ONG Nos Buscamos

What ONG Nos Buscamos does

ONG Nos Buscamos is a Chilean non-governmental organization founded on July 4, 2014 by Constanza del Río after she discovered at age 39 that she had been adopted irregularly as an infant. The foundation investigates and reunites families separated by illegal adoptions and child trafficking in Chile between the 1950s and 1990s, an estimated 50,000 cases of which only a fraction have been resolved. Core operations combine a proprietary case management database of over 7,000 registered cases (spanning 1965–2020) with DNA testing conducted through a strategic partnership with MyHeritage, whose international genetic database of 6.1 million profiles enables cross-border biological family matching. Services are delivered free of charge and include online case registration via casos.nosbuscamos.org, volunteer-led genealogical investigation, psychological containment workshops for affected mothers, and cross-border coordination for Chilean adoptees living in Sweden, the United States, and Germany.

The organization operates entirely on a volunteer basis with approximately 7 to 20 active unpaid volunteers and no compensated staff. Revenue is generated through individual donations processed via Payku.cl (monthly tiers of 5,000–50,000 Chilean pesos) and PayPal for foreign donors, supplemented historically by a presidential subsidy (subvencion presidencial) from the Piñera administration and a municipal grant from Las Condes, though the foundation reports no current government funding. Strategic partnerships include MyHeritage (DNA testing and advisory support), Chilean Adoptees Worldwide (CAW) for international coordination, and Chilean government institutions — the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights, Servicio Médico Legal (SML), and the Poder Judicial — formalized through a January 2022 one-year Pilot Plan to expedite family reunification under Judge Jaime Balmaceda.

The foundation has positioned itself as the leading registry and reunification platform for Chilean illegal adoption cases, achieving approximately 400 successful reunions as of May 2023 out of an estimated 50,000 trafficked children. Beyond reunification work, the organization pursues policy advocacy to reform Chilean adoption registration laws, generates awareness through traditional and social media (Deutsche Welle, BioBioChile, Instagram, WhatsApp), and published founder Constanza del Río's testimonial book "Nos Buscamos" through Editorial Planeta in 2019. The foundation received the Premio Mujer Impacta in 2018 in recognition of its social impact leadership.

Name

ONG Nos Buscamos

Legal name

ONG Nos Buscamos

Website

https://nosbuscamos.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

2014

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

ONG Nos Buscamos is a Chilean non-profit founded in 2014 that reunites families separated by irregular adoptions and child trafficking in Chile between the 1950s and 1990s, operating a 7,000+ case registry with DNA matching, volunteer investigations, and government partnerships.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Social Services / Family Reunification

NAICS

Other Individual and Family Services (624190)

SIC

Services-Social Services (8300)

akta.pro primary industry

Diaspora, Family Reunification & Case Management Services (BPADAHAM)

akta.pro secondary industry

Migrant & Refugee Legal Aid and Documentation Services (BPADAHAE)

Keywords

• Family reunification services
• DNA genetic matching
• Illegal adoption investigation
• Genealogical research support
• Volunteer NGO advocacy

Headquarters

HQ city

Santiago

HQ country

Chile

HQ region

Latin America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure, Others

Revenue model

1. Donations and Philanthropic Contributions: The foundation raises funds through individual donations processed via Payku.cl subscription (monthly) and one-time payment options, as well as through international donation platforms and PayPal for foreign bank accounts. Donation tiers range from 5,000 to 50,000 Chilean pesos for domestic donors.
2. Public and Competitive Grant Funding: Nos Buscamos has historically accessed competitive funds including presidential subsidies (subvención presidencial) from the Piñera administration and municipal grants from the Municipality of Las Condes. The foundation actively seeks new national and international grant opportunities, including potential UN organizations. Post-COVID, the organization reports having no current government funding.
3. Volunteer-Donated Human Capital: All research, investigation, outreach, and operational work is performed by volunteers who donate their time for free, representing an implicit form of contributed value that sustains the organization's operations.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

ONG Nos Buscamos provides family reunification services for individuals separated through illegal adoptions and child trafficking in Chile. The organization registers cases through a dedicated online portal, coordinates DNA testing using the MyHeritage international genetic database, conducts genealogical investigations, and offers psychological containment and legal guidance. All services are delivered free of charge by a network of trained volunteers.

Product overview

ONG Nos Buscamos is a Chilean non-governmental organization founded in 2014 that operates as a unified platform for reuniting families separated through irregular adoptions and child trafficking in Chile. The organization's core offering is its family reunification service, which combines case registration management through its dedicated portal (casos.nosbusamos.org), DNA testing and genetic matching via MyHeritage partnership, genealogical research, and psychological support. The organization supplements its primary service with volunteer coordination across specialized roles, advocacy for policy changes, international collaboration with platforms like Chilean Adoptees Worldwide (CAW), and public education through its testimonial book. The organization operates primarily through its website nosbusamos.org and receives support via donation processing through Payku and PayPal. Key offerings include the case registration system, DNA matching services, volunteer program, and advocacy initiatives.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Family Reunification Services Core investigation and reunification support service for families separated by irregular adoptions in Chile, including DNA testing coordination, genealogical research, and psychological support for victims.
• Online Case Registration System A 4-step online portal enabling adopted individuals and families to register their cases by providing personal details, birth information, and documentation to initiate the search and reunification process.
• DNA Testing and Genetic Matching DNA sample collection and genetic matching service using the MyHeritage international DNA database; includes free kit distribution for qualifying individuals in Chile, saliva sample collection by trained volunteers, and genetic comparison against millions of profiles worldwide.
• Nos Buscamos Book Testimonial book documenting the history of child trafficking through illegal adoptions in Chile, written by founder Constanza del Río and published by Editorial Planeta.

