Freedom Fund

The Freedom Fund is an international non-profit organisation dedicated to identifying and investing in the most effective frontline efforts to end slavery.[1][2] In 2017, the International Labour Organization reported that on any given day in 2016, there were 40 million people living in modern slavery worldwide across a wide range of industries.[3]

Freedom Fund
Formation26 September 2013 (2013-09-26)
FoundersHumanity United
Legatum
Walk Free Foundation
TypeUnited States 501(c)(3) public charity
Registration no.United States 30-0805768, United Kingdom 1158838
HeadquartersLighterman House
26-36 Wharfdale Road
London, N19RY, UK
Staff
12
Websitefreedomfund.org

The Freedom Fund was founded in September 2013, by three leading anti-slavery donors, Humanity United, the Legatum Foundation and the Walk Free Foundation[4] and officially announced by President Bill Clinton at the Clinton Global Initiative on September 26, 2013 where he declared "this is a huge deal and we should all support this."[5]

Freedom Fund’s Mission and Values

The Freedom Fund has set a target of raising USD $100million by 2020 and investing it to bring about much needed strategic focus to the fight against modern slavery.[6] To achieve this, The Freedom Fund has focused its activities on three main areas:[7]

Hotspot projects – The Freedom Fund partners with frontline organisations to directly combat slavery in defined regions with a high concentration of slavery.[8] They do this by setting up "hotspot" projects - clusters of the most effective community-based organisations in these regions. Partnering with these organisations in some of the world's poorest and most marginalised communities is difficult, demanding and time intensive, but it is also one of the most effective ways to achieve large scale and sustainable change. The Freedom Fund's northern India hotspot has been in place since 2014, and as of December 2017, had liberated over 11,000 people from modern slavery.[9] The Freedom Fund's hotspots are located in central Nepal, Ethiopia, northern India, south-eastern Nepal, southern India and Thailand.[10]
Global initiatives - The Freedom Fund tackles underlying systems that allow slavery to persist. They do this in their hotspots, engaging the government, private sector, media, social movements, and other key drivers of change. They also do it by catalysing action on selected global issues and industries that have a direct link to their hotspots. This allows the Freedom Fund to tackle systemic issues like slavery in fishing, migration, or to help develop new technological tools or legal initiatives.[11] In March 2015, the Freedom Fund and C&A Foundation announced a partnership to tackle forced labour in the textile industry.[12]
Movement building initiatives - The Freedom Fund helps to build and empower a global anti-slavery movement, providing the platforms, tools and knowledge for organisations to connect and work together more effectively.[13][14]

Leadership
Main article: Nick Grono

The Freedom Fund's inaugural CEO, Nick Grono, has written articles on modern slavery for the Huffington Post,[15] Newsweek,[16] The Guardian,[17] as well as the Freedom Fund blog.[18] Grono previously served as Deputy President and COO of the Brussels-based International Crisis Group[19] and as CEO of the Walk Free Foundation, an international anti-slavery organisation. During his tenure, the Walk Free Foundation built a global anti-slavery movement with over five million supporters and launched the first ever Global Slavery Index.[20] Grono joined Freedom Fund in December 2013.[21][22]

Impact

Freedom Fund operates as a meta-charity which disburses grants to local partners who directly implement anti-slavery initiatives.[23] Freedom Fund requires funding recipients to evaluate their performance using a common set of metrics, answering questions including "How many people are being reached directly?" and "[What's the] cost per person to each project?".

As of June 2020 the Freedom Fund reported to have:[24]

  • Impacted 765,628 lives
  • Liberated 28,040 people from modern slavery
  • Helped 57,419 previously out-of-school children to receive formal or non-formal education

COVID-19 emergency fund: In response to the 2019-2020 coronavirus pandemic, The Freedom Fund set up a COVID-19 emergency fund which offered immediate, small scale support to frontline responders in disadvantaged communities in Brazil, Ethiopia, India, Myanmar, Nepal, and Thailand. Monetary assistance was used for food, shelter, protective equipment for medical professionals, sanitation, and other immediate virus-related needs.[25]

Reports
  • March 2015: Putting justice first[26]
  • April 2015: 2014 Annual impact report[27]
  • October 2015: Addressing mental health needs in survivors of modern slavery: A critical review and research agenda[28]
  • December 2015: Ending impunity, securing justice: Using strategic litigation to combat modern-day slavery and human trafficking[29]
  • December 2015: Fighting modern slavery: Why role for international criminal justice[30]
  • December 2015: Unshackling development: Why we need a global partnership to end modern slavery[31]
  • January 2016: Modern slavery and corruption[32][33]
  • February 2016: Safer labour migration and community-based prevention of exploitation: The state of the evidence for programming[34]
  • April 2016: Funding the fight against modern slavery[35]
  • April 2016: Struggling to survive: Slavery and exploitation of Syrian refugees in Lebanon[36]
  • May 2016: 2015 Annual Impact Report[37]
  • May 2016: Assessing government and business responses to the Thai seafood crisis[38]
  • October 2016: Fighting impunity, securing justice: Investing in strategic litigation to combat modern slavery[39]
  • November 2016: Modern slavery and trafficking in conflict: The UN's response[40]
  • November 2016: Freedom Fund Brochure: Our vision is a world free of slavery[41]
  • May 2017: 2016 Annual Impact Report[42]
  • January 2018: Her freedom, her voice: Insights from the Freedom Fund’s work with women and girls[43]
  • April 2018: Impact in 2017, Plans for 2018 (2017 Annual Impact Report)[44]

