We recently connected with Hannah Hollander and have shared our conversation below.

Hannah, appreciate you joining us today. Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?

In August 2018, I left my abusive ex-husband. I didn’t understand that I was experiencing abuse until after I left. In the coming months, I would learn that 1 in 3 women and 1 in 4 men would be victims of Intimate Partner Violence in their lifetimes. I was shocked! I kept thinking to myself, “Why aren’t people talking about this??” Frustrated at the lack of education or awareness of the subject, I decided to post my story on Facebook in hopes it would bring awareness to the reality of what abuse actually looks like in relationships.

The post went viral and was shared over 123,000 times. I was receiving hundreds of messages and thousands of comments from fellow survivors – some needed support and some just wanted to share their own stories and say, “me too.” Completely overwhelmed and feeling a responsibility to do something, I decided to make a Facebook support group for domestic violence survivors. In two weeks, we had over 12,000 members! The response was overwhelming, but we were clearly meeting a need in the domestic violence space. I had people all across the US offer to help admin and moderate the group. We formulated a volunteer team, roles, responsibilities, rules, and rhythms for the group.

Speak Your Truth Today is now an official 501(c)3 nonprofit, has won multiple awards and grown to nearly 19,000 members worldwide. We amplify the voices of victims and survivors of domestic violence and hope to become an essential resource for domestic and sexual violence nonprofits worldwide. We are uniquely positioned to reach survivors who are still in relationships — something many organizations are unable to do — and are able to walk with survivors on their entire journeys out of abuse.

Hannah, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I am from a small, religious town in northwest Washington called Lynden. I grew up surrounded by family who was (and still is) incredibly loving — many of whom are entrepreneurs. I feel like I have always had a business mindset engrained in me, even though I got an art degree and am a Graphic Designer. I have always been incredibly organized, goal-oriented, and tend to think several years down the road. So, when my post went viral, I think it was almost instinctual of me to create something out of it.

Thankfully, I was unique in the fact that I have incredibly supportive family and friends as a survivor (often, many are isolated or have limited support), so there was a confidence as well with stepping forward and sharing my truth. I knew I had an incredible safety net, and that was a powerful part of my ability to even step forward. I wanted to speak for those who couldn’t, and my mission from day one has always been to uplift the voices of those who’ve been silenced. When you are vulnerable, it allows others to be vulnerable as well, and more discussions surrounding the topic of domestic and sexual violence needs to happen in order for our society to become educated as a whole.

Speak Your Truth Today has become an incredibly empowering space, and one that I hope will continue to have major effects on survivors’ journeys towards freedom. I couldn’t be more proud of my incredible team of volunteers, staff, board members, supporters, and donors. It certainly takes a community of powerful, passionate, and dedicated people to make a true difference, and we have officially surpassed a collective 50,000 hours volunteered towards our organization since we began in 2019.

How do you keep your team’s morale high?

I have always been a huge advocate for building and investing in your team. To accomplish the work we do, it takes a very large team with responsibilities shared well. Our team is all over the U.S., and everything we do is virtual. The content we deal with daily (domestic and sexual violence, many of whom are in the midst of dealing with these relationships), can be very heavy. Additionally, not a single one of us does full-time SYTT work, everyone has other responsibilities that often have to take priority, so adding the isolation between team members can be difficult.

Flexibility is key, and ensuring that the place your team is committing volunteer hours (or extra time in their busy schedule to) is a place that brings them joy, meaning, and connection.

There are several ways we do this. I have built-in 1-on-1’s, team calls, and then optional team meetups to boost morale and interaction between team members (which doesn’t have to discuss the work we do.) Humor is an important part of our volunteer atmosphere, and we highly encourage honesty and openness. We try to be a safe space for our team members, and invest in their training / certifications.

Can you talk to us about how your funded your business?

We were extremely fortunate to qualify for Facebook’s Community Accelerator Program only a couple months after we gained 501(c)3 status in May of 2021. This program was highly competitive, included a $50K grant, and targeted groups like ours that were benefiting a specific community in a unique way. We were one of 131 groups worldwide to qualify out of over 14,000 applicants, so it was amazing to be recognized by Facebook for the work we are doing in the support group. Through this program, we qualified for an additional $30K in funding through a pitch competition, which the top 25% of the 131 groups won. This funding has been incredibly influential in the launch and growth of our nonprofit.

Additionally, we had a “Help get us up and running” campaign that rallied volunteers and supporters to help us also gain initial capital to launch us as we started. This helped us raise over $25K, and begin to develop relationships with supporters and donors. Fundraising is very difficult, and will always continue to be so, but finding those who believe in what you’re doing enough to offer financial commitment is always humbling. In the short amount of time I have been a fundraiser, I have learned that if you try your best to keep fundraising relationship-focused, and treat your relationship with the person/donor as more important than the money goal, your fundraising experience overall will be less stressful and more life-giving. Ultimately, people want connection and meaning, and figuring out how to meet that need in a way that is best for the person/donor/business AND for the nonprofit is the balancing act that I often juggle.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://www.speakyourtruth.today
• Instagram: @speakyourtruth.today
• Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/speakyourtruth.np
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/speakyourtruthtoday/
• Other: Facebook Support Group for Domestic Violence Survivors: www.facebook.com/groups/speak.your.truth.today Share Your Truth LIVE Podcast: https://anchor.fm/shareyourtruthlive Donate to amplify survivor voices: https://www.speakyourtruth.today/donate Learn if your relationship is abusive through our 5 min quiz: http://www.speakyourtruth.today/quiz

Image Credits
Jennifer Swenson