Introduction
The Freedom Fund is an international collaborative philanthropic fund dedicated to ending modern slavery, forced labour, human trafficking, bonded labour, child exploitation and other forms of severe exploitation.
Founded in 2013, the organization invests primarily in frontline civil society organizations and survivor-led movements working in countries and industries where modern slavery is highly prevalent.
Rather than operating mainly as a direct-service international NGO, the Freedom Fund functions as a specialist funder, convenor, research organization and movement-building partner. It mobilizes philanthropic and institutional resources and directs them toward locally rooted organizations that understand the communities and systems in which exploitation occurs.
Its work focuses on:
- Modern slavery prevention.
- Forced labour.
- Bonded labour.
- Human trafficking.
- Child domestic work.
- Commercial sexual exploitation of children.
- Forced and child marriage.
- Exploitation in global supply chains.
- Survivor leadership.
- Legal advocacy.
- Worker rights.
- Community resilience.
- Research and evidence.
- Corporate accountability.
The Freedom Fund’s vision is a world free of slavery.
Its current mission is to invest in frontline organizations and movements to drive a measurable reduction of modern slavery in countries and industries where exploitation is most prevalent.
For more information, visit the official Freedom Fund website.
History and Background
The Freedom Fund was created in 2013 by three founding organizations:
- Humanity United.
- Legatum.
- Walk Free.
Its founders recognized a persistent problem within the global anti-slavery movement: community-based organizations closest to affected workers and survivors often lacked access to sufficient, sustained and flexible funding.
The Freedom Fund was designed to address this gap by pooling resources from donors and concentrating investment in geographic areas where modern slavery was particularly prevalent.
In 2014, Nick Grono became the organization’s Chief Executive Officer, and the Freedom Fund launched its first two geographic “hotspot” programs addressing bonded labour in:
- Northern India.
- Southeastern Nepal.
The organization subsequently expanded into countries and sectors affected by child labour, domestic servitude, trafficking, commercial sexual exploitation and forced labour.
Important milestones include:
- 2013: Humanity United, Legatum and Walk Free announced the creation of the Freedom Fund.
- 2014: First hotspot programs launched in India and Nepal.
- 2015: Programs expanded into Ethiopia, Thailand, Kathmandu and Tamil Nadu, while the organization began supporting strategic litigation.
- 2018: The Child Labour Free Jaipur Initiative was established.
- 2020: A US$2 million COVID-19 emergency fund was launched for frontline organizations, alongside the Freedom Rising leadership program.
- 2021: The Freedom Fund received a transformative US$35 million gift from MacKenzie Scott and Dan Jewett and established the Survivor Leadership Fund.
- 2021: A US$7 million U.S. government-supported initiative was launched to address trafficking affecting Ethiopian domestic workers.
- 2022: The Fund committed to providing US$10 million to at least 300 survivor-led organizations by 2030.
- 2022: New work began in Kenya and Indonesia.
- 2023: Grantmaking expanded into Liberia, Nigeria and the Brazilian Amazon.
- 2023: The Freedom Fund reached US$200 million in cumulative funding commitments.
- 2024: The organization marked a decade of frontline anti-slavery programming and undertook extensive consultations for its new strategy.
- 2025: A new 2025–2030 Strategic Plan came into effect.
- 2025: The Fund received another major gift from MacKenzie Scott.
- 2026: Work expanded through a new Uganda hotspot focused on preventing child marriage and related exploitation.
The Freedom Fund now works across Africa, Asia and Latin America while also supporting global initiatives involving corporate accountability and responsible supply chains.
Mission and Purpose
The Freedom Fund’s mission is to invest in frontline organizations and movements to drive a measurable reduction of modern slavery in high-prevalence countries and industries.
Its work rests on the view that organizations closest to exploited communities often possess the strongest understanding of:
- Local risks.
- Recruitment practices.
- Community power structures.
- Worker vulnerabilities.
- Government systems.
