Operating Model · How It Works

The Impact
Stack

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

03
Tier 03 · The OutputScalable VenturesEnterprise that returns revenue
02
Tier 02 · The BridgeResearch & Business DevFinds the economic opportunity
01
Tier 01 · The FoundationSocial InterventionDirect service with survivors

Each tier is built on the one below it — and revenue from the top returns to fund the foundation.

Why does modern-day slavery persist despite decades of effort and billions in funding?

Because most interventions stop at rescue. They pull people from the river but never go upstream to find out why they keep falling in.

Governments, UN agencies, and private donors have committed billions over two decades. Yet more than 50 million people are in modern-day slavery today — more than at any point in human history — while traffickers earn an estimated $236 billion in illegal profits every year. The economics are working for the perpetrators. They are not working for the people being trafficked.

50M+
People in modern-day slavery today
$236B
Trafficker profits per year (ILO, 2024)

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

The principle behind the Impact Stack

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.

1Tier One · The Foundation

Social Intervention

Direct service

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

⬡ Funded by donations
Programs on the ground
Long-term work with indigenous communities in Madre de Dios under Country Director Ricardo Dawson. Survivor support, scholarships, mercury-free fish farms, and community gardens.
→ Foundation for AFIMAD, REBBL’s supply chain
The survivor training program founded by Toos Heemskerk-Schep in Amsterdam’s Red Light District — the first proof that vocational training could be both recovery and revenue.
Community gardens, scholarships, and cooperative infrastructure serving refugees and host communities together.
2Tier Two · The Bridge

Research &
Business Development

Find the economic opportunity

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 roughly two years of Tier 1 work in a community, Not For Sale tests market-based solutions.

⬡ Funded by donations (project costs)
Research that produced enterprise
Brazil nut supply chain, Peru
Mark Wexler and Dr. David Batstone mapping market opportunities in Madre de Dios alongside Ricardo Dawson — identifying the Brazil nut, a crop that only grows in standing rainforest, as the base of an indigenous-owned cooperative.
→ Montara Circle 2011 → AFIMAD → REBBL
At-risk communities, Amsterdam
Toos Heemskerk-Schep’s research with trafficked women in the Red Light District — mapping which job paths, skills, and environments would actually move survivors into dignified employment.
→ Led to the Dignita Academy & restaurant model
Minerals & metals supply chains
Mark Wexler’s research as a Visiting Research Fellow at King’s College London on the intersection of mineral extraction, human rights, and environmental destruction.
→ Led to Regenerate Technology Global & M2i Global
3Tier Three · The Output

Scalable Ventures

Enterprise that returns revenue

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 Not For Sale to fund more Tier 1 work — and the loop closes.

⬡ Funded by blended capital & venture investment
Ventures produced
Nationally distributed beverage brand sourcing Brazil nuts from AFIMAD in Madre de Dios. Returns 2.5% of net revenue to Not For Sale. Distributed through Target and Whole Foods.
→ $2M+ returned to Not For Sale to date
Amsterdam’s social restaurant and academy. What trainees produce goes straight on the menu. 100% of restaurant profits return to Not For Sale Netherlands to fund the next cohort.
→ 263 survivors trained · 100% of profits returned
The battery-recycling company co-founded by Dr. David Batstone. Recovers critical minerals from spent batteries — cutting demand for the primary extraction that drives forced labour and ecocide in the DRC.
→ Operations across the EU and US
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
Not For Sale Amazon Brazil nut research Montara Circle AFIMAD REBBL $2M+ to Not For Sale
Revenue funds more Tier 1 work. The loop is closed.
TIER 3 Enterprise returns revenue TIER 2 Research TIER 1 Service The flywheel
The Results
0
People supported since
2007, across all tiers
0
Countries where the
Stack is deployed
$0M+
Returned to Not For Sale
by REBBL alone
0
Trees planted through
planet-tier programs

Where it’s deployed.

Every country name links to its project work.

Service + Research — T1 + T2
Direct Service — Tier 1

The model in practice.

Same framework. Different paths. Both work.

● Peru
The linear proof
T1 → T2 → T3 → revenue back to T1
T1
Long-term direct service alongside indigenous communities in Madre de Dios under Ricardo Dawson — communities trapped by debt bondage in illegal gold mining.
T2
Brazil nut research → Montara Circle
Field research with Ricardo Dawson reveals an economic vacuum. The February 2011 Montara Circle produces the enterprise concept.
T3
Nationally distributed beverage. Returns 2.5% of net revenue to Not For Sale.
$2M+
returned to Not For Sale programs
to date via REBBL
● Netherlands
The reverse
T3 → T2 → T1 — enterprise built first
T3
A commercially viable restaurant built first. 100% of profits to Not For Sale Netherlands from day one.
T2
Research with at-risk communities
Toos Heemskerk-Schep’s research with trafficked women in Amsterdam, formalised into vocational training through ROC van Amsterdam.
T1
Survivor training embedded in the restaurant’s revenue base — sustained by enterprise, not donations.
100%
of Dignita profits returned to
Not For Sale Netherlands programs
Where Tier 2 becomes Tier 3
T2T3

The Montara Circle.

The mechanism Not For Sale uses to move from field research to enterprise creation — and the framework that produced REBBL, Dignita, and the Entrepreneurship Challenge. Two days. One challenge. A company as the output. A nimble framework available to any organisation ready to act.

Now deployed in Seoul Amsterdam Inside Juniper Networks
Read the full story →

Fund every tier.

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

Tier 1 · Social Intervention
$50+

Direct service — housing, education, and medical care for survivors and people at extreme risk in Peru, Thailand, the Netherlands, Uganda, the DRC, and beyond.

Donate to Tier 1
Tier 2 · Research & Business Dev
$500+

Community fieldwork and business development — the research that finds the next enterprise. The work that produced AFIMAD and Dignita.

Donate to Tier 2
Tier 3 · Enterprise
$5,000+

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

Seed an Enterprise →