Shocked. Ecstatic. Saddened. Honored.
These were some of the feelings that flowed through the ILF employees during an impromptu meeting in February 2021. Why? We were staring at a check from the Estate of Janice C. Boyd for $116,667.
The path to this generous gift began with a single tweet in early 2019. As we’ve highlighted previously, ILF fan Rachel Tobac challenged her Twitter followers to match her donations to the Innocent Lives Foundation. Phillip Wylie, the founder of The Pwn School Project, responded to her invitation not only by donating $200 but becoming a huge fan of ILF— and eventually an ILF Ambassador! We’ve also featured Phillip for taking it upon himself to run multiple fundraisers on our behalf; in the span of just eight months, Phillip ran four fundraisers selling shirts and hoodies. After one of those fundraisers, he felt that the number of sales did not meet his expectations; however, a man named Jake Satcher was one of the few that participated in the fundraiser.
Jake had been following The Pwn School Project to learn more about information security. After reading about the Innocent Lives Foundation during Phillip’s fundraiser, he set out to do more research. He appreciated how the ILF tied in with the information security community, using open source intelligence to identify child predators. Jake would often share information about the organization with his InfoSec coworkers, only to find that a coworker was friends with Chris Hadnagy, ILF’s founder and CEO.
On a personal level, Jake and his family were experiencing an unfortunate but expected change in circumstances as Ms. Boyd, Jake’s mother, approached the end of her five-year battle with cancer. As part of her last wishes, Ms. Boyd requested that Jake and his sister Secily each pick a charity to join a lineup of others that the family could support with her estate. Jake thought back to the Innocent Lives Foundation and began a dialogue with Chris Hadnagy to understand the mission first-hand. Jake said he wanted to help.
Ms. Boyd passed on October 11th of 2020, and her family lovingly honored her wishes.
While this may feel like the end of the story, it’s really just the beginning. Much to our surprise, we continue to receive disbursements from the estate. By the end of 2022, an estimated total of $200,000 will be donated to the ILF from the estate.
In earlier conversations, Jake told Chris that he wanted to do even more to help the mission. Jake continued raising awareness for the ILF by shouting the mission from the social media rooftops and in-person to anyone that would listen.
In June of 2021, Jake was invited to become an ILF Ambassador, which he takes very seriously. He has even sponsored ILF C and D league hockey teams: the ILF Heroes & Legends. Jake recently joined the official ranks as an ILF Volunteer, quickly becoming a valuable member of the team. He surprised everyone with the blog post “We Need ILF – A Survivor’s Story,” sharing his personal story of abuse and his insight regarding the need for the ILF mission.
Jake’s impact on the ILF has been substantial and it began the moment he became aware of the mission, choosing to take action by asking himself the one question we hear the most: “What can I do to help the ILF?”
The answer to that question: donate and spread awareness. Donations, both large and small, are the most direct route to supporting the mission. If it is in your power to contribute financially we are incredibly thankful, whether you give a one-time donation or join the ILF Hero Program to donate monthly and qualify for exclusive ILF swag. Please reach out to Jennifer at the Innocent Lives Foundation if you would like to donate in another way.
The impact of raising awareness is less obvious, so we tend to underestimate the power we wield. As this story shows, we make an impact every time we have a conversation, share the mission with our network, or display the ILF logo. As Jake and Chris’ mutual friend told us, “You never know what dots you may connect.”
The Innocent Lives Foundation is shocked, ecstatic, saddened, honored, and most importantly, thankful to be a part of Ms. Boyd’s legacy.