- Survivor needs.
- Effective intervention strategies.
However, these organizations are frequently underfunded.
The Freedom Fund therefore aims to mobilize resources that may otherwise be inaccessible to grassroots organizations and direct those resources toward interventions capable of producing both immediate and systemic change.
Its broader goals include:
- Preventing exploitation before it occurs.
- Helping people leave situations of slavery.
- Supporting survivors.
- Strengthening access to justice.
- Keeping vulnerable children in education.
- Building survivor leadership.
- Improving worker protections.
- Changing harmful social norms.
- Strengthening anti-slavery laws.
- Holding businesses accountable for forced labour.
- Building sustainable local civil society movements.
2025–2030 Strategy
The Freedom Fund’s current strategic framework covers 2025 to 2030.
The strategy was developed following extensive consultation with staff, grantee partners, survivors, frontline leaders, donors, board members and peer organizations.
Its central priorities include:
- Investing more directly in frontline organizations.
- Increasing flexible and multi-year funding.
- Expanding support for survivor-led organizations.
- Transforming systems that enable exploitation.
- Strengthening corporate accountability.
- Mobilizing additional resources for the anti-slavery movement.
- Building and sharing evidence about effective interventions.
By the end of 2030, the Freedom Fund aims to:
- Support partners to directly impact 2.5 million people.
- Enable 20 million people to live in communities with stronger resistance to exploitation.
- Support the organizational development of at least 500 frontline partners.
- Include at least 200 survivor-led organizations among those partners.
- Mobilize US$350 million in cumulative funding commitments.
The strategy places increased emphasis on trust-based philanthropy, allowing frontline organizations greater flexibility in deciding how resources should be used.
Core Values
The Freedom Fund identifies four principal organizational values.
Respect: The organization values the leadership and knowledge of people most directly affected by slavery and exploitation.
Excellence: Funding decisions aim to maximize impact using strong evidence, learning and evaluation.
Courage: The Fund is willing to work on difficult issues, in challenging environments and with interventions where change may take time.
Collaboration: The organization believes sustainable systems change requires partnerships between communities, survivors, civil society organizations, governments, businesses, researchers and funders.
Governance and Structure
The Freedom Fund operates through nonprofit entities in both the United States and United Kingdom.
The Freedom Fund is a United States 501(c)(3) public charity.
The Freedom Fund UK is:
- A company limited by guarantee in England and Wales.
- A registered UK charity.
Its governance structure includes:
- Board of Directors.
- Chief Executive Officer.
- Senior leadership team.
- Program teams.
- Finance and operations staff.
- Partnerships and external relations teams.
- Research and evaluation specialists.
- Country and regional staff.
The organization maintains staff close to its hotspot programs, enabling grantmaking and partnerships to remain connected with local realities.
Board of Directors
The Freedom Fund is governed by an international Board of Directors.
As of 2026, Board leadership includes:
- Molly Gochman – Chair
- Andrew Doust – Vice Chair
- Mahendra Pandey – Vice Chair
- Shruti Chandrasekhar – Treasurer
Other directors bring experience in:
- Human rights.
- Philanthropy.
- International development.
- Forced labour.
- Investment.
- Technology.
- Organizational management.
- Anti-trafficking policy.
The Board provides oversight of strategy, finances, governance and organizational direction.
Executive Leadership
As of September 2026, Nick Grono remains Chief Executive Officer of the Freedom Fund.
In June 2026, the organization announced that Havovi Wadia had been appointed as its next Chief Executive Officer, effective 1 December 2026.
Wadia has more than 15 years of senior leadership experience spanning frontline nonprofit organizations, philanthropy and international policy.
She joined the Freedom Fund as Managing Director of Programs after previously serving in senior roles with organizations including Vipla Foundation and Magic Bus.
The transition marks an important leadership milestone as the Freedom Fund implements its strategy through 2030.
Funding and Grants
Grantmaking is central to the Freedom Fund model.
