Operating Model · How It Works

The Impact
Stack

Not For Sale’s three-tier operating model — deployed in every country, built to move from crisis response to self-sustaining enterprise.

Support the model → Donate to a tier
TIER 01 Social Intervention TIER 02 Research & Biz Dev TIER 03 Scalable Ventures

Why does slavery persist despite billions spent fighting it?

Because most interventions stop at rescue. They pull people from the river but never go upstream to find out why they are falling in. The Impact Stack is designed to go upstream — and to build something permanent when it gets there.

Most organisations operate exclusively in Tier 1. Some add Tier 2. Almost none build Tier 3. The Impact Stack moves through all three — in sequence, in every country, adapted to local conditions.

“The most powerful form of prevention is a community with ownership of its own future.”

The principle behind the Impact Stack
3
Tier Three · The Output

Scalable Ventures

Not For Sale invests in enterprises that create jobs, generate revenue, and build long-term community sustainability. This is the flywheel: ventures return revenue to fund more Tier 1 work.

⬡ Funded by blended capital & venture investment
Ventures produced
REBBL
Nationally distributed beverage brand sourcing from AFIMAD in Peru. Returns 2.5% of net revenue to NFS.
→ $2M+ returned to date
Dignita
Amsterdam’s social restaurant. 100% of profits fund survivor training through NFS Netherlands.
St. Clare Coffee · AFIMAD · FAIR Finances
Survivor-employing coffee, an indigenous-led cooperative, and a self-sustaining accounting B.V.
2
Tier Two · The Bridge

Research &
Business Development

The question is not “how do we help these people?” It is “why are they vulnerable, and what economic opportunity exists to change that?” After ~2 years of Tier 1 work, NFS tests market-based solutions.

⬡ Funded by donations (project costs)
Research that produced enterprise
Brazil nut supply chain, Peru
Mark Wexler & David Batstone mapping market opportunities in Madre de Dios. Led to AFIMAD → REBBL.
→ The Montara Circle, 2011
Akha hill tribe coffee, Thailand
Kevin Bohlin’s research with Akha farmers in Chiang Rai → St. Clare Coffee.
Minerals & metals supply chains
King’s College London research. Led to Regenerate Technology Global & M2i Global.
1
Tier One · The Foundation

Social Intervention

Direct service with survivors and people at extreme risk — housing, education, medical care, legal support, nutrition, safety. This is where most organisations begin and end. NFS begins here, but does not stop.

⬡ Funded by donations
Programs on the ground
Baan Kru Nam, Thailand
Safe housing and year-round education for up to 150 children in the Golden Triangle.
→ Model program, Thai Government
Home Soup, Netherlands
Survivor training program operating in Amsterdam’s Red Light District.
Cooperatives, Uganda & DRC
Community gardens, scholarships, and cooperative infrastructure in Sub-Saharan Africa.
How it sustains itself

The flywheel.

Enterprise funds service. Service produces research. Research informs enterprise. Each tier feeds the next — indefinitely. This is why the Impact Stack does not require permanent philanthropic subsidy to stay alive.

Peru — the full loop, closed
Baan Kru Nam→ Brazil nut research→ Montara Circle→ AFIMAD→ REBBL→ $2M+ to NFS
↺ Revenue funds more Tier 1 work. The loop is closed.
TIER 3 Enterprise Ventures TIER 2 Research TIER 1 Service The flywheel
The numbers
0k
People supported
since 2007, all tiers
0
Countries where the
Stack is deployed
$0M+
Revenue returned to
NFS by REBBL alone
0k
Trees planted through
planet-tier programs

Where it’s deployed.

Full Stack — T1 + T2 + T3
PeruThailandNetherlandsUgandaDRCUnited States
Service + Research — T1 + T2
VietnamSouth AfricaRwandaMozambique
Direct Service — Tier 1
MyanmarLaosJapan+ Tree-Nation countries

The model in practice.

Same framework. Different paths. Both work.

● Peru
The linear proof
T1 → T2 → T3 → revenue back to T1
T1
Kru Nam shelter
Years of direct service in Madre de Dios — communities trapped by debt bondage in illegal gold mining.
T2
Brazil nut research → Montara Circle
Field research reveals an economic vacuum. The Feb 2011 Circle produces the enterprise concept.
T3
AFIMAD cooperative → REBBL
Nationally distributed beverage. Returns 2.5% net revenue to NFS.
$0M+
returned to NFS programs
to date via REBBL
● Netherlands
The reverse
T3 → T2 → T1 — enterprise built first
T3
Dignita restaurant
A commercially viable restaurant built first. 100% of profits to NFS Netherlands from day one.
T2
ROC van Amsterdam research
Research into survivor employment and training pathways in hospitality.
T1
Home Soup, Red Light District
Survivor training embedded in the restaurant’s revenue base — sustained by enterprise, not donations.
0%
of Dignita profits returned
to NFS Netherlands programs
Where Tier 2 becomes Tier 3

The Montara Circle.

The specific mechanism Not For Sale uses to move from field research to enterprise creation — where REBBL, Dignita, and the Entrepreneurship Challenge were born. Two days. One challenge. A company as the output.

Read the full story →
T2↓T3

Fund every tier.

The flywheel only works when every tier is resourced. Your contribution determines which part you power.

Tier 1 · Social Intervention
$0+

Direct service — housing, education, and medical care for survivors and people at extreme risk.

Donate to Tier 1
Tier 2 · Research & Biz Dev
$0+

Community fieldwork and business development — the research that finds the next enterprise.

Donate to Tier 2
Tier 3 · Enterprise
$0k+

Seeds a venture — creates jobs, returns revenue, and closes the flywheel for a community.

Seed an Enterprise →