Funding your partnership

Important sources and strategies for securing financial resources

Finding financial resources to support anti-trafficking has consistently been a struggle for advocates, survivors, practitioners and law enforcement involved in partnerships. Often human trafficking is framed from a criminal justice perspective, which constrains federal funding opportunities that can change with each new administration. But as awareness of the crime grows, funders are beginning to understand human trafficking from a rights-based approach, a public health perspective, or even as a social justice issue.

This reality has opened up new funding opportunities for organizations and partnerships working to end human trafficking together. The search for funding begins with an important question: Does your partnership’s mission and vision align with a potential funding source?

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Developing funding sources

Government grants

A comprehensive list of government grant opportunities are available at grants.gov . Here are a few offices and programs to be aware of:

Demonstration Grants to Strengthen the Response to Victims of Human Trafficking in Native Communities (VHT-NC) Program
Department of Health & Human Services (DHHS)
Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Enhanced Collaborative Model (ECM) Task Force To Combat Human Trafficking: Supporting Law Enforcement’s Role Grant
DOJ’s Field-Generated Innovations in Assistance to Victims of Human Trafficking
DOJ’s Human Trafficking Training and Technical Assistance Program Grant
DOJ’s Office for Victims of Crime (OVC) Service Grant
DOJ’s Office for Victims of Crime (OVC) Enhancing Juvenile and Family Court Responses to Human Trafficking Grant
DOJ’s Office for Victims of Crime (OVC) Field-Generated Human Trafficking Training and Technical Assistance for Law Enforcement Grant
DOJ’s Office for Victims of Crime (OVC) Housing Assistance Grants for Victims of Human Trafficking
DOJ’s Office for Victims of Crime (OVC) Services for Victims of Human Trafficking Grant
DOJ’s Office for Victims of Crime (OVC) Improving Outcomes for Child and Youth Victims of Human Trafficking Grant
Domestic Victims of Human Trafficking Services and Outreach (DVHT-SO) Program
Human Trafficking Youth Prevention Education (HTYPE) Demonstration Grants
National Institute of Justice’s (NIJ) Research and Evaluation on Trafficking in Persons
NIJ’s Research on Law Enforcement Responses to Sex Trafficking of Minors Grant
Office for Trafficking in Persons (OTIP) Per-Capita Grant Program
Department of Justice and Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention’s (OJJDP) Preventing Trafficking of Girls
OJJDP’s Specialized Services and Mentoring for Child and Youth Victims of Sex Trafficking and Sexual Exploitation

Private grants

Examples of large funders in the human trafficking space:

Examples of smaller funders that gave at least one-third of their annual giving budget to anti-trafficking initiatives):

Corporate grants

Major corporate donations given for anti-trafficking:

Private Revenue

Human trafficking is an emerging field with limited funders who explicitly fund anti-trafficking work.
While many funders do not have a specific funding priority on human trafficking, they may still allocate special funds to programs that charge fees for services.
Examples could include fee-based training, consulting, or strategic planning facilitated by the partnership.