Opportunity

Founding a company provides a unique opportunity to give a larger platform to deeply held personal values. For BryteBox Founder Juliana Ruiz, this couldn’t be more true! When Juliana founded the company, she was active in philanthropic causes personally and professionally, an outpouring of her highest value of serving the community. BryteBox’s client portfolio and project scopes grew quickly in its earliest years and Juliana looked no further than long-time colleague and fellow University of Miami alumni Brad Wells, who would join as Partner. Juliana and Brad continued their involvement in causes, serving as marketing, PR and business development advisors to both international 501c3s as well as community initiatives including National Voices for Equality, Education and Enlightenment (NVEEE), Surfrider Foundation, Comunidad Connect and more. Rooted and united in their philanthropic values, Juliana and Brad find themselves attracting like-minded clients across the years, together asking the question…

The Big Question

How can our company give back to the community in a meaningful, positive way?

Solution

As like attracts like, BryteBox clients share a common culture of community service. While diverse in industry, these clients see their respective companies as a platform for positive impact and often, their unique personal or family history drives the area of service they devote their time and expertise to. One BryteBox client, a high-end hospitality design company, turned heartache into encouragement for some of the most ill in our Miami community by designing patches for children with cancer when disease struck the founder’s grandson. Another BryteBox interior design firm client is passionate about finding cures for rare cancers and engages their entire team once per year to participate in Cycle for Survival benefitting Memorial Sloan Kettering. Aligning with client’s philanthropic passions and community service initiatives, BryteBox often spearheads client initiatives, providing strategic guidance as well as functional support including tasteful public relations and media engagement, social media campaign creation and web page design.

Results

Most recently, BryteBox was approached by long-time friend of the company, NVEEE, and its founder Jowharah Sanders, with a unique need. Jowharah is passionate about youth in need, especially within the LGBTQ+ community and she drew upon Juliana’s strength in maximizing the impact of public relations when launching NVEEE, a national 501(c)(3) bullying and suicide prevention nonprofit, when it launched in October 2009. As Founding Board Member, Juliana as well as the BryteBox PR team has worked with Jowharah and NVEEE to develop strategic campaigns as well as to help the team visualize project components. Since its founding, NVEEE has been featured in numerous national media outlets, including Secret Millionaire which resulted in NVEEE receiving $35,000 from MSNBC’s Marcus Lemonis. Receiving over a dozen awards and recognitions, NVEEE has also received four Congressional Records in the halls of Congress and the declaration of an official NVEEE Day (November 16, 2019) in Miami-Dade County. 

This year, the organization’s needs went beyond PR support:  students in the organization’s Peace Ambassador Leadership Program (PALP), were hoping to attend the nationally recognized Peace Ambassador Leadership Summit (PALS) locally at Florida International University (FIU) but wouldn’t be able to due to family financial constraints. Juliana knew a gift from BryteBox could help take that burden away so that the families and students could benefit from the immersive leadership experience. Now, two PALS participants were able to attend through scholarships provided by BryteBox.

BryteBox Quote

“Giving back is woven into the fiber of who BryteBox is. When we have the opportunity to align with clients who share a commitment to the greater good, we see this as a tangible expression of not only what we do in marketing and public relations, but who we are. This month in particular, I’m honored that BryteBox can support these future leaders through NVEEE’s PALS program in their life journey. “