Quantifiable outcome

• Over 7,000 registered cases; approximately 400 resolved reunifications as of May 2023; DNA testing and investigation-driven methodology.

Named customers1 record

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration3 records

Feature2 records

Partnerships

Six partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• Ministerio de Justicia y Derechos Humanos (Ministry of Justice and Human Rights of Chile)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 10 January 2022The Ministry of Justice announced a one-year Pilot Plan in collaboration with Nos Buscamos, the Servicio Médico Legal (SML), the Poder Judicial, and the 'Hijos y Madres del Silencio' organization. The plan aims to create a methodology to expedite and facilitate family reunification for victims of irregular and illegal adoptions, leveraging Nos Buscamos' 7+ years of case data and methodology to support judicial processes under Judge Jaime Balmaceda.
• Nativa Fundación AudiovisualminorGTM or Marketing Partner · 1 January 2021Nativa Fundación Audiovisual collaborated with Nos Buscamos during 2021 to produce a documentary spot about the NGO. The foundation develops audiovisual projects related to the research, awareness, and promotion of human and community rights, making this collaboration key for visibility and public awareness campaigns.
• Fundación Mujer ImpactaminorOthers · 1 January 2018Fundación Mujer Impacta recognizes and supports social entrepreneurs through its annual Premio Mujer Impacta. Constanza del Río, Director of Nos Buscamos, received this recognition in 2018, joining the Mujer Impacta Network where her initiative is visible and receives tools for sustainability and inspiration.
• MyHeritagecoreTechnology or IntegrationNos Buscamos has established a partnership with MyHeritage, an international genealogical DNA laboratory with 6.1 million DNA records, 104 million users, and 18.6 billion historical records worldwide. MyHeritage provides free DNA testing kits to families in Chile and advisory support. The foundation recommends and facilitates the use of MyHeritage for all DNA testing as it contains the largest database of Chilean adoptees and their biological family members, enabling international genetic matching that no Chilean laboratory can provide.
• Chilean Adoptees Worldwide (CAW)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCAW is an international platform that from Europe helps Chilean adoptees worldwide find their biological families. The two organizations collaborate and exchange information to support the shared goal of reuniting trafficked Chilean adoptees with their biological families across international borders.
• Servicio Médico Legal (SML)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerThe SML participates in the Pilot Plan announced by the Ministry of Justice alongside Nos Buscamos. Its role is technical, focused on developing a genetic fingerprint database of persons adopted irregularly, enabling biological contact and corresponding filiation processes in coordination with Judge Balmaceda's investigations.

Scale indicators5 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• Hijos y Madres del Silencio: Chilean NGO co-listed with Nos Buscamos in the Ministry of Justice Pilot Plan, also representing victims of illegal adoption and irregular birth registrations. Operates on the same victim population with overlapping legal-aid and psychological-support mandates.
• Chilean Adoptees Worldwide (CAW): International platform that helps Chilean adoptees find their biological families, explicitly collaborating and exchanging case information with Nos Buscamos on cross-border reunifications of trafficked Chilean children — the closest functional peer.

Others

• MyHeritage: Strategic technology partner providing the DNA database, kit donations, and advisory support underpinning Nos Buscamos' genetic-matching capability; not a direct competitor but a critical infrastructure layer for the foundation's reunification workflow.

Broad incumbents

• International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP): Intergovernmental organization that uses DNA-led identification to locate missing persons; comparable to Nos Buscamos' DNA-based matching workflow but operates globally on conflict-related disappearances rather than adoption-trafficking.
• Missing Children Society of Canada: Canadian NGO providing case-management and family-tracing services for missing and exploited children; comparable to Nos Buscamos in mission structure (case intake → investigation → reunion) but applied to a different missing-children context.
• International Social Service (ISS): Global NGO network with a century-long mandate in cross-border family tracing, child protection, and intercountry adoption cases; comparable to Nos Buscamos' cross-border reunification work but operates broadly across many child-welfare issues, not adoption irregularity.
• International Committee of the Red Cross — Restoring Family Links: ICRC's Restoring Family Links programme reunites separated family members across borders using tracing requests and DNA matching; a much larger, incumbent version of the same family-reunification service Nos Buscamos delivers for Chilean adoptees.

Emerging players

• Bastard Nation: US adoptee-rights advocacy organization focused on opening sealed adoption records and protecting adoptee identity rights; overlaps with Nos Buscamos on the policy-advocacy and disclosure-reform dimension rather than direct case reunification.
• Adopted International (Adoption Reunion Registry services): Online adoption reunion registry helping adoptees search for biological family members; addresses the same end-user need (self-directed biological family search) but as a global commercial platform rather than a Chilean-specific NGO.

Regional players

• Origens Brasil: Brazilian organization working on identity recovery and biological family search for adoptees, addressing the same South American post-trafficking / irregular-adoption reality as Nos Buscamos but serving the Brazilian population.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks3 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/ong-nos-buscamos

Compliance1 record

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about ONG Nos Buscamos