I am delighted to share the news of a landmark $60 million unrestricted gift to the Freedom Fund from MacKenzie Scott. This gift is a powerful endorsement of our mission: investing in frontline, community-led organisations and movements to drive a measurable reduction of modern slavery. Together with our partners, we are determined to ensure Scott’s gift has a transformative impact on vulnerable communities affected by exploitation.
Deep-rooted systems of slavery are most effectively dismantled by those who are closest to the problem. The last decade of the Freedom Fund’s work has proven that when frontline and survivor-led organisations are well-funded, supported and connected, they build unstoppable movements. We see Scott’s gift as a celebration of our 190 partners—from Nepal to Kenya to Brazil and beyond—who work tirelessly to bring freedom to their communities.
Our strategy is tightly focused on funding, convening and supporting frontline and survivor-led anti-slavery organisations and movements. This gift will enable us to scale up our efforts and pass on Scott’s spirit of trust and generosity to our partners, ultimately shifting more power and resources to frontline groups.
To date, the Freedom Fund has partnered with 288 frontline organisations to directly impact the lives of over 1.7 million people. As a result, an estimated ten million people live in communities with greater resistance to slavery.
In 2021, Scott granted $35 million to the Freedom Fund, which greatly accelerated our impact. Through initiatives like the Survivor Leadership Fund, we provided unrestricted grants to locally and survivor-led organisations. We scaled our work in Kenya, Bangladesh, and two regions in Brazil, addressing the exploitation of child domestic workers, commercial sexual exploitation of children and forced labour in illegal logging. We published new research to advance the sector and launched an initiative to support organisations in Southeast Asia using strategic litigation and advocacy to hold companies responsible for forced labour in their supply chains.
We couldn’t have imagined that a new, even more generous gift would follow, and we are filled with gratitude, determination and a sense of responsibility.
50 million people still live in conditions of modern slavery. In a moment when many frontline organisations face significant cuts to resources and attacks on civil society, investment in the anti-trafficking movement is urgently needed.
We will use this extraordinary gift—alongside the steadfast support of the other individuals, governments, and institutions who fund the Freedom Fund—to mobilise even greater change. We invite you to join us in building a world without slavery.
About us
The Freedom Fund is a collaborative fund that invests in frontline organisations and movements to drive a measurable reduction of modern slavery in high-prevalence countries and industries. We fund, convene and support community and survivor-led organisations, and we provide a way for funders to join together, gain expertise, and maximise the impact of their grantmaking.
Our partners drive change through strategies based on community needs, helping people get out of slavery and into decent work or school, and to access social and legal services. Through strategic litigation, research, and advocacy, our partners also push global private sector actors and governments to eliminate modern slavery in supply chains.
Media contacts
Xanthe Scharff, Managing Director for External Affairs (US-based)
Lara Fatah, Head of Communications (UK-based)
