Ship And Anchor

What Ship And Anchor does

Ship and Anchor is a privately held social impact enterprise founded by Devin D. Smith in 2019 in Washington, D.C. The company provides management consulting, business development, and strategic messaging services to organizations whose work touches its defined impact groups: currently and formerly incarcerated individuals, students at risk of or affected by the school-to-prison pipeline, and small business enterprises. At the center of the offering is the proprietary "What's Your Anchor" framework, a personal and professional capacity-building model that originated in Smith's prison journals and is structured around three components — Identity, Vision, and Shipmates. The framework has been operationalized into multiple program lines, including the ANCRD Voices nine-week theater-based social-emotional learning program delivered with Voices Unbarred and The National Theatre, the WYA Workforce Playbook 101 job-readiness curriculum piloted at Craven Community College, and the What's Your Anchor Initiative, a six-week program for incarcerated participants that launched inside Prince George's County Correctional Center in July 2025.

The company also operates a media division that has produced the award-winning documentary short "Letters from America's 3rd World" (Best Film, Criminal Justice Reform, 2023 International Social Change Film Festival), a podcast, and theatrical productions including "Through Our Eyes" and "Turning Pain Into a Purpose." Revenue is generated through professional-services consulting engagements, structured program delivery in partnership with academic institutions and community organizations, media/entertainment activities, and a Shipmate donation program starting at $25. The company works with a small founder-led team of 1-10 staff and contractors, has raised no institutional capital, and has expanded its operating footprint across the Washington, D.C. metro, North Carolina's Research Triangle, and Eastern North Carolina.

The business model is best characterized as a hybrid professional-services and program-delivery model: quote-based consulting for organizational clients, partnership-led program implementation for institutional buyers (schools, correctional facilities, community organizations), and donor-supported media/community content. Go-to-market is community-led, event-driven, and direct-to-multimedia, leveraging Smith's personal networks, speaking appearances, and earned media rather than paid acquisition. Customer concentration is diversified across multiple nonprofit, education, arts, government, and industry partners, but the absence of disclosed revenue and the founder-led delivery structure suggest a small, relationship-driven operating base whose growth is constrained more by delivery capacity than by demand.

Name

Ship And Anchor

Legal name

Ship and Anchor, LLC

Website

https://shipandanchorbiz.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2019

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Ship and Anchor is a Washington, D.C.-based social impact enterprise that provides management consulting, business development, strategic messaging, and reentry/workforce programs to organizations serving currently and formerly incarcerated individuals, students, and small businesses, anchored by founder Devin Smith's proprietary "What's Your Anchor" framework.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Washington

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Management Consulting: Professional consulting services including management consulting, business development strategy, and organizational capacity building for social impact organizations.
2. Strategic Messaging Services: Communications consulting and strategic messaging development for organizations serving impact groups.
3. Training and Development Programs: Structured training programs including the WYA Workforce Playbook 101 and custom curriculum delivery for workforce development and job readiness.
4. Media and Entertainment: Revenue generation through documentary film production, multimedia content creation, original music, and entertainment events. Includes award-winning documentary 'Letters from America's 3rd World' and associated multimedia series.
5. Donations and Shipmate Program: Tax-deductible contributions through PayPal with Shipmate membership ($25 or more) providing exclusive access to multimedia content and community.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion3 records

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels7 records

Core offering

Ship And Anchor is a social impact enterprise that delivers consulting, business development, and strategic messaging services to underserved communities and the organizations that serve them. It uses a proprietary "What's Your Anchor" framework to help impact groups — currently/formerly incarcerated individuals, students, and small business enterprises — build foundational stability, develop messaging, and scale their operations.

Product overview

Ship and Anchor is a social impact enterprise offering a unified suite of consulting services and programs centered around its proprietary What's Your Anchor Framework. The core offerings include Management Consulting, Business Development, and Strategic Messaging services, supplemented by initiative programs like the What's Your Anchor Initiative (focused on advocacy, workforce development, and wellness for incarcerated individuals), ANCRD Voices (theater-based social-emotional learning), and the multimedia project Letters from America's 3rd World (documentary, podcast, docuseries). The company serves organizations and individuals within its defined Impact Groups: currently and formerly incarcerated people, students, and small business enterprises.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• What's Your Anchor Framework: A wellness-centered personal and professional capacity building framework developed from prison journal insights, designed to help individuals align passion, purpose, and ability.
• Letters from America's 3rd World
• ANCRD Voices
• WYA Workforce Playbook 101

Products and services

• ANCRD Voices
• What's Your Anchor Initiative
• WYA Workforce Playbook 101
• Letters from America's 3rd World
• Consulting and Business Development Services

Quantifiable outcome

• Six-week What's Your Anchor Initiative program for incarcerated individuals with personalized reentry playbook outcomes
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers5 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature4 records

