle Farms. Her duties include customer service, providing on-site demos of our products, and ensuring order fulfillment. With passion born out of personal experience, Ronza, and the rest of the sales team -- Katrina and Shana -- have helped wholesale sales grow 118% for the first quarter from last year! • Approximately 290 retail partners with Thistle Farms. • The South Region for Whole Foods and Mid Atlantic Region now carry our products. • In 2013 Thistle Farms sales team provided 80 demos for retailers.
MARCIE - VOLUNTEERING Marcie Brolund is a volunteer who works to bring physical wellness to lives of women in the program. With training as an RN, she helps manage exercise groups, nutrition classes, smoking cessation classes, and provides healthcare mentoring. One of the ways Marcie and women from Christ Presbyterian recently contributed to Magdalene was by creating a beautiful Winter Garden for the residential program. Volunteers continue to work in key roles throughout the Thistle Community. Some of these include providing support and assistance with: • Health and wellness groups. • Thistle Stop Café. • Tutoring and training. • Annual fundraiser and national conference. • Social media. • Farming thistles in the summer.
“I’ve seen women get new cars, places of their own, and witnessed special touching moments. I love being able to witness up close and personal how Love Heals!”
• In kind donations for graduates and supplies for the Studios.
DONNA - PROGRAM SERVICES
Every day at Magdalene, Donna Grayer and a small group of staff members, including two program graduates, offer women from the street therapeutic and peer support embedded in a steadfast commitment to the healing power of love. Magdalene staff and volunteers are celebrating the achievements of our most recent graduates and looking ahead in 2014 to expanding our program capacity in Nashville with a new residence and to launching a therapeutic community within the walls of the Tennessee Women’s Prison. While success for women locally at Magdalene occurs because of ongoing support from volunteers, donors, staff members like Donna, and nonprofit community partners like the Sexual Assault Center, The Next Door, InterFaith Dental and St. Thomas Family Health Center, it’s the work and lives of our graduates that makes Magdalene transformational. From providing outreach through the district attorney’s office, to corresponding with women in prison around the nation, to traveling across the country to talk about best practices for healing, it’s Magdalene graduates who are most directly responsible for growing a movement to end sexual violence against women and children and for spreading the truth that love heals.
Magdalene, Inc. and Subsidiary Consolidated Statements of Financial Position
June 30, 2013 and 2012
2013
2012
420,164
378,168
180,181
130,905
A ccounts R eceivable
29,131
14,256
I nventory
46,001
36,258
O ther C urrent A ssets
2,900
9,658
T otal C urrent A ssets
678,377
569,245
57,304
57,304
52,081
47,022
124,658
75,461
20,000
20,000
2,032,157
1,935,299
2,964,577
2,704,331
99,659
54,998
N urse P ractitioner P ayable
44,980
67,972
N otes P ayable , C urrent
14,424
13,583
159,063
136,553
20,000
20,000
24,214
38,005
203,277
194,558
2,335,831
2,066,042
T emporarily R estricted
325,469
343,731
P ermanently R estricted
100,000
100,000
2,761,300
2,509,773
2,964,577
2,704,331
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Visit GivingMatters.com for additional financial information.
Thistle Farms-Magdalene Board of Directors $76,102.35 $154,166.02
Thistle Farms Total Sales
$30,654.80 $66,884.27
Sales - Wholesale
Sales - Internet
Sales - Studio
Sales - Retail
$9,380.44 $24,054.85 $0.00 $2,137.00 $36,067.11 $61,089.90
1st Quarter 2012 1st Quarter 2013
Dorinda Carter Carole Hagan Rick Hart Carlana Harwell Jay Joyner Harley Lappin Sara Beth Meyers Katha Raulston Gilbert Smith Carolyn Snell Rod Spann
Sandy Stahl, Chair Kathleen Whalen, Secretary Miranda Whitcomb Pontes Dick Lodge, Legal Counsel Toni Rodgers, Accountant Cary Rayson, Executive Director, Magdalene Becca Stevens, Executive Director, Thistle Farms
The Board of Magdalene would like to recognize the following for their extraordinary support this year. In The News
We are so grateful for the support from national media who featured the organization this year including: ABC World News with Diane
Sawyer, New York Times with Nicholas Kristof, NPR with Jacki Lyden, Christian Century, Prism, VSConfronts.org, and Episcopal News Service.
Thistle Farms products were featured in O Magazine, People Country,
Cumberland Presbyterian Women’s Ministry Candy & Eddie DeBartolo and Family Peter Hawkins Dobberpuhl Foundation William R. Hearn Mary Ann Houghland Peggy & Don Napier Jeanette Travis Foundation Cal Turner Family Foundation Diane & Skip Bishop Boulevard Bolt Burton Family Foundation CCA Christ Cathedral Cockayne Fund William J. Collins Dandridge Trust Joe C. Davis Foundation Leeann & Jeff Hays Sarah & David Ingram Steve Johnson Kieschnick Family Fund James Lewis
Memorial Foundation Reba McEntire Lynne McFarland & Newell S. Anderson Mary & Doug Murphy Fiona & John Prine St. George’s Episcopal Church Sandra & Noel Stahl Richard & Mary Dale Smith Pam & Jim Terrell Wade Travis Marital Trust Miranda Whitcomb Pontes Barbara & Govan White Kelly Clague Wright
Special thanks FOr the remarkable in kind gifts, services and volunteer work from the following.
