In March 2014, Caravan Studios, in collaborations with Polaris Project, submitted a proposal in the final round of the Reimagine: Opportunity Challenge. The Challenge, managed by the Partnership for Freedom, sought innovative solutions to distinct problems within the issue of human trafficking. Caravan Studios and Polaris Project each made it to the final round with separate proposals. As a part of the proposal process, they had the opportunity to spend three days together discussing their work and the opportunities. As a direct result of this, Polaris Project and Caravan Studios decided to combine their separate projects and submit for the final round together. The Safe Shelter Collaborative is an innovative effort designed to bring more shelter space into the area of human trafficking. Through a combination of training, technology solutions and community engagement, the Collaborative will help provide appropriate shelter space to a wide range of human trafficking survivors.

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A. Executive Summary
As a first step towards long-term recovery and self-sufficiency, human trafficking
survivors need quick access to shelter that is safe, survivor-appropriate and population-
specific. Currently, this type of shelter access is often hindered by three common
barriers:
• A traumatic and frequently repetitive intake process that may dissuade human
trafficking survivors from seeking shelter.
• Lack of available beds to meet the overwhelming need.
• Limited funding streams for shelters.
To improve access to safe and supportive shelter for human trafficking survivors,
Caravan Studios and Polaris Project are working together to create the Safe Shelter
Collaborative. Piloted initially in New Jersey, and in coordination with the New Jersey
Department of Children and Families (DCF), the Safe Shelter Collaborative will:
• Identify existing shelter resources for pilot regions.
• Create and implement shareable intake assessment tools.
• Train and certify shelter providers on population-specific support for human
trafficking survivors.
• Develop and launch a technology solution that maximizes available shelter
space and receives and manages hotel donations to ensure placement when
shelter beds are unavailable.
To augment New Jersey pilot learnings and prepare for larger scale deployment,
Caravan Studios will seek additional shelter sites in other parts of the country to join the

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Collaborative as pilot participants in year 2 of the project. These additional pilot sites will
test the learnings from the New Jersey pilot and ensure that the resulting tools and
trainings work in other locations. Caravan Studios will use strategic criteria to select the
next phase of pilot locations, including statistics on in-bound hotline calls to the National
Human Trafficking Resource Center run by Polaris Project; buy-in from relevant
government agencies; philanthropic support; active shelter resources; and an
accessible and supportive anti-trafficking community.
Throughout the project period, the team will reach out to corporations,
philanthropists, and individuals to build the SafeNight Fund to ensure that community
support is available for hotel placements when shelter space is not an option. This
activated base of companies, foundations, and individuals also can help share
information about human trafficking in support of Objective 3 of the Federal Strategic
Action Plan on Services for Victims of Human Trafficking focused on establishing
baseline knowledge on human trafficking and Objective 8 focused on improving access
and removing systemic barriers to services for survivors.
The Safe Shelter Collaborative represents a powerful and unique partnership among
anti-trafficking experts, relevant state government, and social enterprise and will
address a critical need of survivors of trafficking by providing appropriate, supportive
shelter for those in crisis; creating a new means of funding for shelter; and generating
information on shelter needs and constraints for analysis and sharing. These efforts
provide a scalable solution for addressing a crucial need of human trafficking survivors
as they create a life of their choice.

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B. The Problem
B1. Describe the specific problems that you have observed or documented in
sustainable housing, economic empowerment, or social services in the
geographic area that your idea seeks to address. Please provide footnoted
references for any research cited.
Stable shelter—particularly when coupled with population-specific support—provides
human trafficking survivors with a pathway to long-term recovery and self-sufficiency. In
the absence of this shelter, survivors are vulnerable to further exploitation and potential
re-trafficking. Currently, a comprehensive, sustainable, and scalable shelter solution
does not exist in the United States due to several, often overlapping, challenges:
Traumatic and inefficient intake processes: To determine their eligibility for
shelter, survivors undergo arduous and personally invasive intake assessments that
require them to recount specific incidents of trauma. All too often after the intake
process, survivors learn that there is no space available or that they do not qualify for
shelter services. Exacerbating this problem, individual shelters do not use uniform
intake forms and do not typically share results with other providers, requiring the
survivor to often undergo several separate intake processes. Anecdotal evidence
suggests that survivors undergo an average of five unique shelter intake processes
before securing appropriate placement.
Insufficient number of beds to meet overall need: Although the covert nature of
human trafficking makes it impossible to determine the exact number of beds needed
for survivors per night, Polaris Project estimates the number to be in the tens of
thousands. The number of available beds per night nationwide falls significantly short:
only 529 beds are exclusively designated for human trafficking survivors with an

