We Asked 154 DV/SA Advocates What Tools

They Need Most. Here’s What They Told Us.

By Shawndell Dawson, Founder & CEO, Dawson Visionary Enterprises

On February 18th, I stood in front of 154 domestic violence and sexual assault advocates and asked them a simple question: What tools do you need most right now?

I wasn’t asking as a researcher collecting data for a report that would sit on a shelf. I was asking as someone who spent 15 years in federal leadership watching advocates do extraordinary work with inadequate tools — and who is now building something to change that.

The webinar, “Amazing Advocates Make Amazing Creators,” was a collaboration between Dawson Visionary Enterprises and ReloShare, a social enterprise providing housing solutions for survivors. 154 advocates joined live from over 20 states, representing shelters, coalitions, legal services, trafficking programs, and tribal communities. They stayed for 79 minutes — 19 minutes past the scheduled end — because the conversation was that important.

And what they told us is shaping everything we build next.

What 154 Advocates Are Telling Us

What You Need Most Right Now

We asked advocates to select up to two categories of tools that would be most helpful in their daily work. 89 advocates responded, and two categories dominated:

Other categories advocates identified: systems navigation shortcuts (30%), shelter operations guides (29%), peer mentoring frameworks (21%), new staff onboarding tools (18%), and coordination templates (15%). Every one of these represents a product that should exist on the Advocates Paying Advocates Marketplace — and several are already in development.

What You’re Most Excited to Create

Here’s where it gets really interesting. We didn’t just ask what advocates need. We asked what you’d be most excited to build.

42% chose burnout prevention and self-care — nearly double every other category. You’re not just telling us what you need. You’re telling us what you know. And you’re ready to share it.

25% were most excited to create operations and organization tools. 19% wanted to build coordination resources. And 15% were drawn to peer support and mentoring products.

This tells us something powerful: the expertise already lives in the field. Advocates aren’t waiting for outside consultants to build their tools. They’re ready to create them — for each other.

What You Want to Learn Next

We asked which topics would be most valuable for future webinars, and the response confirmed what we’re already hearing:

• 40%: Sustainability and multiple income streams (combining products, consulting, and community for long-term financial stability)
• 25%: Consulting as a revenue strategy (packaging your expertise and getting paid for what you know)
• 21%: Building your first digital product (a hands-on deep dive into creating and pricing)
• 15%: Unrestricted revenue for organizations (sustainable income through digital products for programs)

What We Heard in the Room

The polls gave us the numbers. The open conversation gave us the stories.

We asked advocates: “What did you wish you had when you first started?” The responses came from across the country — Alaska to Florida, tribal communities to urban shelters — and they echoed the same themes:

• Training that actually prepares you for the work, not just the theory
• Tools for managing burnout before it becomes a crisis
• Onboarding resources that help new advocates feel supported, not thrown in
• Mentorship from people who understand what this work really looks like
• Systems guides for navigating funding, legal processes, and community resources

One advocate shared that she became “the advocate I wanted to see here” — turning her own experience of needing support into a career of providing it. That’s exactly the spirit the APA Marketplace was built for: advocates creating the tools they wished they’d had, so the next generation doesn’t have to start from scratch.

What We’re Building Because You Said It Is What You Needed

This data isn’t sitting in a spreadsheet. It’s driving our product development, our creator recruitment, and our marketplace strategy right now.

Products in Development

Based on what you told us, we’re actively recruiting creators for burnout prevention and self-care tools, program organization systems, shelter operations guides, peer mentoring frameworks, and new advocate onboarding kits. If you have expertise in any of these areas, we want to hear from you.

The APA Marketplace Is Live

The Advocates Paying Advocates Marketplace launched this month as the first marketplace built specifically for DV/SA advocates and organizations to create and sell digital products to each other. We already have creators joining, products being submitted, and a growing community of advocates who believe in the communal economy model: advocates paying advocates, and everyone growing together.

What’s Next?

