While Kate Spade is no longer with us, her eponymous brand is working to carry on her legacy by helping those with similar challenges.
On Wednesday, the Kate Spade New York brand announced its plan to donate more than $1 million to suicide prevention and mental health awareness causes in honor of their late founder. As the brand penned on Instagram, they will begin with $250,000 for the Crisis Text Line, a free, 24/7 support line for those in crisis.
The bran also encouraged people to make donations to the Crisis Text Line from June 20 through June 29 as they will match public donations up to the amount of 100,000 during that time period.
"To make your donation, please go to crisistextline.org/katespadeny," the company concluded. "Thank you for your generosity and support."
Spade co-founded the company with her husband Andy Spade in 1993 and the two sold their shares in 2006. Spade's famous brother-in-law David Spade also made a $100,000 donation to the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), the largest grassroots mental health organization in the United States, after her death.
Kate Spade New York's announcement comes a day ahead of her funeral, which is scheduled to take place on Thursday in Kansas City.
Spade will be honored with a Christian mass and burial. In addition to having KSNY match a donation to the Crisis Text Line, loved ones and fans can honor Spade's devotion to animals by donating to the ASPCA or to Wayside Waifs, Kansas City's largest no-kill animal shelter and pet adoption campus, in lieu of flowers.
On June 5, the 55-year-old mogul and mother was found unconscious and unresponsive by her housekeeper inside her New York City apartment bedroom. Her death was later ruled a suicide by hanging. On the heels of her death, it was confirmed that she had battled depression and anxiety for years.
"Kate Spade, the visionary founder of our brand, has passed. Our thoughts are with her family at this incredibly heartbreaking time," the company said in a statement at the time of her death. "We honor all the beauty she brought into this world."