Kate Spade Foundation to donate $1 million to suicide prevention and mental health awareness
Donations will begin with $250,000 (£190,178) to Crisis Text Line
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Your support makes all the difference.The Kate Spade New York Foundation will donate $1 million (£760,655) to suicide prevention and mental health awareness causes, following the death of the company creative director and co-founder.
Spade, who cofounded the company in 1993, died in her apartment of suicide on June 5 at the age of 55.
In a statement, her husband Andy Spade, confirmed that she had been "seeing a doctor on a regular basis and taking medication for both depression and anxiety."
He added that the designer had "personal demons" which she was battling.
Making the announcement on Instagram the brand wrote: “In honour of our company founder, Kate Spade, we’re donating to mental heath awareness causes. We’ll match your donations, too.”
The donations will begin with $250,000 (£190,178) to the Crisis Text Line, and the brand will match public donations up to the amount of $100,000 (£76,071) made between June 20 and 29.
The remaining $750,000 (£570,536) in funds will go exclusively to other mental health and suicide prevention causes.
“Kate Spade was a true fashion icon who brought joy to the lives of women around the world, and inspired women to live life to the fullest. We are dedicated to carrying on her legacy,” Anna Bakst, brand president and chief executive officer of Kate Spade New York, told WWD.
“Mental health does not discriminate; it is complicated and difficult to diagnose and can often be life-threatening. We hope that our support will shed even more light on the disease and encourage those who suffer from mental health issues to seek help. Collectively, we must all do more.”
Kate Spade New York has also announced that it will host a Global Mental Health Awareness Day for employees in corporate and regional offices, in what is the first instalment of its Wellness Programme.
The company hopes that it will help raise awareness of mental health, call attention to warning signs and encourage intervention and treatment for those in need.
The Crisis Text line provides free, 24/7 support for people in crisis by texting 741741, a person will be connected to a trained crisis counsellor.
Public donations can be made to Crisis Textline through crisistextline.org and crisistextline.org/katespadeny during the specified time period
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