DomesticShelters.org was launched in late August, 2014 to fulfill a missing and needed resource for domestic violence survivors: making it faster and easier to get help online and on mobile devices. Now just 19 months later the website has reached the milestone of experiencing its 1,000,000th visitor.
"We did a little celebratory dance today. One million is a big number. But truthfully the website is still in its infancy," said Anita Hildreth, executive director of non-profit Theresa's Fund which operates DomesticShelters.org. "Many people are still learning about our service and the traffic to the website should continue to rise as the word spreads."
The website is projected to experience 935,000 visitors and 2.9 million page views in its second full year (August 2015 through July 2016), which will represent 148% growth in visitors and 278% growth in page views versus its first 12 months (August 2014 through July 2015) when it experienced 376,000 visitors and 768,000 page views.
"Another way to look at this is that we're currently seeing about 125 visitors per hour. When you boil it down like that, it really puts into perspective the incredible need for what we're doing," added Hildreth. "I'm very proud of our team for providing such a valuable resource and for continuing to find ways to make what we do even better."
When DomesticShelters.org launched its primary focus was on providing the first online and mobile searchable database of 3,000+ programs and shelters in the U.S./Canada, as well as helpful articles on a wide variety of domestic violence topics.
Since then it has become the fastest growing website in North America on the topic of domestic violence and has been supplemented with recommended books to read, surveys, infographics, statistics, checklists, widgets that allow the DomesticShelters.org content to live on other websites, and an ever-expanding library that contains more than 260 articles.
So what's next?
"Through this project, we're learning every day and finding new ways to help survivors based on real time input and observation," said Hildreth. "That's one of the beauties of a service that is delivered online and over social media. The feedback loop is instantaneous and our service can evolve rapidly. We have a number of innovative additions to the site that are currently being developed, and there's certain to more."
About Theresa’s Fund
Theresa’s Fund is an Arizona-based 501(c)3 non-profit charity started in 1992 by Preston V. McMurry, Jr. Originally, and at a time when domestic violence wasn’t yet a headline, Theresa’s Fund focused on changing the landscape of domestic violence services in its home state through grant making, board development and fundraising for Arizona-based organizations like East Valley Child Crisis Center, Sojourner Center, Florence Crittenden, Emerge, UMOM, and West Valley Child Crisis Center. In 2014, it developed the DomesticShelters.org concept as a way to expand its reach to people across the U.S./Canada. DomesticShelters.org is the first online and mobile searchable database of programs and shelters in the U.S./Canada, and a leading source of helpful tools and information for people experiencing and working to end domestic violence.