The organization raises resources from:
- Foundations.
- Philanthropists.
- Institutional donors.
- Government agencies.
- Family foundations.
- Collaborative funding partners.
- Individual donors.
It then directs these resources toward frontline organizations and movements.
Major supporters have included organizations and philanthropists such as:
- Humanity United.
- Legatum.
- Walk Free.
- MacKenzie Scott.
- First Light Fund.
- Laudes Foundation.
- Millby Foundation.
- Moondance Foundation.
- Stardust Foundation.
- UBS Optimus Foundation.
- United States Department of State.
Rather than functioning mainly as a conventional open-call foundation, much of the Freedom Fund’s grantmaking is structured around established geographic hotspots, thematic programs and strategic funding initiatives.
Flexible and Multi-Year Funding
The Freedom Fund has increasingly shifted toward flexible, trust-based and multi-year grants.
This approach recognizes that frontline organizations may understand their own operating environments better than external donors.
Flexible funding enables grantees to invest in areas such as:
- Staff.
- Organizational systems.
- Advocacy.
- Survivor services.
- Legal action.
- Community organizing.
- Leadership development.
- Emergency needs.
- Research.
- Institutional strengthening.
The Fund has also streamlined its grantmaking and due-diligence processes to reduce unnecessary administrative burdens on partner organizations.
Hotspot Model
The Freedom Fund’s best-known grantmaking approach is its hotspot model.
A hotspot is a geographic area or sector where modern slavery is highly prevalent.
Instead of funding one organization in isolation, the Freedom Fund supports a network of local organizations working toward shared objectives.
Hotspot partners may receive:
- Financial grants.
- Organizational strengthening.
- Research support.
- Advocacy assistance.
- Monitoring and evaluation support.
- Convening opportunities.
- Leadership development.
- Technical assistance.
The model is designed to reduce competition between local organizations and encourage collaboration.
The Freedom Fund describes the resulting relationships as creating network capital—connections and collective capacity that allow civil society organizations to influence systems more effectively.
Where the Freedom Fund Works
Current and recent hotspot programs cover countries and sectors including:
- Bangladesh.
- Brazil.
- Ethiopia.
- Indonesia.
- Kenya.
- Nepal.
- Nigeria.
- Uganda.
- Asia-Pacific seafood supply chains.
Previous programs have also operated in:
- India.
- Thailand.
- Liberia.
- Other high-risk settings.
Different hotspots address different forms of exploitation according to local conditions.
Bangladesh
In Bangladesh, Freedom Fund partners work to combat the commercial sexual exploitation of children.
Programs focus on issues including:
- Child protection.
- Education.
- Community resilience.
- Survivor support.
- Government accountability.
- Prevention of exploitation.
Local organizations work with children, families and institutions to identify vulnerabilities and strengthen protection systems.
Brazil
The Freedom Fund operates programs in Brazil addressing multiple forms of exploitation.
One program focuses on commercial sexual exploitation of children.
The Fund has also supported work in the Brazilian Amazon, where forced labour can intersect with:
- Environmental destruction.
- Informal labour.
- Agriculture.
- Resource extraction.
- Migration.
- Climate vulnerability.
The Brazil program illustrates how modern slavery can be connected to environmental degradation and economic exploitation.
Ethiopia
The Freedom Fund has operated significant programs in Ethiopia addressing:
- Child domestic work.
- Unsafe migration.
- Trafficking.
- Exploitation of migrant domestic workers.
Many Ethiopian women migrate to the Middle East for domestic work and can face recruitment abuse, withheld wages, violence and trafficking.
Freedom Fund partners therefore work on:
- Safer migration.
- Survivor services.
- Community education.
- Legal support.
- Government policy.
- Reintegration.
- Research.
Indonesia
The Indonesia hotspot focuses heavily on forced labour within the fishing and seafood industries.
Workers within these industries may face risks including:
- Deceptive recruitment.
- Debt bondage.