See also

References
  1. "Everywhere in (supply) chains". The Economist. 14 March 2015. Retrieved 2 April 2015.
  2. Savchuk, Katia (19 November 2014). "EBay Billionaire Omidyar And Wife To Add $50 Million To Anti-Slavery Efforts". Forbes. Retrieved 2 April 2015.
  3. FFunction. "2017 Global Estimates of Modern Slavery and Child Labour". 2017 Global Estimates of Modern Slavery and Child Labour. Retrieved 2018-04-23.
  4. "$100 Million Freedom Fund to Combat Modern-Day Slavery". Market Watch. Retrieved 5 August 2014.
  5. CASPANI, MARIA (9 October 2014). "Campaigners launch first anti-slavery organizations database". Reuters. Retrieved 2 April 2015.
  6. Ucnikova, Martina (2014-09-22). "OECD and Modern Slavery: How much aid money is spent to tackle the issue?". Anti-Trafficking Review. 0 (3). doi:10.14197/atr.20121437. ISSN 2286-7511.
  7. "The Freedom Fund". Devex. Retrieved 15 September 2020.
  8. "International Human Rights Funders Group: Founder Directory". Archived from the original on 3 April 2015. Retrieved 5 August 2014.
  9. "One brick at a time". The Economist. 14 March 2015. Retrieved 2 April 2015.
  10. "Suburbia's secret slaves". The Telegraph. Retrieved 2020-09-03.
  11. Grono, Nick (24 February 2015). "Using the law to defeat modern slavery". Thomson Reuters Foundation. Retrieved 2 April 2015.
  12. "C&A Foundation Launches New Partnership Strategy to Address Fight Bonded Labour in Apparel Industry". 10 March 2015. Retrieved 2 April 2015.
  13. Newcomb, Randy (2014-09-22). "Debate: Lessons Learnt from 10 Years and USD 50 million of Grant Making to End Human Trafficking". Anti-Trafficking Review. 0 (3). doi:10.14197/atr.20121438. ISSN 2286-7511.
  14. "Freedom Fund". End Slavery Now. Retrieved 15 September 2020.
  15. Grono, Nick (19 June 2014). "Slavery at Sea". The Huffington Post.
  16. Grono, Nick (25 November 2014). "India: Time to Put an End to Slavery". Newsweek. Retrieved 2 April 2015.
  17. Grono, Nick (15 August 2013). "The economic case for ending slavery". The Guardian.
  18. "Freedom Fund Blog". Retrieved 5 August 2014.
  19. "Nick Grono Appointed as Inaugural CEO of the $100 Million Freedom Fund". Legatum. 9 December 2013.
  20. Bales, Kevin (17 October 2013). "The methodology behind the Global Slavery Index". The Guardian. Retrieved 2 April 2015.
  21. "Nick Grono, Vice-President of the International Crisis Group". The Program in Law and Public Affairs, Princeton University. Retrieved 15 September 2020.
  22. "Nicholas Grono". Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime. Retrieved 15 September 2020.
  23. http://freedomfund.org/impact/monitoring-and-evaluation/
  24. http://freedomfund.org/impact/global-metrics/
  25. "Freedom Fund NPO spotlight". PhilanthropyNewsDigest.com. Retrieved 26 October 2020.
  26. http://freedomfund.org/wp-content/uploads/Putting-Justice-FINAL-REPORT-24Apr15.pdf
  27. http://freedomfund.org/wp-content/uploads/Freedom-Fund-Impact-Report-LOW-RES-FOR-EMAIL-21Apr15.pdf
  28. http://freedomfund.org/wp-content/uploads/2015-Addressing-the-Mental-Health-Needs-in-Survivors-of-Modern-Slavery.pdf
  29. http://freedomfund.org/wp-content/uploads/STRATEGIC-LITIGATION-FINAL-FOR-EMAIL.pdf
  30. http://freedomfund.org/wp-content/uploads/International-Criminal-Justice-FINAL-FOR-EMAIL.pdf
  31. http://freedomfund.org/wp-content/uploads/Unshackling-Development-FINAL-FOR-EMAIL.pdf
  32. http://freedomfund.org/wp-content/uploads/Liberty-Asia-Corruption-Briefing-Paper-FINAL-FOR-EMAIL.pdf
  33. http://freedomfund.org/wp-content/uploads/Liberty-Asia-Corruption-Legal-Analysis-FINAL-FOR-EMAIL.pdf
  34. http://freedomfund.org/wp-content/uploads/FF_SAFERMIGRATION_WEB.pdf
  35. http://freedomfund.org/wp-content/uploads/Donor-Mapping-Report-for-web-FINAL-30March16-1.pdf
  36. http://freedomfund.org/wp-content/uploads/Lebanon-Report-FINAL-8April16.pdf
  37. http://freedomfund.org/wp-content/uploads/2015-Freedom-Fund-Annual-Impact-Report.pdf
  38. http://freedomfund.org/wp-content/uploads/Thai-seafood-reforms-FINAL.pdf
  39. http://freedomfund.org/wp-content/uploads/Fighting-impunity-funding-justice.pdf
  40. http://freedomfund.org/wp-content/uploads/UN-trafficking-in-conflict-WEB.pdf
  41. http://freedomfund.org/wp-content/uploads/Our-Vision-Brochure-FINAL-Nov16.pdf
  42. "2016 Annual Impact Report - Freedom Fund". Freedom Fund. 2017-05-03. Retrieved 2018-04-23.
  43. "Her freedom, her voice: Insights from the Freedom Fund's work with women and girls - Freedom Fund". Freedom Fund. 2018-01-17. Retrieved 2018-04-23.
  44. "2017 Annual Impact Report - Freedom Fund". Freedom Fund. 2018-04-20. Retrieved 2018-04-23.
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