ABOUT FREEFROM
FreeFrom is a proudly feminist national organization led by queer, trans, im/migrant, and BIPOC survivors. Our mission is to end gender-based violence by building economic freedom and safety with survivors.
OUR MISSION
At FreeFrom, we work to end gender-based violence with survivors by building safety and economic freedom.
We do this through bold survivor-led strategies that build our collective power and activate everyone in society to play their part—before, during, and beyond moments of crisis.
WHAT WE DO
Starting from our conviction that gender-based violence is an economic issue, our work takes four main areas of focus:
SUPPORT SURVIVORS
We innovate with survivors to create tools, resources, and environments that offer support before, during, and beyond moments of crisis. Survivors can then build financial security to support their individual, intergenerational, and community healing.
- Safety Fund: We provide direct cash assistance to meet survivors’ immediate needs, like food, rent, and utilities.
- Savings Matching Program: Our year-long program supports survivors in building emergency savings by matching their monthly savings until they reach $1,440 in savings.
- My Next Steps: Our three-month program fosters community amongst survivors as they build financial security together.
- GIFTED by FreeFrom: Our social enterprise helping survivors generate wealth through entrepreneurship and living wage employment.
Shift the narrative
We celebrate survivors’ stories of joy, resilience, and strength to instill hope and counter the narrative that this is an unsolvable problem. Through our storytelling and research, we reframe gender-based violence and spur action toward solutions.
- Survivor-led Storytelling: We produce storytelling projects, like our documentary SURVIVOR MADE, to shift the dominant narrative on survivorship to one of joy and possibility, so more people are inspired to turn toward this issue and ask what they can do to support survivors.
- Research: With one of the most robust datasets of survivors in the U.S., we have conducted groundbreaking research with over 10,000 survivors to fill in the gaps of our society’s understanding of survivorship and the true costs of being subjected to gender-based violence.
- Reports like “Trust Survivors”: Guidelines with input from over 1000 survivors, on how to build effective cash assistance programs based on what people actually want and need.
Drive systemic change
We mobilize powerful institutions—including banks, employers, and every level of government. We equip them with a roadmap for what they can do to support survivors and enact widespread change.
- State Policy Work: In conjunction with 4,000+ survivors, we’ve developed a set of policy priorities and a roadmap for change through state legislation.
- Federal Policy Work: We educate lawmakers on the intersection of gender-based violence and financial security, and we work with regulators and policymakers to prioritize survivors’ needs.
- Survivor Supportive Workplaces: We partner with employers to help them develop and provide policies and benefits to create more supportive workplaces for survivors of gender-based violence.
- Survivor Safe Banking Initiative: We collaborate directly with financial institutions and advocate for policy change at every level of government to address economic abuse and ensure every survivor has access to a safe bank account.
Resource and expand the Movement
We build survivors’ collective power, bringing more funding to the movement to end gender-based violence and creating sustainability for this work so that we can see through a 100-year strategy and create a world without gender-based violence (GBV).
- Survivor Wealth Summit: Our bi-annual event bringing together survivors, advocates, activists, funders, policymakers, and key stakeholders to build community and innovate together.
- Advocacy: We coordinate funders and partners to advocate for more investment in the movement, so our collective work to innovate solutions to end gender-based violence is no longer stymied by a lack of funding.
- Reports like “Survivors Know Best”: A comprehensive study of 1,300 survivors’ financial well-being and the cost of abuse—and how we can best support them.
WHAT WE STAND FOR
At FreeFrom, our values drive everything we do.
01
Resilience
It is possible to end gender-based violence if we invest in long-term strategies and systemic change. We do not let quick wins or short-term losses distract us from this goal. Instead, we know that we are part of a lineage of activism, and we move forward with patience, collaboration, and focus.
02
Transformation
We are committed to developing a diversity of holistic and innovative approaches to drive systemic change that can meet the needs of all survivors. We are nimble as we disrupt cycles of violence, both interpersonally and societally—because we know, one solution never fits all.
03
Abundance
We believe in abundant possibilities, and we are committed to working generously with our partners to freely share resources, knowledge, and findings. We know that survivor healing and prosperity is possible, and we champion this belief as an organization by paying fair living wages to all staff. The most abundant world is one in which everyone is safe and free.
04
Co-Creation
We know that we represent one part of an expansive movement to end gender-based violence. And we believe in working hand-in-hand with others to create a world, centered on survivors, where all survivors can thrive.
We envision a society free from gender-based violence, where everyone is safe to live out their full potential.
MEET THE TEAM
WATCH THE FILM
Watch TRAILER
SURVIVOR MADE
Boundless Possibilities Start with Survivor Healing: A Documentary about GIFTED and FreeFrom.
SURVIVOR MADE follows a group of survivors as they defy the odds – building their own thriving businesses in Los Angeles, lobbying for change in Washington D.C., and fighting to prove that investing in survivors saves lives.
Directed by Drew Denny and brought to you by executive producers Padma Lakshmi, Roxane Gay, Chase Joynt, Nava Mau, Debbie Millman, Alok Vaid-Menon, and Fawzia Mirza, SURVIVOR MADE is a call to action and the joyful film we all need to see. Witness how small acts of support can drive meaningful change, and discover your role in ending gender-based violence.
WORKING AT FREEFROM
We’re proud of our work culture, which puts our values into action to ensure the financial security, well-being, and safety of our team. Learn more and check out our latest job opportunities.
WORK WITH US
Here, gifting is a radical act of love
At GIFTED, we are ending gender-based violence by investing in survivors. As a survivor-owned and operated business, we partner with survivor-entrepreneurs to grow their ventures into thriving businesses. This is radical community care that benefits everyone.
SHOP THE GIFTED STORE NOWBOLD THINKING
Our team is never afraid to disrupt norms with our powerful mission and message.
learn more about the team
our values at work
We’re proud of our special work culture, which puts our values into action to ensure the financial security, well-being, and safety of our team.
One way we achieve this is through our compensation, which we set based upon the following principles:
01
FreeFrom is focused on building financial security and our work is based on the fact that healing is incredibly expensive.
02
We are committed to hiring QTBIPOC folks and survivors and supporting their healing. Several members of our team are first-generation college attendees with no generational wealth to their names.
03
We know that most employees spend an average of eight hours a week while at work worrying about money. Paying well is good for productivity.
04
The non-profit movement is not sustainable, and the high burnout and turnover that comes from underpaying staff costs non-profits money in productivity gaps, rehiring costs, and training costs. We eliminate those by paying well in the first place.
You can learn more about our work culture by listening to our Founder and CEO Sonya Passi talking on Moe Carrick’s Let’s Make Work Human podcast.
WELL-BEING AND BENEFITS
We care deeply about our team. That’s why we offer a wide range of benefits and support.
6 MONTHS PARENTAL LEAVE
100% COVERED HEALTH, VISION, AND DENTAL INSURANCE
UNLIMITED MENSTRUAL LEAVE
GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE PAID AND PROTECTED LEAVE
UNLIMITED VACATION, VACATION STIPEND, AND 8 WEEKS OFFICE CLOSURE
BUILDING WEALTH STIPEND
PERSONAL AND PROFESSIONAL GROWTH STIPEND
5% COMPANY MATCH OF 401K