7 Nonprofits Leading the Fight Against Human Trafficking

*This post was originally published on 7/28/17. It was updated on 8/17/2022 for National Nonprofit Day.

Salesforce.org is humbled to partner with nonprofits around the world to bring awareness to World Day Against Human Trafficking. Human trafficking organizations advocate for stronger anti-trafficking laws, provide services and support for victims of trafficking crimes, and develop long-term strategies to end human trafficking. Here are just a few anti-trafficking nonprofit organizations that are leveraging Salesforce technology to fight human trafficking and support survivors of these crimes.

1. AnnieCannons

Mission: Economic power is the key to breaking the cycle of exploitation among vulnerable communities. At AnnieCannons, an anti-human trafficking organization, they transform survivors of human trafficking into software professionals through a holistic program that trains and equips survivors to independently support themselves and their families.

Problem: AnnieCannons employs only three full-time staff members in their fight against human trafficking, which means it needs to be as efficient as possible in managing its contacts and business processes. Since moving its systems to Salesforce, the team has been able to stay lean by cutting out hours of what used to be manual data entry and management of disparate spreadsheets and applications. 

Solution: As a nonprofit, AnnieCannons relies on fundraising to support its programs — though the organization aims to be self-sustaining one day — and uses the Nonprofit Success Pack (NPSP) as the cornerstone of client management practices for donors and grants. It also uses the NPSP as its CRM (constituent relationship management system) tracking interactions with donors, contractors, grantmakers, advisors, board members, volunteers, customers, and students. 

With Salesforce record types, staff can store relevant information about each of these contacts while allowing them to change over time — all without losing data from the contact’s previous status. However, AnnieCannons is also like a business, which is where data and process management gets a little more complicated. Unlike many nonprofits, it sells services and software products the nonprofit has built through the Dev Shop it runs for students and graduates of its programs. 

This means that beyond grant applications and cultivation of potential donations, it also has a sales process which includes tracking deals with its customers who range from large tech companies like Palantir to small Bay Area nonprofits and small businesses. With Salesforce Einstein, AnnieCannons can easily track and report on its financials and grant application statuses, maintain records of students’ progress and qualifications throughout their education with the organization, engage with its large technical volunteer base, staff students and volunteers on client projects, and track the engagement and revenue of its marketing campaigns and fundraising events using the campaign object. 

Integrations with Quickbooks, HelloSign, and Google Apps allow staff to easily manage invoicing its customers, storing associated contracts and files, and new signups from its website contact form. This saves hours that were previously spent checking and rechecking emails with customers and donors and its bank accounts for whether or not a pledge or invoice had been paid or whether a contract had been executed and stored correctly.

2. The Code

Mission: The Code (short for “The Code of Conduct for the Protection of Children from Sexual Exploitation in Travel and Tourism”) is an industry-driven initiative to provide tourism businesses with the tools, knowledge, and support they need to prevent the sexual exploitation of children.

Problem: Today with more than 300 members, The Code remains lean with just two staff and 35 regionally dispersed local representatives across 35 countries, while providing maximum impact. 

Solution: The anti-human trafficking nonprofit has re-engineered its member management process with Salesforce to make joining the initiative as simple as possible. Engaging members now happens through a “join now” button on the nonprofit’s home page and has turned a ten-page application process that once took two weeks to complete, into a two-minute task. Regional statistics feed Google Adwords campaigns and support decisions on where to commit advertising dollars. 

The campaign object in Salesforce helps with monitoring Google spend, keeping it safely below membership income. Moreover, the organization’s latest initiative is a Partner Portal for sharing information with partner NGOs in countries where The Code does not have a physical presence of its own. Salesforce Einstein and dashboards surface valuable member information in easy-to-view charts for steering growth.

3. Destiny Rescue

Mission: Destiny Rescue (DR) is an international Christian-based anti-sex trafficking nonprofit organization dedicated to rescuing children from human trafficking and sexual exploitation. The organization operates in Thailand, Cambodia, the Philippines, Laos, Dominican Republic and India and also has offices in three donor nations: United States, Australia and New Zealand. Since 2011, with the help of their supporters they have rescued over 2,300 vulnerable and traumatized children from the sex trade industry and helped keep hundreds more from entering the sex trade through their various prevention programs. 

DR has also ensured justice for those who have been wronged and raised awareness to untold numbers. Their work doesn’t just stop at the rescue of a child; they also aim to restore the children in their care through a highly effective aftercare program which includes a safe living environment, counseling, medical care, education and vocational training. Supporters of DR’s program help in many ways: from sponsoring a child or restoration home, funding specific projects, hosting jewelry parties or purchasing handcrafted jewelry made by our rescue girls on their online shop. 

Problem: The organization has special education programs in schools and churches, and trains volunteers who are joining the Destiny Rescue family as an advocate who can join a team trip to visit children in the restoration phase. To streamline such a complex web of activity and customer relations across the globe, Destiny Rescue uses Salesforce to track, monitor, and communicate with their database of volunteers, supporters and donors. 

Solution: DR uses the Salesforce Nonprofit Success Pack for their Accounts, Reporting and to follow valuable leads and opportunities from their database. The efficiency with which Destiny Rescue operates in their organization translates into helping facilitate more and more rescues each year. Their goal to rescue 100,000 children from the sex industry by the end of the year 2020 is an ambitious one and they plan on accomplishing this objective through careful strategic planning by doubling their rescue efforts each year until December 31, 2020. They are well on their way to achieving this worthwhile goal.