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additional 1,115 beds available at organizations that support other population groups in
need, thus limiting the actual number of beds available to human trafficking survivors.
Furthermore, some population groups, such as men and LGBTQI youth, have virtually
no access to appropriate shelter placements. And in some regions, any shelter specific
to human trafficking survivors is scant to non-existent despite a high level of need. For
example, of the survivors served by Polaris Project’s New Jersey office in the past two
years, approximately 70% needed shelter placement assistance. Unfortunately, none of
the designated human trafficking beds in the U.S. are currently located in New Jersey.
Limited funding streams for shelter: Shelter space that is specific to human
trafficking survivors has not been consistently or broadly funded. Much of this funding
challenge results from the predominantly hidden face of human trafficking and lack of
concrete data. Without a reliable, ongoing funding stream to support existing shelter
providers, it is difficult to build a sustainable, broad-scale network of population-specific
shelters.
In conclusion, human trafficking survivors need access to safe and stable shelter.
Unfortunately, there is a shortage of funding and of beds nationwide and, even when
shelter is available, survivors may not meet the criteria required to access services.
These issues create barriers to critical shelter placements, increase trauma for
survivors, and exhaust the capacity of service providers.

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C. The Solution
C1. Describe how your project will address these specific problems, and the
results you expect to achieve at the end of 24 months.
To address the problems listed above, Caravan Studios and Polaris Project will
launch the Safe Shelter Collaborative, a coordinated and scalable response to reduce
trauma and increase access to shelter. The proposed project will: streamline intake and
placement processes; allow case managers to quickly locate shelter appropriate to the
survivor(s); maximize placement in available shelter space; and create an ongoing
funding stream to support hotel placements when shelter space is not an option.
The Safe Shelter Collaborative (“the Collaborative”) will be piloted in New Jersey
with the support of the New Jersey Department of Children and Families (DCF). DCF’s
participation in this project as a leader and supporter of various shelter providers in New
Jersey—specifically in the domestic violence arena—provides a participation model for
other state and local agencies.
Initially, the Collaborative will be comprised of eight pilot shelter providers in New
Jersey and grow to include 10 to 15 additional New Jersey-based organizations. By
month 18 of the project period, we will have completed a plan to bring up to 50 to 75
organizations into the Collaborative nationwide. An Advisory Board comprised of subject
matter experts representing a range of expertise and experience with human trafficking
survivor support—including survivors themselves—also will play a critical and ongoing
role in refining project activities and strategies throughout the two-year project period.
The Collaborative will implement the solutions summarized in Figure 1 and
described in more detail below.

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Problem to be addressed Proposed Solution(s) that address the Problem
Traumatic and ineffective intake
processes
A shared intake process that includes cultural competency,
appropriate shelter support of survivors.
Not enough beds to meet
overwhelming need
Technology solution, SafeNight, to find shelter space or access
funding for hotel placements as appropriate and needed.
Limited funding streams for
shelters
Cash fund made up of corporate, foundation, and community
donors to support hotel placements.
Figure 1. Proposed solutions per problem
A shared intake process that addresses cultural competency and appropriate
shelter support of survivors: A shareable intake assessment framework—developed
in collaboration with pilot sites—will streamline placement, reducing the often traumatic
and ineffective aspects of the current intake systems. This framework will consist of
shareable intake tools; robust training for appropriate shelter staff; and ongoing skill-
building support and training.
The intake tools will reflect feedback from pilot sites and will be designed to be
shared by all shelter providers in the Collaborative (with appropriate permissions from
the human trafficking survivor in place). This approach will help to mitigate the repetitive
nature of intake processes across the landscape of shelter providers, reducing trauma
to the survivor and time spent by the support service staff. It will become a standard for
agency onboarding, training, and shelter services identification in other locations,
creating a more strategic and coordinated process of shelter services for the field.
Training and ongoing support will focus on providing agencies with a human
trafficking lens in order to provide survivor- and trauma-informed services, as well as
more tactical training to ensure that all trainees can use the tools and processes created
as part of this framework. By training shelter organizations that have not traditionally

