PLATINUM2023

GUARDIAN GROUP

Until all are free from sex trafficking in the United States

aka Guardian Group   |   Bend, OR   |  www.guardiangroup.org

Mission

Guardian Group's mission is to prevent and disrupt the sex trafficking of women and children in the United States.

Notes from the nonprofit

The only way to stop this crime is through a community-wide response. Our law enforcement partners have been relentless in their pursuit of these victims and predators despite every obstacle. We are grateful for the businesses, foundations, and granting agencies who have contributed financially to this fight. Our gratitude goes out to our Guardians, monthly donors, and one-time donors who have invested in our mission. Together, we are making a difference. Until All Are Free.

Ruling year info

2007

Founder + CEO

Jeff Keith

Main address

1900 NE 3rd Street Suite 106 #40

Bend, OR 97701 USA

Show more contact info

EIN

72-1613750

NTEE code info

Protection Against and Prevention of Neglect, Abuse, Exploitation (I70)

Child Abuse, Prevention of (I72)

Military/Veterans' Organizations (W30)

IRS filing requirement

This organization is required to file an IRS Form 990 or 990-EZ.

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Communication

Blog

Programs and results

What we aim to solve

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

Human trafficking – the buying and selling of people – is the fastest growing criminal industry in the world. Every day in America, there are 150,000 new advertisements selling people for sex online. Our law enforcement agencies do not have the resources or time to adequately combat this crime alone. These barriers can lead to an increased number of victims, longer victimization periods and escalated trauma experienced by victims of sex trafficking. The lucrative nature of sex trafficking combined with a low risk of serving a long jail sentence has made this crime attractive to predators. These factors all come together to create a perfect storm that has allowed this crime to grow at an unprecedented rate.

Our programs

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?

Analysis Team

Guardian Group identifies US based victims of sex trafficking, through the proactive research of Publicly Available Information. Once identity is confirmed and corroborated, its compiled into a report and passed to law enforcement, at no charge.

Guardian Group stands ready, at law enforcement’s request, to provide online research support for their counter sex trafficking operations. Assisting with lead development and best practice recommendations, based on current trafficking tactics and trends.

Whether it is proactive or reactive support to law enforcement our PURSUIT® Team utilizes the Guardian Group developed I³EA® methodology to act as a nationwide force multiplier.

Population(s) Served
Emergency responders
At-risk youth
Victims and oppressed people

The first ever crowdsourcing process & platform that enables volunteers to become force multipliers to Guardian Group's mission of illuminating child victims of sex trafficking in the United States.

Project 1591 crowdsources a community of Open-Source Intelligence (OSINT) volunteers to apply their skills for good in identifying and illuminating underage victims of sex trafficking to law enforcement in the USA.

Harnessing the power of many to find the vulnerable.

Population(s) Served
Victims and oppressed people
At-risk youth
Emergency responders

Provides a local solution to the human trafficking problem, through organizing a unified response system to counter sex trafficking. Guardian Group is a collaborative team that provides resources, expertise, and information with the goal of maximizing the ability to identify victims and traffickers.

Population(s) Served
Emergency responders
At-risk youth
Victims and oppressed people

Where we work

Accreditations

Excellence in Giving 2022

Better Business Bureau Wise Giving Alliance 2022

WikiCharities 2022

Great Nonprofits 2022

America's Best Charities 2022

Charity Navigator 2022

Awards

Nonprofit of the Year 2018

Bend Chamber of Commerce

Peoples Choice Award 2018

Bend Chamber of Commerce

External assessments

Evaluated via the Impact Genome Project (2018)

Our results

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

How does this organization measure their results? It's a hard question but an important one.

Number of first-time donors

This metric is no longer tracked.
Totals By Year
Type of Metric

Input - describing resources we use

Direction of Success

Increasing

Number of sex trafficking victims identified

This metric is no longer tracked.
Totals By Year
Population(s) Served

At-risk youth, Victims and oppressed people, Emergency responders

Related Program

Analysis Team

Type of Metric

Output - describing our activities and reach

Direction of Success

Holding steady

Context Notes

Project 1591 launched in July of 2022. The development and on-boarding of volunteers remained our priority throughout the year. Allowing for scalable increased identification in the future.

