Recent Georgetown Law grad Olivia Hinerfeld harnessed the power of friends and raised almost $1,000 for DASH’s Survivor Resilience Fund.

Olivia Hinerfeld first heard of DASH when she was volunteering with the Georgetown Legal Clinic representing domestic violence survivors as a student attorney and earning credit towards her law degree. She was researching for a paper when she learned about DASH’s Survivor Resilience Fund (SRF) – an emergency financial assistance fund designed to help survivors address needs that might threaten their permanent housing, achieve safety, and gain the support they need to move forward with their lives.

“(The SRF) is fantastic and sorely needed. I’ve seen for myself that this is a gap. There are a lot of gaps, but this is such a short-term, immediate need.”

Olivia Hinerfeld

Olivia found the SRF and the autonomy it provided for survivors so compelling that she donated $100 of it to the fund when she received her second stimulus check last January. But that wasn’t enough.

She decided to organize a friend-raiser – a fundraiser where she would reach out to her contacts, share her appreciation for DASH’s work, and ask them for their support.

She started by asking 10 friends to donate $10 each to match the $100 she was bringing to the table. Over time, more and more friends decided to take part.

“People like to support their friends and get social media shoutouts. People were very eager to contribute. They wanted to make a difference and pay it forward,” says Olivia.

In the end, Olivia had nearly 50 people participate in her friend-raiser and raised just under $1,000 for DASH’s Survivor Resilience Fund. At a time when many emergency shelters are at capacity, she was excited to support a fund that might allow a survivor in need to remain in their community instead of being displaced.

Olivia says, “I’m just so grateful for everything that DASH does. I’m happy to have had the chance to help in a limited way.”

DASH is thankful to Olivia (or should we say Olivia Hinerfeld, Esq!) for her fundraising efforts and her dedication to survivors of domestic violence (she hopes to go into domestic violence legal work in the future). We congratulate her on her recent graduation from Georgetown Law School and wish her all the best in her new legal career.

Are you interested in starting your own Friend-raiser? Contact Jessy Murgel at jmurgel@dashdc.org for tips and support!