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provided services to human trafficking survivors, such as domestic violence or LGBTQI-
specific shelters, we will increase the number of shelter beds available to meet the
overall need.
In the second half of the project, training will be developed for online use in a style
generally associated with Massively Open Online Courses (MOOCs). This innovative
training approach will allow training to scale and will, over time, create a cohort of
organizations that share a common set of protocols and a common sensibility with
regard to support for human trafficking survivors.
A technology solution, SafeNight, to find shelter space or access funding for
hotel placements as appropriate and needed: This web-based service with mobile
components will allow case managers to (1) quickly find available shelter space,
capitalizing on the streamlined intake assessment process; and (2) make more beds
more accessible, increasing the number of survivors successfully placed.
By quickly finding available shelter bed space using an “ask-and-respond” model
comparable to systems such as Uber or Lyft, staff doing intake can quickly access an
appropriate and available shelter bed for a survivor exiting a trafficking situation. Quick
access to appropriate shelter options will maximize resources and offer survivors a
sense of safety and security during the traumatic situation of exiting a trafficking
situation. If a shelter space is unavailable, SafeNight also allows the case manager to
request funding to support hotel room stays of up to five nights.
This solution will be based on a mobile service in early development with domestic
violence service organizations. By building on an existing technology-backbone,

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Caravan Studios is capitalizing on previous learnings, as well as reducing the overall
cost and time to launch the Safe Shelter Collaborative.
A cash fund made up of corporate, foundation, and community donors to
support hotel placements: This fund will be comprised of corporate, foundation, and
individual donations and will support hotel placements. A mobile component of
SafeNight will provide a mechanism for crowdfunding support for hotel stays. This has
the additional benefit of engaging a large community in support of human trafficking
survivors, thereby increasing awareness of the problem and community involvement in
providing a solution. Caravan Studios, in coordination with the Advisory Board, will lead
efforts to secure corporate and foundation donations to support the SafeNight fund.
These solutions will be piloted primarily in New Jersey in the initial 12 months of the
project, with additional sites added in year two. At the end of 24 months, we expect to
have developed, launched, piloted, and refined a coordinated and comprehensive
solution that has made a real impact in the pilot communities, is poised for national
rollout, and that draws on the collective knowledge, expertise, and passion of relevant
stakeholders as well as the innovation possible via new technologies.
C2. Describe the specific activities you will undertake to achieve your results.
While both Caravan Studios and Polaris Project staff members will be involved in the
implementation of the project, Caravan Studios will be the primary implementation
agency, overseeing project execution with direct management of SafeNight technology
development; creation and management of the SafeNight fund; and Advisory Board
support. Polaris Project will lead training-related design and delivery for the pilot sites;

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develop common intake protocols; and identify and develop appropriate shelter
partnerships. Caravan Studios also will assist with establishing the protocols for online
training and moving the online training to scale.
1. Develop a collaborative intake process that addresses cultural competency
and appropriate support of survivors.
Intake Tool Design and Launch
Polaris Project and DCF will work with the eight New Jersey pilot agencies to design
shareable intake tools to facilitate shelter placement for all survivors of human
trafficking. Drawing on successful intake tools and documents currently used by the
individual pilot sites, Polaris Project will refine and design a shareable intake tool(s) to
streamline this process within the Collaborative. Examples of variables to be included in
this shared tool are: age; gender; language proficiency; and critical health and safety
concerns. By using the same intake variables and format, shelter providers will be able
to quickly access a list of viable shelter options from an appropriate subset of the
Collaborative as a whole.
During the course of this project, Polaris Project will continue to build a list of
appropriate shelter providers in New Jersey. Leveraging an existing database structure
common to the human trafficking field, this list will be initially seeded with data from the
eight New Jersey pilot sites to test system format and functionality; it will grow as the
project scales, first in New Jersey and then in additional pilot regions in the U.S. As
described below, these shelters will need to be certified via a training process to be
added to this list.

