Programs and results
What we aim to solve
With the rise of the #MeToo movement, more and more people are beginning to come to terms with their own history of sexual violence and are beginning to feel empowered to share their stories to promote awareness and help others. Many fear publicly joining the conversation through public social media, however, due to fear of external exposure, as well as a variety of environmental factors. This leaves many stories untold, especially those originating in underserved populations. This highlights the need for an anonymous online platform for survivors to share their stories.
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
Building a community to catalyze global change.
The purpose of Our Wave story collection is to collect stories of struggle, strength, and healing to foster a community of hope for survivors. We believe that stories are powerful and have the ability to build understanding, cultivate empathy, and ultimately create change.
Where we work
External reviews

Videos
Our results
How does this organization measure their results? It's a hard question but an important one.
Number of groups/individuals benefiting from tools/resources/education materials provided
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Related Program
Building a community to catalyze global change.
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
Each year we are growing our user base and platform interactions.
Number of unique website visitors
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Type of Metric
Outcome - describing the effects on people or issues
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
The total number of impressions on stories.ourwave.org per year.
Our Sustainable Development Goals
Learn more about Sustainable Development Goals.
Goals & Strategy
Learn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.
Charting impact
Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.
What is the organization aiming to accomplish?
The mission of Our Wave is to 1) Amplify sexual violence survivor voices who are not typically heard through mainstream media, 2) Foster connections between survivors to build hope that healing is possible with time, 3) Educate society on the scope and impact of sexual violence through story sharing and analysis of survivor narratives, and 4) Mobilize our communities to create evidence-based strategies for prevention and survivor support in order to create a wave of change.
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
Our Wave is an anonymous story sharing and data gathering platform for survivors of sexual violence aimed to build a community of hope and healing online. We built this platform in response to survivors' desires to anonymously reflect and connect with others who have undergone similar experiences. Through our platform, we hope to provide survivors with hope and healing to move past the most traumatic experiences of their lives.
We aim to connect with survivors through the following channels:
-Establish partnerships with national rape crisis centers and state coalitions.
-Connect with online survivor communities (Reddit, FB Groups, etc.)
-Digitally through Google Ads.
-Partnerships with corporate partners and universities.
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
We are an organization of passionate operations, technology, design, research, and survivor advocate volunteers. Since our launch in September 2019, we have solidified a team of 10 founding members who meet weekly. Our team has a diverse representation of product specialists who have extensive experience building and scaling technology companies. To learn more about our team please check out the about us section of our website to view specific bios. Alongside our team, we have formally established a non-profit board with some of the biggest names in the sexual violence prevention space. We would encourage you to view our team/board member page to see their bios and experience. https://www.ourwave.org/who-we-are
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
Since we were founded in July 2019 Our Wave accomplished the following:
Structuring
In 2019 Our Wave filed as a non-profit and obtained 501(c)(3) status.
Technology
In 2019 our team completed the entire design, development, and rollout of our web/mobile-responsive anonymous social media platform.
Staff
Our team grew to 10 dedicated volunteers. Our diverse team is comprised of engineers, designers, academics, healthcare professionals, and business/operations specialists.
Establishing Our Board
In 2019 we created our board of directors to support our governance and decision making. We are lucky to have Suzanne Brown-McBride, Samira Rajabi, Christopher Poe, and Kate Smith as our first 4 external board members alongside Kyle Linton and Brendan Michaelsen. We hope to increase the size of our board and advisory council in 2023.
Traction
Since our 2019 launch, we have received 500 stories and our site has over 120,000 views from survivors with over 28,000 users. We have created partnerships with Me Too International, It's On Us, End Rape on Campus, the NSVRC, Unapologetically Surviving and many other International Survivor Advocacy Organizations.
Financials
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Operations
The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.
Connect with nonprofit leaders
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- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
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Connect with nonprofit leaders
SubscribeBuild relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.
- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.
Our Wave
Board of directorsas of 02/24/2023
Kyle Linton
Our Wave
Brendan Michaelsen
Our Wave
Suzanne Brown-McBride
Impossible6, LLC
Samira Rajabi
University of Colorado
Christopher Poe
Wyrick Robbins
Kate Smith
Kate Smith CPA
Organizational demographics
Who works and leads organizations that serve our diverse communities? Candid partnered with CHANGE Philanthropy on this demographic section.
Leadership
The organization's leader identifies as:
The organization's co-leader identifies as:
Race & ethnicity
No data
Gender identity
No data
No data
Sexual orientation
No data
Disability
No data