4. Hagar

Mission: Hagar’s purpose is for those affected by trauma, and those who support them, Hagar is an expert in care and recovery. When healing happens the cycle of trauma stops. We stay focused on the individual. And we work towards communities free and healed from the trauma of slavery, trafficking and abuse.

Women in children throughout Cambodia who are unwilling victims of human trafficking, rape, domestic violence, child labor, and other forms of exploitation rely on Hagar’s help in processing their experiences and preparing for a new life. 

Problem: In years past, Hagar relied on an extensive library of Excel files to document contact with each client that would come seeking help. With the help of implementation partner Vera Solutions, Hagar Cambodia now uses Salesforce as a solution for case management that mimics their internal processes and paper forms, safeguards their data, and keeps the entire Hagar team up-to-date on client happenings. Each client interaction is now logged in Salesforce, allowing the organization’s leadership team to ascertain in minutes when and by whom a client has last been visited or supported by Hagar. 

Solution: Through the use of customized reports, Hagar is now able to assess each case manager’s workload in real-time and track individual client progress by program. These operational insights have not only helped Hagar to become more efficient, but the organization has been able to decrease staff time spent gathering information for external partners. Reporting to funders – an activity that previously took days of staff time as Hagar analyzed and compared numerous spreadsheets in order to share, for example, the number of clients under the age of 15 who participate in a particular program – is now possible with a few clicks of a button. 

5. Liberty Asia

Mission: Liberty Asia works to prevent human trafficking through legal advocacy, technological interventions, and strategic collaborations with nonprofits and corporations in Asia.

Liberty Asia, a Hong Kong-based nonprofit, has a goal to make world class technologies accessible to anti-trafficking nonprofits in Asia so they can better support the victims they assist by improved management of case information. 

Solution: A Salesforce.org pro bono team helped Liberty Asia to build a cloud-based victim case management system (VCMS) and data collection app — free of charge. 

The app is designed to facilitate better record keeping to assist victim care, and allow the sharing of information, expertise, data, and best practices with anti-trafficking stakeholders. It’s a game changer because no such data set exists in Asia. The app enables front-line nonprofits to store, share, and analyze client data such as names and ages of victims. It also collects data about where and when they were abducted and the movement of victims across borders. The cloud-based app, which protects victim data with industry-leading Salesforce security measures, gives agents complete visibility into their territories. This helps them keep track of individuals as they cross multiple borders. 

Salesforce analytics also enables organizations to better track patterns of human trafficking and identify high-risk territories. As the private sector is another key stakeholder in developing an anti-slavery global network, the app gathers and channels intelligence on slavery to the private sector. It also provides data to help focus preventive and rescue efforts for victims. New features designed in partnership with Salesforce Asia (all delivered through staff’s pro bono allowance) has helped pinpoint hotspots of activity so law enforcement agencies and the private sector can act to identify and eliminate suppliers associated with human trafficking from their supply chains.

6. Polaris

Mission: Named after the North Star that guided slaves to freedom in the U.S., the goal of Polaris Project is to systemically disrupt the human trafficking networks that rob human beings of their lives and their freedom. Their comprehensive model puts victims at the center of their work — helping survivors restore their freedom, preventing more victims, and leveraging data and technology to pursue traffickers wherever they operate.

Solution: Polaris has a diversity of programs to combat trafficking, ranging from the National Human Trafficking Hotline to its policy advocacy efforts focused on strengthening laws to protect survivors and disrupt trafficking networks. Polaris has customized Salesforce’s CRM to create a case tracking system that collects information from both survivors and service providers when they get in contact with the organization, ensuring no case falls through the cracks. 

Because the system captures any and all interactions and can be shared across the organization, survivors who contact the hotline multiple times do not need to experience the trauma of retelling their stories if they reach a different staff member. Their information can be easily found and reviewed by any hotline advocate who answers the phone, connecting them to the services they need quickly. Not only is Polaris serving individual survivors, its Salesforce case tracking system constitutes one of the most robust and informative human trafficking datasets in existence. 

With the ability to identify patterns, methods of control, and vulnerabilities of victims through data collection and analysis, Polaris can identify weaknesses in the human trafficking networks and make strategic interventions. Using the enhanced dataset, it’s able to find out where and how traffickers operate so that it can put them out of business, keep them from harming more people, and help survivors find the services they need. With support from Salesforce.org and a Force for Change grant, Polaris was able to offer this custom-built system to other human trafficking-related helplines and social services programs around the world.

7. Unseen

Mission: Unseen is working towards a world without slavery. The organization’s specialist care is the first step on the road to recovery. Through supporting survivors, their provision gives survivors of slavery a safe place to recover from trauma and rebuild their lives.

Solution: In 2016, Unseen, in partnership with Polaris and other organizations, launched the U.K. National Modern Slavery Helpline to combat trafficking and slavery in the U.K. Its purpose is to provide an easy way for anyone to get help, advice, or report suspected slavery. With the help of Salesforce.org’s pro bono program to develop a technology solution to meet the helpline’s needs, Unseen leverages the Salesforce Service Cloud to handle the case management and referrals for the helpline. 

Whenever anyone calls into the helpline, staff are able to easily track all interactions, making sure no one gets lost in the shuffle of paperwork or bad data. The helpline also enables Unseen to collect data about how and where modern slavery is happening, supporting organizations to identify risks and develop strategies to prevent it. Data collected from the helpline using Service Cloud will paint a picture of the U.K.’s slavery and trafficking activity. This will enable authorities to target resources more efficiently and ensure that the helpline is a key tool in the U.K.’s fight against this terrible crime.