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Training: use evidence-based practices to establish a common training protocol and
set of expectations for providing services to human trafficking survivors.
Polaris Project will host and deliver comprehensive, human trafficking training for
Collaborative participants to be conducted in two segments.
The first training segment, Human Trafficking Survivor Support, will provide an
overview of human trafficking in the U.S. as well as detailed instruction in the critical
intake and support issues unique to human trafficking survivors, featuring best practices
on topics such as human trafficking definitions, networks, and methods of control;
evidence-based service provision; and trauma-informed and survivor-centered
interaction and support.
The second training segment will educate shelter providers on using the intake tools
and processes. These hands-on training sessions will ensure that all users can
successfully use the tool and understand the basic data and processes that support it.
Each participating shelter that successfully completes the two training segments will
receive a certification confirming their ability to provide human trafficking-specific shelter
services in this Collaborative. Once they have received certification, the shelter staff
members will receive access to, and training on, the SafeNight system.
Ongoing skill-building support and training
Following the formal training period, skill-building support and training will be offered
to Collaborative members through a variety of channels, such as webinars, case
reviews, phone consultations, and on-site support. This ongoing skill-building training
and support will be available for all certified shelters once they have completed the

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trainings in best practices and tool use. Additional technical assistance will be provided
as requested and will cover topics such as trauma-informed care, survivor advocacy
strategies, and self-care tips.
2. Develop and deploy a technology solution to find available bed space:
SafeNight is a web and mobile solution that will allow the Collaborative members to
identify open shelter space and, if none is available, access funds to place the survivor
in a hotel, when hotel placement is safe and appropriate.
Built on the technology developed by Caravan Studios in collaboration with
California-based domestic violence organizations, the SafeNight app works as follows:
Step 1. When an individual needs shelter, the case manager will send a notice to
participating shelters using the SafeNight system. Any organization with an available
space can respond to the request, thereby notifying the requesting organization and
beginning the placement process for the individual in need.
Step 2. If no participating organization has space, the case manager can make a
request for hotel funding, accessing funds to place the survivor in a hotel, when hotel
placement is safe and appropriate.
Caravan Studios will update and test the existing SafeNight prototype to support the
workflow described above, with a field use pilot launched and completed in the first 12
months of the project.
3. Establish the SafeNight Fund:
Shelter needs can be sporadic and can sometimes overwhelm a particular
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trafficking survivors requiring immediate placement at one time.
To ensure that placements can be made both quickly and effectively, a fund will be
held in the SafeNight system. Upon using SafeNight to request funding, organizations
will draw down on those monies for hotel placements. Requesting monies also will
trigger a request to donors (i.e., individuals who have downloaded and have the
SafeNight app on their mobile devices) to make a donation to restore the fund and
ensure that money is available for the next person who needs it. This “pay-it-forward”
crowdfunding approach will increase the number of donors who can provide support and
increase the funding available to support safe shelter for human trafficking survivors. In
addition, corporations, foundations, and government agencies will have an opportunity
to donate to the fund. Furthermore, Polaris Project will explore leveraging current
donation agreements with hotel chains to expand access to donated rooms. This mix of
top-down and bottom-up financial support will help ensure an ongoing source of income
for hotel placements.
The fund will require the following management tasks:
• Monitor system usage to ensure that the fund’s base level is adequate to provide
placements, understanding that the required base level may change over time.
• Monitor the rate of replacement so that appropriate management decisions can
be made about the fund, donor outreach, system usage, etc.
• Monitor organizational drawdowns and payments to ensure accurate
reconciliation.

