My Nonprofit Reviews

My story spans decades. It is only in the last five years I began to remember all of the things that had happened due to a sudden trauma that broke down the mental barriers to recall that had been formed to protect me from the trauma. I have spoken to RAINN directly by written letter and their affiliated shelters by referral through the hotline. The shelters were often rude and dismissive to me as a CIS male survivor. I NEVER received any form of support or helpful advice or referrals despite being a victim of repeated domestic violent both with weapons and without weapons being used against me. I was assaulted by many people over the course of my life and during a marriage. The story had extreme consequences. There was loss of life and there were hospitalizations. The representatives seldom took the time to help me and would routinely interrupt the call and disclosures to take emergency calls because there was only one volunteer manning the lines. I was not able to get legal aid. We experienced retaliation by perpetrators both directly and indirectly. We were displaced from our home and had to continue moving because we could not get protection and no one offered advice or support because of sex, race, and gender-based stereotypes due to how they perceived my identity versus who I actually was. My appearance did not reflect my character or how I viewed myself as an individual. As a result the help I got was nonexistent. It was entirely lacking. I felt abandoned and experienced a deep sense of betrayal by those charged with providing assistance to victims and survivors of rape, incest, and assault. Having been a victim of all three I was extraordinarily angry and experienced a measure of disappointment that could not be quantified with the RAINN Hotline and the representatives at regional centers across multiple counties, townships, and states in The United States. If this is what people have to rely on, they are doomed. Its not a mystery to me why so many victims end up murdered as John or Jane Does in the morgue, on drugs, homeless, terminally ill, or turning to prostitution because they have no non-profit resources to turn to in order to get real support. If you meet any victim criteria, I implore you to look somewhere else. While you suffer with or without child dependents, RAINN sits back and takes donations while claiming to be a non-profit leader that helps victims (falsely). They do not provide any of the support they claim to. If they do it is likely based on your perceived sex, gender, and race rather than your actual circumstances and any evidence you might present. I was never even asked if I could prove the claims I had about what had happened to me or people I was protecting from further harm. RAINN is a disgrace to non-profits everywhere. The call center experiences I had were deplorable. Things I was told were judgemental and rude. One shelter told me I was not a Christian because I had premarital sex with someone I found to be a victim of incest after the fact. I was seeking support for that person in addition to my own background as a repeat survivor of assaults by many people. It is not a call center representative's place to criticize consensual sexual activity between adults with whom it is legal to have relations. This is just one of many, many complaints I have about the hotline. They kept trying to refer me to other state level legal aid offices whom I had already contacted and been turned down by repeatedly. All of these legal aid offices are funded by Congressional Mandate under umbrella of The Legal Service Corporation. We were turned down six times without explanation. As time has gone on I have remembered many horrors which I could not share with legal aid or others because I could not provide recollection at the time of what had happened due to the use of drugs against me to facilitate physical attacks and sexual assault. Immeasureable anger and utter disgust is what I feel towards RAINN.