Number of volunteers

This metric is no longer tracked.
Totals By Year
Population(s) Served

At-risk youth, Victims and oppressed people

Related Program

Project 1591®

Type of Metric

Input - describing resources we use

Direction of Success

Increasing

Context Notes

This counts volunteers who have been certified and vetted prior to using their OSINT expertise for victim identification and includes volunteers in 22 states and 6 countries.

Number of investigative hours

This metric is no longer tracked.
Totals By Year
Population(s) Served

At-risk youth, Victims and oppressed people, Emergency responders

Related Program

Analysis Team

Type of Metric

Output - describing our activities and reach

Direction of Success

Increasing

Context Notes

Investigative hours from Guardian Group's Analysis Team and Project 1591 certified volunteers.

Goals & Strategy

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

Learn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.

Charting impact

Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.

We prevent and disrupt the sex trafficking of women and children in the United States.

Our vision is that every child in the US lives free from sex trafficking. We are seeing this vision come to life as more victims are offered a path to freedom.

The Guardian Group team utilizes two most efficient and proven strategies to achieve this mission. Through our own expertise and the help of our crowdsourced volunteer force, we identify women and minors who are victims of domestic sex trafficking nationwide. Our no-cost support to local, state, and federal law enforcement results in increased recovery of these victims. Together we are harnessing the power of many to find the vulnerable.

Our PURSUIT® team is made up of People United Responsibly Suppressing Underage Illicit Trafficking. Since inception the PURSUIT team has consisted of internal analysts working tirelessly to match the problem of domestic sex trafficking and this strategy remains highly effective. However, over the last few years, the need for a complimentary program to help scale to match the ever-increasing domestic sex trafficking problem has been in the forefront of our minds.

Through years of testing and refining, Project 1591® launched in July of 2022. The first-ever 24/7 crowdsourcing process and platform that enables skilled volunteers to become force multipliers to our mission of illuminating child victims of sex trafficking in the United States.

Together, the Guardian Group Analysis Team and the Project 1591 volunteer force are identifying victims of sex trafficking across the nation. This time-sensitive information is then passed to law enforcement partners ready to receive this product to take action. The results, more victims offered a path to freedom!

Guardian Group's team draws upon decades of leadership and experience to achieve effects against human trafficking at the national level. We collaborate through our strategic partnerships with worldwide, world-class organizations that understand the social and business benefits of tackling this exponentially increasing social injustice.

- Created and implemented effective information gathering and dissemination practices to the capacity of law enforcement and prosecution teams

- Launched Project 1591® in 2022. The first-ever 24/7 crowdsourcing process and platform that enables volunteers to become force multipliers to our mission of illuminating child victims of sex trafficking in the United States. This volunteer force is already making an impact on stopping this crime.

Moving forward we have two priorities - scaling our internal Analysis Team and further development of the Project 1591® program.

- Scaling Guardian Group’s internal analysis team is necessary to increase victim identification and support to law enforcement because enough analysts allow for regional expertise. Assigning an analysts to focus on a specific region increases their effectiveness in victim identification in that specific region resulting in increased support of LE.

- Further development of the Project 1591 volunteer platform is vital to scaling to meet the ever-increasing problem of domestic sex trafficking. Additional feature development will create a better user experience and more efficient process to provide victim identification to law enforcement. This program increases community engagement and finding victims online.

How we listen

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

Seeking feedback from people served makes programs more responsive and effective. Here’s how this organization is listening.

done We demonstrated a willingness to learn more by reviewing resources about feedback practice.
done We shared information about our current feedback practices.
  • Who are the people you serve with your mission?

    1) victims of sexual violence in the U.S. who are often minors; 2) law enforcement agencies that have limited resources; 3) community members, industry professionals & businesses who struggle to identify trafficking.