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C3. What risks (internal or external), if any, may pose obstacles to achieving
your intended results? What strategies will you use to reduce these potential
risks?
Figures 2 and 3 below list potential risks and mitigation strategies for this project.
External Risks and Mitigation Strategies
Risk Mitigation Strategy
Difficulty securing
additional pilot
participants outside of
New Jersey.
• Demonstrate buy-in from respected shelter providers on the
ground.
• Use webinars, Google hangouts, and other communication
channels to provide exposure to the project.
• Provide clear expectations to pilot participants.
• Provide access to other pilot participants for informational
interviews.
• Conduct ongoing publicity to increase visibility of the project.
Ensuring effective
engagement with hotels
to support placement.
• Provide best practice materials for developing relationships
with local hotels.
• Negotiating, where possible, relationships with regional and
national hotel chains.
• Providing access to mentors—agency staff who have
developed relationships to hotels—to provide guidance and
coaching.
• Polaris Project has existing relationships with hotel chains and
protocols in place to determine appropriate utilization of hotel
placements for survivors.
Placing survivors in
hotels when it is
inappropriate or
counter-productive to
their recovery.
• Trainings will develop the skills necessary to enable shelter
staff to identify risks associated with placing survivor in various
shelter locations and types.
• The SafeNight tool is responsive to the needs of the survivor
and the decisions of the trained service provider on when a
hotel placement may not be appropriate.
Acquiring a sufficient
number of funders to
support the total number
of requests.
• Conduct local, regional, and national marketing, including
public relations efforts, to increase visibility of the project.
• Provide existing donors and funders with a mechanism to
recruit new donors and funders.
• Webinars, Google hangouts, tweetchats, and other
communications techniques to enable aggressive list building
of interested community members.
Figure 2. External Project Risks and Mitigation Strategies

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Internal Risks and Mitigation Strategies
Risk Mitigation Strategy
Technology deployment
errors.
• Work with an established and known app development shop.
• Complete a code review from an external source.
• Publish data standards to ensure that SafeNight can be
integrated with other systems.
• Provide an appropriate separation between technology layers,
for example, using APIs to connect to various donation
processing systems to increase choice and reduce reliance on
a single technology vendor.
Maintaining stability in
the SafeNight Fund.
• Outreach to institutional funders, such as foundations and
corporations, to provide support by contributing to the
SafeNight Fund directly.
• Monitoring demand, drawdown and donor engagement to keep
an appropriate amount of money in the fund.
Figure 3. Internal Project Risks and Mitigation Strategies
D. The Outcome
D1. Describe the specific measures you will use to capture the results of your
project, and why these measures are the right ones to both express your
project’s direct outcomes and inform the wider field.
Caravan Studios and Polaris Project will use the following metrics to measure results
(progress will be measured against baseline data collected during the project start-up
period):
• Total number of shelter requests processed by the Collaborative.
• Number of shelter placements.
• Number of hotel placements.
• Total number of unmet requests for shelter.
• Number of successful placements by specific demographic, such as men,

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women, youth (under 18), LGBTQI, ethnicity.
• Number of unsuccessful placements by specific demographic group: such as
men, women, youth (under 18), LGBTQI, ethnicity.
• Number and diversity of motels and hotels (single-site, groups, and chains)
used in placements.
• Time length of responses from shelter providers when a request is submitted.
• Analysis of the time shelter requests are made, including the day of the week
requests are coming through, and other markers that can assist in staffing
shelters, hotlines, and services providers.
• Number of entities or organizations that proactively reach out to use SafeNight
in their communities.
These metrics will provide immediate feedback on the success of the project, as well
as data to help better understand effective ways to expand related services.
D2. Describe how and specifically who will monitor progress towards achieving
the outcomes and activities of your project.
Caravan Studios, CEO, Marnie Webb, will monitor and ensure progress towards
achieving the overall outcomes and activities of this project through semi-monthly
project check-ins that assess progress against deliverables, metrics, and budget. In
addition to Ms. Webb, project team members will track data related to their specific
areas of expertise.
Polaris Project, led by Director of Polaris Project New Jersey, Kate Keisel, will
monitor the progress of the training and certification program through ongoing technical

