DeliverFund is a

non-governmental A non-governmental organization (NGO) or non-governmental organisation (see American and British English spelling differences#-ise, -ize (-isation, -ization), spelling differences) is an organization that generally is formed independent from g ...

501(c)(3) organization A 501(c)(3) organization is a United States corporation, Trust (business), trust, unincorporated association or other type of organization exempt from federal income tax under section 501(c)(3) of Title 26 of the United States Code. It is one of t ...

focused on targeting

human traffickers Human trafficking is the trade of humans for the purpose of forced labour, sexual slavery, or commercial sexual exploitation for the trafficker or others. This may encompass providing a spouse in the context of forced marriage, or the extracti ...

in the United States using counterterrorism methodology and technology. It was founded in 2014 by Nic McKinley, a former

CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian intelligence agency, foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gat ...

agent and a

United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Signal ...

Pararescueman, and Jeremy Mahugh, a former member of the US Special Operations and a

Navy SEAL The United States Navy Sea, Air, and Land (SEAL) Teams, commonly known as Navy SEALs, are the U.S. Navy's primary special operations force and a component of the Naval Special Warfare Command. Among the SEALs' main functions are conducting sma ...

sniper A sniper is a military/paramilitary marksman who engages targets from positions of concealment or at distances exceeding the target's detection capabilities. Snipers generally have specialized training and are equipped with high-precision r ...

. DeliverFund works to combat human trafficking, which encompasses

sex trafficking Sex trafficking is human trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation. It has been called a form of modern slavery because of the way victims are forced into sexual acts non-consensually, in a form of sexual slavery. Perpetrators of the ...

and labor trafficking, by using the

counterterrorism Counterterrorism (also spelled counter-terrorism), also known as anti-terrorism, incorporates the practices, military tactics, techniques, and strategies that Government, governments, law enforcement, business, and Intelligence agency, intellig ...

methodology and tactics its founders employed during their service overseas. Using technology to identify human trafficking in illicit ads, they send actionable intelligence collected to law enforcement.

History

DeliverFund was founded in 2014 after Nic McKinley encountered child trafficking while serving abroad and noticed there was no central governmental organization dedicated to combatting human trafficking in the United States. In 2019, the organization moved its headquarters from

Albuquerque, New Mexico Albuquerque ( ; ), ; kee, Arawageeki; tow, Vakêêke; zun, Alo:ke:k'ya; apj, Gołgéeki'yé. abbreviated ABQ, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of New Mexico. Its nicknames, The Duke City and Burque, both reference its founding in ...

, to

Dallas, Texas Dallas () is the third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 million people. It is the largest city in and seat of Dallas County w ...

, taking over

Backpage was a classified advertising website founded in 2004 by the alternative newspaper chain New Times Inc./New Times Media (later known as Village Voice Media or VVM) as a rival to Craigslist. Similar to Craigslist, Backpage let users post ads t ...

's former office.

Programs and operations

DeliverFund assists its law enforcement partners across the country by providing intelligence packages and training on its technology and methodology. Analysts assisted law enforcement partners in California during Operation Reclaim and Rebuild in 2020 and 2021. The operation with

San Luis Obispo County San Luis Obispo County (), officially the County of San Luis Obispo, is a county on the Central Coast of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 282,424. The county seat is San Luis Obispo. Junípero Serra founded the Mission ...

Counter Human Trafficking team led to the recovery of a 15-year old teen who was reported missing out of

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. N ...

. DeliverFund has also been involved with counter human trafficking operations at events such as the

Super Bowl The Super Bowl is the annual final playoff game of the National Football League (NFL) to determine the league champion. It has served as the final game of every NFL season since 1966, replacing the NFL Championship Game. Since 2022, the game ...

. In September 2021, it assisted in the extraction of the Afghan girls soccer team from Afghanistan to Portugal. DeliverFund has also partnered with researchers who received a

National Science Foundation The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent agency of the United States government that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National I ...

(NSF) grant to fight human trafficking by studying the problem and proposing solutions on how to train law enforcement and other organizations to do their jobs more effectively.

References

{{reflist Non-profit organizations based in Texas Organizations that combat human trafficking