Partnerships

Twelve partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• Voices UnbarredcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerLongtime partner on multiple initiatives including ANCRD Voices program and What's Your Anchor Initiative. Co-creator Lori Pitts is Voices Unbarred founder and Ally Theatre Creative Director. Devin Smith serves on Voices Unbarred board. Collaboration integrates Theater of the Oppressed techniques with social emotional learning.
• E18hteen Wheeln EnterprisescoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartnership to expand trucking brand and launch reentry-focused CDL training program for individuals returning from incarceration. Ship and Anchor provided brand strategy, marketing, and partnership development. Kevin Palmer, CEO, was incarcerated with Devin Smith.
• Making a Difference (MAD)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartnership beginning summer 2023 with MAD and Strong Azz Mothers group of mothers who lost sons to gun violence. Collaboration produced sold-out theatrical play 'Turning Pain Into a Purpose' and led to private meeting with Mayor Muriel Bowser.
• Fair Budget CoalitioncoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerDevin Smith named Co-Chair of Community Safety Policy Issue Committee. Coalition advances budget and policy solutions addressing poverty and strengthening community wellbeing in Washington, D.C. Role shapes public safety priorities across the District.
• Georgetown University Center for Social Justice Research, Teaching and ServicecoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartnership through ASK Program to support DC youth and help curb rising juvenile gun violence. Collaboration on ANCRD Voices program integrating social emotional learning and advocacy training.
• The National Theatre FoundationcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartnership on ANCRD Voices program bringing students from The Social Justice School to perform at The National Theatre. Foundation provides community programming through Community Stage Connections initiative.
• The Social Justice SchoolcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerEducational partner for ANCRD Voices program providing students who performed at The National Theatre. Program focuses on social justice issues and advocacy training.
• Justice Arts Coalition (JAC)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerProvider of JUSTstories program that helped create 'Letters from America's 3rd World' documentary. JUSTstories is a documentary videography curriculum supporting nonprofits in visual storytelling. Supported by Art for Justice Fund.
• Unchained StoriesminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerSocial impact production company that helped 6 creators bring messages to life through JUSTstories program.
• Craven Community CollegeminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerInitial implementation site for WYA Workforce Playbook 101 Job Readiness Bootcamp in New Bern, NC targeting returning citizens.
• Arts Institute for Creative AdvancementminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerDC-based partner for WYA Workforce Playbook 101 implementation in Washington, D.C.
• 202Creates Residency ProgramminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerMayor Muriel Bowser's residency program. Both Devin Smith and Lori Pitts are alumni of the program which supports artists and creatives in Washington, D.C.

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• JustLeadershipUSA: National organization led by directly impacted people working to cut the U.S. correctional population in half. Comparable to Ship and Anchor's criminal-justice-reform mission, lived-experience leadership, and policy advocacy orientation; smaller scale and member-based model.
• Root & Rebound: California-based nonprofit providing reentry support, legal education, and system-change advocacy for people leaving incarceration. Comparable in mission focus and small-team delivery model, though primarily legal-services oriented rather than consulting and capacity-building.
• Defy Ventures: National nonprofit that leverages entrepreneurship and personal development to support currently and formerly incarcerated people. Directly comparable to Ship and Anchor in combining personal development frameworks, business training, and reentry support, often delivered in correctional settings.
• Dream.Org (formerly Dream Corps): National organization working on criminal justice reform, green jobs, and tech equity through advocacy and direct programs. Comparable to Ship and Anchor in combining criminal-justice-reform advocacy with direct program delivery and policy engagement.
• Voices Unbarred: DC-based nonprofit using theater, storytelling, and advocacy to amplify voices of formerly incarcerated people. Closest collaboration partner and peer — Ship and Anchor's ANCRD Voices program was co-developed with Voices Unbarred and shares its Theater of the Oppressed methodology.

Broad incumbents

• Center for Employment Opportunities (CEO): National nonprofit providing immediate paid employment, job coaching, and retention support for people returning from incarceration. Closest workforce-reentry peer to Ship and Anchor's WYA Workforce Playbook 101 and CDL training initiatives, with a far larger footprint and contract-based government funding model.
• The Fortune Society: NYC-based nonprofit providing reentry services, workforce development, and advocacy for people impacted by incarceration. Comparable to Ship and Anchor in serving formerly incarcerated populations with integrated programming, though operating at significantly larger scale and broader service menu.
• Year Up: Large workforce development nonprofit connecting young adults from underserved communities to corporate careers through training and placement. Comparable to Ship and Anchor's WYA Workforce Playbook 101 in serving opportunity youth with structured job-readiness curricula, but at vastly greater scale and with corporate employer partnerships.
• The Marshall Project: Nonprofit news organization covering the U.S. criminal justice system through journalism, documentary, and multimedia storytelling. Comparable to Ship and Anchor's "Letters from America's 3rd World" documentary, podcast, and narrative-change work, though operating as a journalism outlet rather than a consulting practice.

Emerging players

• Braven: National nonprofit supporting college students from underserved backgrounds through career acceleration programming. Comparable in workforce-readiness and capacity-building pedagogy, though focused on college-to-career pathways rather than reentry.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/ship-and-anchor-llc

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Ship And Anchor