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assistance for shelter collaborative participants. This ongoing training and technical
assistance will provide opportunities to conduct thorough evaluations while monitoring
the successes and challenges partner agencies experience.
The technology director for this project, Caravan Studios CTO, Anna Jaeger, will
ensure that the SafeNight tool functions effectively and that appropriate data is collected
and shared.
D3. How do you plan to use project data to inform your work or make changes
during your project?
The data gathered will identify populations that systematically do not have access to
formalized emergency shelter placement. Those individuals with similar demographic
information that are consistently accessing hotel placement will be red flagged as
underserved. The identification of new shelter partners for the Collaborative will be
based on service gaps and underserved populations.
In addition, the data will give us a greater picture of the shelter needs that can allow
funders to support evidence-based service gaps through increased financial support
and the release of RFPs that address these underserved populations.
In terms of operational improvements, the regular tracking and reporting will clarify
ways to optimize service delivery, including technology changes to increase usability,
increased outreach activity to acquire and engage donors, resetting levels in the
SafeNight fund to maximize the impact of the reserved dollars, and refreshing staff
training among other things.
Longer term reports provide a reasonable opportunity for other stakeholders, such

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as funders, policy makers, journalists, and service providers, to understand project
impact, ask questions about efficacy, and make decisions based on trends over time
and not just daily management information.
Collected data will be shared regularly with the community to invite their engagement
through, for example, reports showing insights gathered by the management team and
stakeholders, raw data (at aggregate levels) so that knowledgeable individuals can
discover their own insights, and technologically accessible data so the information can
be used in other systems and in ways that may be hard to predict at this point.
E. The Bigger Picture
E1. What would it mean to the anti-trafficking movement/field if this project is
successful? Specifically, how will your project contribute to what is understood
about trafficking, anti-trafficking policies/laws, and/or quality of interventions?
This project focuses on a critical aspect of the anti-trafficking movement: survivors’
need for urgent shelter as they embark on the path to freedom, independence, and self-
sufficiency. The Safe Shelter Collaborative provides an effective and innovative solution
that will revolutionize the way service providers, law enforcement agencies, and other
stakeholders seek and secure safe shelter for survivors of human trafficking in the
following ways:
• The project provides a common placement intake framework that can be
released throughout the field to streamline the process for providing quick and
appropriate shelter. The standardized, anonymized, intake information can be
shared among shelters, reducing the trauma and repetition of this process. It
also creates a pathway for agencies not currently supporting human trafficking

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survivors to expand services. This helps survivors focus on healing and
meeting their long-term goals. Concurrently, it also lowers the burden for intake
staff at shelters, so case workers can do more work on services rather than
data entry.
• The SafeNight app is a web-based technology solution that allows case
managers to quickly find available shelter space and receive access to funding
for hotel rooms if shelter space is not available. The process will be
implemented using a multi-modal technology tool to increase accessibility for
busy shelter staff. The process is streamlined by asking shelters if there is a
bed available in a particular geography, rather than relying on them to update
and maintain the data. This simple technology tool allows shelter staff to
respond to the query with a simple click of a “yes” or “no.” When a shelter bed
is not available, the hotel option provides more flexibility. This reduces time
spent by case workers searching for available beds (and increases time
providing services). At the same time, technology enables us to more easily
collect and use aggregate data to inform funding and support decisions for
trafficked populations seeking emergency shelter.
• To be effective, the hotel shelter mechanism requires sustainable funding,
which is often not available on demand when urgent shelter is needed. Thus,
the project will fundraise for a centralized funding mechanism from
corporate, foundation and individual donations. This will both bring greater

