About Us
Let’s Find
Every One
Our story
How this started
In 2015, our founder was volunteering at a local shelter when she heard about a teenage girl who had been trafficked. New information about the man exploiting her existed, but no one had the capacity to act on it. She started asking why, then started working the problem herself, alongside a friend and a county sheriff. Finding Kids incorporated in 2017 and hired its first private investigator in 2018. One case that year. Seven in 2019. Nineteen in 2020.
Today, a roster of more than 30 investigators, all with law enforcement backgrounds, works cases across our 30-county service area, and more than 300 children have been found.
Our Mission
Find missing and exploited youth,
help them heal, and make our communities safer.
Our Vision
A world where every child is safe and thriving.
What do we do?
We find rubys
and other kids like her.
Ruby was 11 years old when she went missing. For three days, investigators worked a case that involved online grooming and sexual assault, developing the evidence law enforcement needed. Ruby came home, and the work didn’t stop there: in December 2025, the man responsible was found guilty and sentenced to 75 years to life.
How Finding Kids Works
Find. Care. Target.
Every accepted case gets a licensed private investigator working the search and a Parent Support Advocate standing with the family from day one. Investigators develop the leads law enforcement needs. Advocates help families navigate the waiting, the return, and what comes after.
Small Team, Wide Reach
Finding Kids works across 30 counties in Northern California and Northern Nevada, and in 2025 we expanded into Central California. The model is field-based by design: a network of 31 licensed private investigators works cases on the ground and online, 11 Parent and Youth Advocates support families through the search and after, and 32 volunteers carry everything around them, from research to events.
Our Network
No one finds a child alone
Nobody finds a child alone. Finding Kids fills a specific role in that network: our investigators work leads, our advocates stay with families, and law enforcement makes the recovery. Care partners help with what comes next, and donors make the work possible.
Donors
Individual givers fund nearly all of this work; in 2025, individual giving made up 92% of funds raised. Donors also host events, sponsor cases, and open their homes for gatherings.
Community
County Champions, schools, congregations, and local organizations refer cases, teach warning signs, and connect families with our team.
Law Enforcement
We’ve coordinated with more than 80 law enforcement agencies. Officers refer families to us, and our investigators hand documented leads back to them.
The care network
Trauma therapists, aftercare agencies, school districts, and social services help each family rebuild after a child comes home.
The problem
Most missing kids aren’t kidnapped
Children go missing from every kind of home, school, and income level. Most are not taken by strangers. They’re lured by someone offering attention, affection, money, or belonging, or they leave to escape conflict they don’t feel able to talk about. Because a kidnapping is rarely involved, law enforcement can face hurdles when allocating time and resources to what is labeled a “runaway” case.
However it happens, a child away from home should never be assumed safe.
FAQ’s
Common questions
These are the questions we answer most often, from parents, from officers, and from people deciding whether to give. If yours isn't here, email info@findingkids.org.
We add dedicated investigators and a Parent Support Advocate. Investigators work leads on the street and online, document what they find, and pass actionable information directly to law enforcement. Your advocate helps your family understand the process, organize critical information, and stay connected through the search.
Father of a 16 year old
“I can't let other families deal with what we've experienced.”
There are no fees for our services, ever. Every search and every hour of Family Support is funded by people who decided a missing child was their problem too.