Real Simple, and Lucky Magazine. Nashville showed its support with coverage from The Tennessean, Nashville Scene, Nfocus, Nashville Post,
StyleBluePrint, City Paper, Chapter 16, TN Diocese Connections and local
news teams News 2, Fox 17, Channel 5, and Channel 4. Our gratitude for helping us share this work!
Who We Are
Thistle Farms is a social enterprise of women who have survived
prostitution, trafficking, and addiction. Thistle Farms houses the bath and body care company, Thistle Stop Café and paper and sewing
studios. Magdalene is the residential program that provides housing, food, healthcare, therapy, and education, without charging residents or receiving government funding. Thistle Farms and Magdalene stand as a witness to the truth that in the end love is the most powerful force for change.
Thistle Farms-Magdalene Correspondence: Box 6330B, Nashville, 37235 Location: 5122 Charlotte Pike, Nashville, TN 37209, 615.298.1140 M-F, 9:00am-4:00pm, info@thistlefarms.org /thistlefarms @thistlefarms, @revbeccastevens, @shanaavoice4all,
@dorriswalker, #loveheals
Volunteer 9:00am Wednesdays / Meditation, tours, volunteering. 12:00pm Mondays / Lunch at the Cafe, 12:45 tour. Confirm attendance / stacye@thistlefarms.org. Volunteer Updates /
Volunteer Thistle Farmers
Thistle Stop Café 5128 Charlotte Pike, Nashville, TN 37209
Marcie Brolund Carole Hagan Peggy Napier Kathy & Phil Nelson
Erin Lee Carolyn Snell Katha Raulston Toni Rodgers
Social Media Team of Mindy, Rachel & Kim The Studios Crew
Thank you to the 2013 Fundraiser Sponsors
M-F, 7:00am-2:00pm, Sat , 8:00am-2:00pm, thistlestopcafe.org /thistlestopcafe @thistlestopcafe, #loveheals
Check Facebook regularly for Thistle Thursday live music schedule! Thistle Farms & Thistle Stop Café will be closed the week following Christmas. See website for details.
Annual Report Credits Profiles of women were photographed by Erin Lee, The Photography
Collection. Thistle Farms products photographed by Peggy Napier. Cover
photograph by Mark Tucker. Annual Report design by Delevante Creative.
Shared Trade Alliance Launched in October ‘13, the Women’s Shared Trade Alliance is a coalition of social enterprises committed to bringing women permanently out of poverty through recovery from violence and sustainable employment. Small and large social enterprises around the globe will share best practices and marketing strategies for economic leverage. Initial participants include: James Nardella (Lwala), Rev. Frannie Keischneck, Fiona Prine, Becca Stevens, Sarah Suiter, Stephen Corradini (Whole Foods), Nicolas H. Hitimana (Ikirezi), and Callie Brauel (ABAN).
Thistle Farms Social Enterprise Partners Thistle Farms orders materials for products and kits from four social enterprises across the globe, employing women who are building new lives in the aftermath of violence and poverty. Lwala Community Alliance in Kenya, and its microenterprise, New Visions Sewing Group, is focused on health, education, and economic sustainability. By utilizing their bags for Thistle Farms Survival Kits, they were able to add two more seamstresses to keep up with demand. Ikirezi, in Kigali, Rwanda, partners with small cooperatives of farmers, primarily widows and orphans of the genocide, to produce high quality essential oil. Their geranium oil goes into Thistle Farms Geranium Spray, and other products.
ABAN in Accra, Ghana, empowers young impoverished women with tools necessary to make a living by upcycling 20,000 plastic bags per month into handmade products. Thistle Farms use of their products has helped ABAN grow to eighteen young mothers. Sibimbe in San Eduardo, Ecuador, creates bags made of traditional Ecuadorian fabric to hold Thistle Farm’s newest product, five unique Healing Oils. Currently, they are working on a business plan and considering items to expand the product line.
HOW TO HELP Purchase Thistle Farms for the Holidays and everyday use. Find our retail partners at THISTLEFARMS.ORG; Purchase online with promo code NEWYEAR for one-time free shipping (through 03/14). Invite Thistle Farms to an event or Becca to speak. Contact events@thistlefarms.org for events/home parties, tim@thistlefarms.org for Becca. Join the Thistle Farmer Club. Six shipments over twelve months – sign-up at thistlefarmerclub.com.
“Makes a Great Gift!”
Dine at the Thistle Stop Café or rent for an event. Have a birthday party or reception, contact courtney@thistlefarms.org. Give a year-end gift to help us welcome new women in 2014. Go to GIVELOVEHERE.COM to give through PayPal; or Write check to Magdalene Inc. and use enclosed envelope. Include email address on check memo for acknowledgement purposes.
Magdalene Inc. is a 501(c)(3) private nonprofit. Thistle Farms is its DBA. Gifts are tax deductibles as per federal laws.