  • How is your organization collecting feedback from the people you serve?

    Electronic surveys (by email, tablet, etc.), Focus groups or interviews (by phone or in person), Case management notes, Community meetings/Town halls, Constituent (client or resident, etc.) advisory committees, Suggestion box/email,

  • How is your organization using feedback from the people you serve?

    To identify and remedy poor client service experiences, To identify bright spots and enhance positive service experiences, To make fundamental changes to our programs and/or operations, To inform the development of new programs/projects, To identify where we are less inclusive or equitable across demographic groups, To strengthen relationships with the people we serve,

  • What significant change resulted from feedback?

    Guardian Group prides itself on keeping current and up-to-date on the problem of human trafficking in the US, as well as best practices and solutions to deter it. We invite, and even require feedback during our in-person and online trainings, which have been integrated into the updates sent to those we serve as well as into newer versions of Guardian Group trainings.

  • With whom is the organization sharing feedback?

    The people we serve, Our staff, Our board, Our funders, Our community partners,

  • Which of the following feedback practices does your organization routinely carry out?

    We collect feedback from the people we serve at least annually, We take steps to get feedback from marginalized or under-represented people, We aim to collect feedback from as many people we serve as possible, We take steps to ensure people feel comfortable being honest with us, We look for patterns in feedback based on demographics (e.g., race, age, gender, etc.), We look for patterns in feedback based on people’s interactions with us (e.g., site, frequency of service, etc.), We engage the people who provide feedback in looking for ways we can improve in response, We act on the feedback we receive,

  • What challenges does the organization face when collecting feedback?

    We don't have any major challenges to collecting feedback,

Financials

GUARDIAN GROUP
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Operations

The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.

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Connect with nonprofit leaders

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  • Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
  • Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
  • Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations

Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.

GUARDIAN GROUP

Board of directors
as of 02/13/2023
SOURCE: Self-reported by organization
Board chair

Mr. Samuel Donnelly

Jeff Keith

Founder/CEO

Scott Lauray

Northwest Business Group

Samuel Donnelly

Onebrief

Joe Sunwoo

Franklin Templeton

Bea Cochran

Balenturn

Board leadership practices

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

GuideStar worked with BoardSource, the national leader in nonprofit board leadership and governance, to create this section.

  • Board orientation and education
    Does the board conduct a formal orientation for new board members and require all board members to sign a written agreement regarding their roles, responsibilities, and expectations? Yes
  • CEO oversight
    Has the board conducted a formal, written assessment of the chief executive within the past year ? Yes
  • Ethics and transparency
    Have the board and senior staff reviewed the conflict-of-interest policy and completed and signed disclosure statements in the past year? Yes
  • Board composition
    Does the board ensure an inclusive board member recruitment process that results in diversity of thought and leadership? Yes
  • Board performance
    Has the board conducted a formal, written self-assessment of its performance within the past three years? Yes

Organizational demographics

SOURCE: Self-reported; last updated 2/2/2023

Who works and leads organizations that serve our diverse communities? Candid partnered with CHANGE Philanthropy on this demographic section.

Leadership

No data

Race & ethnicity

Gender identity

No data

 

No data

Sexual orientation

No data

Disability

No data

Equity strategies

Last updated: 05/18/2022

GuideStar partnered with Equity in the Center - an organization that works to shift mindsets, practices, and systems to increase racial equity - to create this section. Learn more

Data
  • We analyze disaggregated data and root causes of race disparities that impact the organization's programs, portfolios, and the populations served.
  • We disaggregate data to adjust programming goals to keep pace with changing needs of the communities we support.
  • We employ non-traditional ways of gathering feedback on programs and trainings, which may include interviews, roundtables, and external reviews with/by community stakeholders.
Policies and processes
  • We seek individuals from various race backgrounds for board and executive director/CEO positions within our organization.
  • We have community representation at the board level, either on the board itself or through a community advisory board.
  • We help senior leadership understand how to be inclusive leaders with learning approaches that emphasize reflection, iteration, and adaptability.