- Withheld wages.
- Excessive working hours.
- Isolation.
- Unsafe working conditions.
Partner organizations work to strengthen worker protections, government enforcement and corporate accountability.
Kenya
Freedom Fund programming in Kenya focuses particularly on child domestic work.
Children working in private households can remain largely invisible to authorities and protection systems.
Risks may include:
- Violence.
- Excessive working hours.
- Lack of schooling.
- Wage exploitation.
- Isolation.
- Trafficking.
Programs therefore combine prevention, education, legal advocacy and direct assistance.
Nepal
The Freedom Fund has maintained long-term work in Nepal addressing bonded labour, including exploitation affecting the Harawa-Charawa community.
Years of organizing and advocacy contributed to a major milestone when Nepal’s government announced the liberation of the Harawa-Charawa in 2022.
Freedom Fund partners have continued advocating for meaningful rehabilitation and access to:
- Land.
- Citizenship documentation.
- Birth registration.
- Education.
- Social protection.
- Labour rights.
Nigeria
Freedom Fund programs in Nigeria address exploitation affecting child domestic workers.
Activities combine community engagement, survivor support, prevention, research and systems change.
The organization has also invested in testing and evaluating interventions to determine which approaches provide the strongest protection for vulnerable children.
Uganda
The Freedom Fund is expanding work in Uganda, particularly in the Karamoja region.
The hotspot focuses on preventing:
- Child marriage.
- Forced marriage.
- Trafficking.
- Other forms of child exploitation.
Its approach includes cooperation with:
- Community organizations.
- Survivor-led groups.
- Youth.
- Government institutions.
- Local leaders.
The program reflects the Freedom Fund’s increasing emphasis on ensuring children and young people participate in developing solutions affecting them.
Asia-Pacific Seafood Program
The Freedom Fund also works across the Asia-Pacific seafood sector.
This regional initiative addresses forced labour affecting migrant and other vulnerable workers in fishing and seafood-processing supply chains.
The program seeks improvements in:
- Labour standards.
- Recruitment.
- Corporate accountability.
- Government enforcement.
- Worker organizing.
- Access to remedy.
Survivor Leadership Fund
The Survivor Leadership Fund was launched in 2021.
It was created to move funding directly into organizations led by people with lived experience of modern slavery and human trafficking.
The fund provides unrestricted grants, allowing survivor-led organizations to determine their own priorities.
Funding may support:
- Organizational development.
- Leadership.
- Advocacy.
- Survivor services.
- Staff.
- Governance.
- Movement building.
The Freedom Fund committed in 2022 to provide a total of US$10 million to at least 300 survivor-led organizations by 2030.
The program has since evolved to include follow-on funding, technical support and stronger connections between survivor-led organizations.
Freedom Rising
Freedom Rising is a leadership and movement-building initiative launched in 2020.
It focuses especially on:
- Women.
- Survivors.
- Emerging frontline leaders.
- People historically excluded from anti-slavery leadership.
Participants receive support relating to:
- Leadership development.
- Organizational management.
- Personal growth.
- Movement building.
- Strategic planning.
- Networking.
The program seeks to build a stronger and more representative anti-slavery movement led by those closest to exploitation.
Responsible Supply Chains
The Freedom Fund works to address forced labour within global business supply chains.
Millions of people experiencing forced labour work within the private economy, producing products and raw materials sold internationally.
The Fund supports:
- Corporate accountability.
- Worker rights.
- Strategic litigation.
- Advocacy.
- Investigations.
- Trade policy.
- Human-rights due diligence.
The objective is to change business incentives and hold companies accountable when forced labour occurs in their supply chains.
Corporate Accountability Seed Fund
The Corporate Accountability Seed Fund supports frontline civil society organizations seeking to challenge forced labour linked to global supply chains.
In its second phase, launched in 2025, the program funded 14 frontline civil society organizations across Southeast Asia and Taiwan.
Activities include:
- Strategic litigation.