 This webinar was just the beginning. Based on what you told us, we're building more training content around the topics you ranked highest — starting with sustainability and multiple income streams. In the meantime, our free Creator Quick Start Session and upcoming Creator Kickstart Sessions are already available. Explore all of our trainings at dawsonvisionaryenterprisesllc.com/training.   More is coming soon.

Why I Built the Advocates Paying Advocates Marketplace

By Shawndell Dawson, Founder & CEO, Dawson Visionary Enterprises

Creating More for Helpers and Leaders

For over 40 years, advocates, survivors, leaders, communities, and agencies have worked tirelessly to strengthen services, supports, policies, and practices for millions of people who are surviving domestic violence, sexual assault, dating violence, stalking, trafficking, and other forms of abuse.

This leadership and advocacy are essential for us all, and the dedication to survivor safety is unwavering. Survivors and advocates have developed strategies to improve financial well-being and the resources needed to help people and families live safely in their homes and communities.

After 40 years, some important facts about survivor advocacy remain critical to the movement's sustainability. Access to resources—including income, housing, food, water, health care, employment, child care, and transportation—is essential for survivors, families, and advocates to live safely.

All around the world, economic empowerment bridges, programs, and services have been built for survivors and their children. With the Advocates Paying Advocates Marketplace and Dawson Visionary Enterprises, I have built an innovative platform and supportive communities to help advocates and survivor-leaders in their own economic empowerment journeys or entrepreneurship pathways.

Advocates have always found ways to share knowledge with each other. The APA Marketplace simply creates a platform where that expertise can reach further—and where creators can be compensated for what they share.

For decades, advocates and survivors have developed expertise that others need to help them operate, grow, connect, or scale their work. The APA Marketplace gives the advocacy community a platform to package that knowledge into digital products—policy guides, toolkits, courses, templates—and reach advocates across the country. And with the APA Marketplace, advocates and survivor-leaders at every level never have to figure it out alone—they can find resources that center survivors' perspectives. Whether they are creating essential job aids, nuanced training curricula, or boundary-spanning resources, advocates have options and flexibility to strengthen their financial futures their way. The APA Marketplace was built to honor Advocates, Survivor Leaders, and the Movement.

Complementing, Not Competing

Let me be clear: we are not here to compete with grant-funded resources. Those services are essential and irreplaceable. Instead, we're adding entrepreneurship, professional growth, career development, and frontline tools for advocates that extend beyond what grants typically cover.

Leadership & Organizational Capacity: Board governance, strategic planning, organizational effectiveness, leadership development

Peer Support & Frontline Tools: Advocate self-care resources, peer support systems, workflow templates, job aids

Enterprise & Business Development: Consulting resources, business development tools, marketing templates for advocates exploring entrepreneurship

A Communal Economy

What makes this marketplace different is who benefits. When you purchase a resource here, you're not sending money to an outside vendor who doesn't understand our work. You're directly supporting a fellow advocate who created something from their own hard-won expertise.

Creators keep 85-90% of every sale. Resources stay within the movement. And advocates support each other economically while maintaining their mission work.

This is what we mean by a communal economy: advocates paying advocates; advocates honoring all advocates’ expertise; and advocates building enterprises with other advocates.  

Your Mission. Your Financial Future. Both Matter. Supported advocates create a sustained movement.

For 28 years, I've worked alongside advocates and survivors in the movement to end violence against women and children. I've seen the deep expertise, creativity, commitment, and tenacity. As an advocate, I deeply understand what it means to need and want more options—more income flexibility, ways to leverage what you know to help your colleagues and peers, and a stronger pathway to improved financial wellbeing that, for many, includes increased savings, emergency funds, caretaking, and retirement.

Your mission and your financial future can both matter. 

Welcome to the APA Marketplace. We're glad you're here.

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Ready to share your expertise? Apply to become a creator today.

Looking for resources? Browse our catalog on the APA Marketplace home page.