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visibility to the issue as well as aid in negotiating hotel rates on behalf of
survivors. The mechanism also allows for donation of points to reserve hotel
rooms, in addition to cash funds.
E2. How will you make this data or information available to the larger anti-
trafficking field? Do you anticipate having any products or publications that
will result from this work?
A key output of the project is sharing the data received in a useful and digestible
format for the field. The project will gather statistical data such as: number of donors;
average donation per donor; total number of donations; number of nights of shelter
provided; a map of requests made; and geographic and demographic breakdown of
requests, placements, and donor engagement.
Recognizing that it is not enough to publish the reports, Caravan Studios and Polaris
Project will share collected information at conferences, via Google hangouts and other
media, and meetings with reporters so that they understand the implications of gathered
data and effectively use it to inform their own work.
E3. What makes your project sustainable beyond a single large grant from this
prize? What specific plans do you have to continue your initiative after the 2-
year grant term?
The partners in the Safe Shelter Collective will assess different sustainability models
via earned revenue streams, such as:
1. A small fee from each donation. This is standard for donation processing and
donors will opt in. This fee will cover the processing requirements and help fund
the maintenance and improvement of SafeNight.
2. An annual appeal to all registered donors. The appeal will be shared via direct

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email marketing, and will provide an opportunity for people to make a one-time
donation in any amount to help fund the system.
3. A small on-boarding fee and monthly subscription fee from participating state or
municipal entities to cover the price of vetting organizations and providing
training and general support.
The project’s Advisory Board will play a central role in helping to inform potential
revenue models that would be appropriate and effective for the human trafficking
survivor support organizations. We believe a fee structure is an important part of
making the service sustainable while also engaging active and committed participant
organizations. However, all pilot sites would have free use of the SafeNight app.
F. The Implementers
F1. Please describe your organization’s mission and goals, its broad
governance structure, and names and backgrounds of the organization’s
leadership.
Caravan Studios’ mission is to build technology solutions that help communities
organize, access, and apply resources to their most pressing problems. A division of
TechSoup Global (TSG), Caravan Studios’ leadership reports to the TSG Board of
Directors.
Caravan Studios Leadership Team
• Marnie Webb: CEO, Caravan Studios. Ms. Webb is an experienced and
passionate leader with a 20-plus year track record of using new technologies to
help communities achieve their goals.
• Catherine (Hurd) Johnson, COO, Caravan Studios. With over 15 years in the

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nonprofit and public sectors, Ms. Johnson has managed numerous department-
level operations, budgets, fundraising efforts and strategic plans.
• Anna Jaeger, CTO, Caravan Studios. Ms. Jaeger is an experienced nonprofit
manager who has provided direction for IT teams in a variety of roles, including
director, programmer/analyst, business analyst, and project manager.
F2. Please outline your current programs and activities as relevant to the
proposed scope of work.
Caravan Studios believes that communities should be deeply involved in developing
tools to solve their problems. Our work has been informed by our experiences with
community organizations as well as by design thinking principles used by corporations
such as IDEO, Cooper Studio, and Civic Center. We expand on their conceptual models
by shifting ownership from a corporation or a client to the community who needs the tool
most. This process is vital to encourage community ownership and adoption; that is, “we
helped build it, and now we use it.”
Our community-driven approach has resulted in many successes. The two most
relevant efforts follow:
• Range finds the nearest location in time and place where a youth can find a
meal. During the summer, millions of youth eligible for free and reduced
meals lose the place—school cafeterias—where they ate lunch. Range is
intended to help youth—and those who work with them—quickly find the
nearest place in time and location to get a free meal.
• 4Bells helps nonprofits and local groups deploy known volunteers to meet