- Worker-led monitoring.
- Corporate advocacy.
- Government engagement.
- Investigations.
- Legal accountability.
Strategic Litigation
Legal action is another important component of the Freedom Fund’s work.
The organization supports cases that can:
- Secure remedies for exploited workers.
- Establish new legal precedents.
- Increase corporate accountability.
- Improve government enforcement.
- Strengthen human-rights protections.
During 2025, Freedom Fund-supported work included legal cases in more than 10 countries, with several cases resulting in successful outcomes for workers or helping establish stronger legal standards.
Research and Evidence
Research is central to the Freedom Fund’s strategy.
The organization seeks to understand:
- Where slavery occurs.
- Who is most vulnerable.
- Which interventions work.
- How systems perpetuate exploitation.
- How laws affect workers.
- How programs can be improved.
Research partners have included universities, independent research organizations and frontline organizations.
Topics have included:
- Child domestic work.
- Labour migration.
- Commercial sexual exploitation.
- Bonded labour.
- Corporate supply chains.
- Survivor leadership.
- Systems change.
- Exploitation in fisheries.
- Climate change and forced labour.
Slavery Research Library
The Freedom Fund manages a major online slavery research library containing reports, academic articles, books, evaluations and practical tools concerning modern slavery.
The resource helps:
- NGOs.
- Researchers.
- Donors.
- Governments.
- Advocates.
- Students.
It is designed to improve access to evidence and encourage stronger, research-informed interventions.
Impact and Examples of Work Funded
The Freedom Fund publishes updated impact data and independent evaluations of its programs.
For the period from January 2014 through December 2025, the organization reported:
- 1,777,438 lives impacted.
- 37,026 people liberated from exploitation.
- 1,182,000 people accessing social and legal services.
- 241,481 at-risk children supported to remain in school.
- 371 changes in public policy.
- 8,397 legal cases assisted.
- 47,370 micro-enterprises started.
The Fund also reports that its programs have strengthened the resilience of approximately 12 million additional people against exploitation.
More than 300 organizations have been supported to become stronger, better connected and more effective, with a substantial proportion led by survivors.
Keeping Children in School
Education is an important slavery-prevention strategy.
Children who are out of school may face heightened risks of:
- Child labour.
- Domestic servitude.
- Child marriage.
- Trafficking.
- Commercial sexual exploitation.
Freedom Fund-supported organizations therefore help vulnerable children:
- Enrol in school.
- Obtain documents needed for education.
- Remain in education.
- Receive family support.
- Access child-protection systems.
By the end of 2025, more than 241,000 at-risk children had been supported through education-related interventions.
Providing Social and Legal Services
Freedom Fund grants enable partners to provide services such as:
- Legal representation.
- Identity documentation.
- Psychosocial support.
- Healthcare referrals.
- Livelihood assistance.
- Shelter.
- Education.
- Government-service access.
More than 1.18 million people had accessed social and legal services through supported programs by the end of 2025.
Supporting Economic Freedom
Poverty and economic insecurity frequently increase vulnerability to exploitative labour.
Freedom Fund-supported organizations therefore use approaches including:
- Savings groups.
- Livelihood training.
- Vocational education.
- Micro-enterprise development.
- Financial inclusion.
- Worker organizing.
More than 47,000 micro-enterprises had been established through supported initiatives by December 2025.
Economic strengthening can help reduce dependence on exploitative employers, recruiters or labour contractors.
Changing Public Policy
The Freedom Fund seeks change beyond individual beneficiaries.
Frontline organizations advocate for improvements in:
- Labour legislation.
- Child protection.
- Migration policies.
- Human trafficking laws.
- Corporate due diligence.
- Access to land.
- Worker compensation.
- Government services.
By December 2025, the organization reported 371 changes in public policy linked to supported work.
Harawa-Charawa Advocacy in Nepal
One of the Freedom Fund’s most significant systems-change examples comes from Nepal.