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urgent, time-sensitive requests. For example, a Neighborhood Emergency
Response Team (NERT) can pre-register local volunteers with specific skills
(e.g., medical, construction, electrical) and then deploy those volunteers to
meet urgent requests when the need arises.
F3. Please explain why your organization is well positioned to achieve these
objectives.
Caravan Studios is a division of TechSoup Global (TSG), a 27-year-old 501(c)(3)
organization that connect nonprofits worldwide with the technology tools and resources
they need to fulfill their missions. Whether through content, training, software, or mobile
apps, each solution is uniquely identified or built because TSG is dedicated to
understanding community and organizational needs. Caravan Studios takes this
expertise one step further by embedding community members in a methodology that
begins and ends with community involvement.
The SafeNight idea surfaced after years of work with local and national domestic
violence agencies. This deep commitment to an issue area resulted in an application
developed in concert with the community that will benefit from it. Our work with the
domestic violence community introduced us to the needs of human trafficking survivors
and the networks that support the community. It is that same steadfast commitment to
listening and understanding community needs that brings us to this project.
F4. Please disclose the organization’s total budget, the list of other major
donors, and describe the organization’s plans to ensure a diverse and
sustainable funding base.
Caravan Studios is a division of TechSoup Global (TSG). TSG has an operating
budget of $27,294,523 (FY14), with revenue estimates for FY14 at $35m, including an

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estimated $33m in earned revenue from our product donation program and eligibility
services. In addition to earned revenue, TSG has financial support from a mix of
institutional and corporate foundations (Figure 4). This long-standing combination of
earned revenue from services to the social benefit sector and collaborative relationships
with funding-partners, has allowed TSG to maintain a diverse and sustainable funding
base over its 27-year history. Going forward, TSG is exploring several avenues related
to sustainability, including expansion of its eligibility services to funders, revisions to its
product philanthropy model to better reflect increased use of new technologies in the
social benefit sector, and the inclusion of mobile apps in the TSG product catalog.
[REDACTED]
Figure 4. TSG major donors (FY13 – FY14)
F5. List the key personnel of the project and briefly explain how their skills
and experiences qualify them for achieving the goals of the project. Include a
plan for how you’ll hire the right people if you don’t already have them on
your team.
Marnie Webb, CEO, Caravan Studios: Ms. Webb will provide strategic oversight
and executive-­‐level input on this project’s overall implementation, including business
modeling and scalability.
Anna Jaeger, CTO, Caravan Studios: Ms. Jaeger will oversee the technology
building aspects of this project, including recruiting and vetting tech developers, creating
tech specifications for prototypes, and structure on-going support.
Mary Duffy, Director of Field Operations, Caravan Studios: Ms. Duffy will help
develop and implement field training and engagement materials in collaboration with
project partner, Polaris Project.

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Sarah Washburn, Director of Community Engagement, Caravan Studios: Ms.
Washburn will provide direction on the design and implementation of community
engagement strategies for this project.
John McDermott, Vice President, Finance, TechSoup Global: Mr. McDermott will
ensure effective financial management of this project.
F6. Tell us about your key partners (any organization that will be sub grantees
or are otherwise instrumental to the success of the project). Include a brief
description of the partner and their specific qualifications.
Project Partners
Polaris Project is a leading organization in the fight to end human trafficking and
modern slavery. Starting in 2006, Polaris Project responded to the lack of specialized
case management services available for survivors of human trafficking in the state of
New Jersey. Polaris Project continues to push for systemic change in the fight against
human trafficking by working with the New Jersey State-wide Anti-trafficking Task
Force, the New Jersey Coalition Against Human Trafficking, and other key groups to
institute an effective, survivor-informed, state-wide response to the crime of human
trafficking. Polaris Project will be a sub grantee of Caravan Studios on this project.
One of our partners in this project, The New Jersey Department of Children and
Families (DCF), is the primary funding source and oversight agency for 22 domestic
violence shelter programs in New Jersey. A Cabinet-level agency, DCF’s work includes
the fields of child welfare, domestic violence, and sexual assault. In 2013, it confronted
the issue of trafficking head-on, and has trained its entire child welfare staff on
trafficking; initiated specialized training for community provider and clinicians; and has

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established working relationships with law enforcement and NGOs. DCF also funds
several street outreach programs for homeless and runaway youth that will be critical
allies in our project, especially with regard to young men and the LGBTQI population.
Pilot Sites
[REDACTED]