The Harawa-Charawa, a historically bonded labour community, spent years organizing and advocating for recognition and freedom.
Frontline organizations and community networks supported by the Freedom Fund contributed to sustained advocacy.
In 2022, Nepal’s Prime Minister formally announced the liberation of the Harawa-Charawa.
Subsequent work has concentrated on ensuring that liberation is accompanied by practical rehabilitation, including:
- Land rights.
- Identification documents.
- Education.
- Social protection.
- Labour monitoring.
- Government resources.
The case illustrates the Fund’s strategy of strengthening affected communities so they can advocate collectively for structural change.
Emergency Response During COVID-19
The COVID-19 pandemic created severe risks for workers and vulnerable communities.
In 2020, the Freedom Fund established a US$2 million emergency fund for frontline partners.
The initiative supported approximately 230,000 people.
Assistance addressed needs including:
- Food.
- Basic necessities.
- Protection.
- Emergency support.
- Community services.
The program demonstrated the value of flexible funding during crises.
Funding Philosophy
A central feature of the Freedom Fund is its belief that international philanthropy should move more resources and decision-making power toward frontline organizations.
Its funding philosophy increasingly emphasizes:
- Local leadership.
- Survivor leadership.
- Flexible grants.
- Multi-year funding.
- Reduced bureaucracy.
- Collaborative strategy.
- Trust.
- Organizational sustainability.
The organization argues that frontline groups should not simply implement strategies designed by distant funders.
Instead, they should have resources and authority to shape the solutions themselves.
Who Can Receive Freedom Fund Support?
The Freedom Fund primarily supports organizations aligned with its established geographic and thematic programs.
Potential grantees include:
- Grassroots organizations.
- Survivor-led organizations.
- Labour-rights groups.
- Child-protection NGOs.
- Human-rights organizations.
- Community-based organizations.
- Legal advocacy organizations.
- Worker organizations.
- Research partners.
Funding is generally linked to the Freedom Fund’s strategic programs rather than being available through a continuously open global grant application process.
Organizations interested in partnership opportunities should review current information on the Freedom Fund website.
Why the Freedom Fund Matters
The Freedom Fund occupies a distinctive position in international philanthropy because its primary role is to fund the organizations closest to modern slavery and exploitation.
Its model combines:
- Philanthropic resource mobilization.
- Frontline grantmaking.
- Survivor leadership.
- Community organizing.
- Legal advocacy.
- Research.
- Corporate accountability.
- Movement building.
Instead of treating modern slavery solely as a criminal justice issue, the Fund recognizes that exploitation can be driven by interacting factors such as:
- Poverty.
- Gender inequality.
- Discrimination.
- Migration.
- Weak labour protections.
- Corporate practices.
- Lack of education.
- Social exclusion.
- Climate vulnerability.
- Lack of access to justice.
Its programs therefore seek to transform the broader systems that allow exploitation to continue.
Conclusion
The Freedom Fund is a global collaborative philanthropic fund dedicated exclusively to reducing and ultimately ending modern slavery.
Founded in 2013 by Humanity United, Legatum and Walk Free, the organization has developed a distinctive model that channels funding, technical support and international attention toward frontline and survivor-led organizations.
Through its hotspot programs, Survivor Leadership Fund, Freedom Rising initiative, responsible supply-chain work, strategic litigation, research and movement-building activities, the Fund addresses modern slavery at both community and systemic levels.
By the end of 2025, Freedom Fund-supported initiatives had directly impacted more than 1.77 million people, helped more than 37,000 people leave exploitation, connected over 1.18 million people with social and legal services, supported more than 241,000 at-risk children in education, contributed to hundreds of policy changes and assisted thousands of legal cases.
Its 2025–2030 strategy places even greater emphasis on flexible frontline funding, survivor leadership and systems change, with ambitions to directly affect 2.5 million people, improve resilience for 20 million people and support at least 500 frontline organizations by the end of the decade.
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