Project: Cold Case
Project: Cold Case is a Jacksonville, Florida-based nonprofit founded in 2015 that operates a searchable national database of unsolved homicide victims and missing persons, publishes editorial case spotlights, and provides advocacy plus monthly support groups for bereaved families, funded entirely by donations.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2015
- HeadquartersJacksonville, United States
- Headcount11–50
- GTM typeB2C
- OfferingServices
What Project: Cold Case does
Project: Cold Case is a Jacksonville, Florida-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization founded in March 2015 that provides advocacy and support services to families of unsolved homicide victims across the United States. The organization operates a centralized web platform (projectcoldcase.org) anchored by a searchable Cold Case Database of unsolved homicide victims and long-term missing persons with suspected foul play, submitted by families or law enforcement with family permission and filterable by name, city, state, and year. Supporting the database is a substantial editorial archive of Cold Case Spotlight articles profiling individual cases with victim narratives, family interviews, newspaper clippings, and age-progression images; the archive spans 40 pages of content published from 2015 through 2026. The organization also produces the 'Not Forgotten' minute-long video series in partnership with CROP Creative Media and offers monthly support group meetings (one in-person, one via Zoom) for bereaved families.
The business model is donation-based and nonprofit-structured, with no fees charged to families or the public. Revenue is generated through voluntary individual and organizational donations and an annual Year of Hope fundraising event featuring auction items and organizational reporting. Additional programs include the A Better Community Scholarship, created with supporter Steve Brown for students pursuing victim advocacy and community-impact careers; a Victim Submission Portal for families and law enforcement; and statistical resources derived from FBI Uniform Crime Report data analyzed by the Murder Accountability Project. The go-to-market motion is community-led, relying on organic social media (Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok), editorial content marketing, monthly support group meetings, and the annual Year of Hope event for donor engagement. The organization maintains a network of 15+ named partners spanning law enforcement (FDLE, JSO), forensic experts (Vidocq Society), victim advocacy organizations (SAKI), academic institutions (University of North Florida Applied Journalism class), media producers (CROP Creative Media), and foundations. With 16 employees and no equity funding, Project: Cold Case operates as a lean advocacy platform whose primary asset is its accumulated content library and family support community rather than a commercial technology product.
Project: Cold Case firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Project: Cold Case
- Legal name
- Project Cold Case
- Website
- https://projectcoldcase.org
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2015
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 11–50 employees
- Short description
- Project: Cold Case is a Jacksonville, Florida-based nonprofit founded in 2015 that operates a searchable national database of unsolved homicide victims and missing persons, publishes editorial case spotlights, and provides advocacy plus monthly support groups for bereaved families, funded entirely by donations.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Project: Cold Case industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Victim Advocacy Services
- NAICS
- Other Individual and Family Services (624190)
- SIC
- Services-Social Services (8300)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Rare Disease & Special Needs Support Organizations (BPAGACAM)
Keywords
Where Project: Cold Case is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- Jacksonville
- HQ country
- United States
- HQ region
- North America
Offices1 record
Markets served
Project: Cold Case business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2C
- Offering type
- Services
- Cost components
- Personnel, Operations, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Others
Revenue model
- Donations and Fundraising: Project: Cold Case operates primarily through donations from individuals and organizations. The annual Year of Hope fundraising event features auction items and reviews the organization's previous year in operation and future goals.
- Scholarship Program: Partnership with Steve Brown, a long-time supporter, local DJ, and social worker, to provide scholarships to students pursuing education in fields that contribute to positive change in their communities, such as doctors, teachers, social workers, and victim advocates.
Go-to-market motion1 record
Distribution channels2 records
Marketing channels9 records
Project: Cold Case product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Project: Cold Case is a nonprofit advocacy organization that provides services to families of unsolved homicide victims in the United States. Its core offering is a searchable public Cold Case Database of unsolved homicide victims and long-term missing persons with suspected foul play, paired with editorial Cold Case Spotlight articles and the 'Not Forgotten' video series. The organization also runs monthly support group meetings for bereaved families, academic scholarship programs, and annual fundraising events.
Product overview
Project: Cold Case is a nonprofit victim advocacy organization that provides a centralized platform for unsolved homicide awareness. Its core offerings include a searchable Cold Case Database of unsolved homicide victims and missing persons, paired with editorial Cold Case Spotlights that profile individual cases. Supporting programs include the Not Forgotten video series (produced with CROP Creative Media), monthly Support Group Meetings for bereaved families, the annual Year of Hope fundraising event, and the A Better Community Scholarship. The organization also offers victim submission portals for families and law enforcement, and publishes cold case statistics sourced from FBI data. The portfolio functions as a unified advocacy platform rather than a commercial technology product.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Products and services
- Cold Case Database A searchable online database containing unsolved homicide victims and long-term missing persons with suspected foul play, filterable by victim name, city, state, and year. Each entry is submitted by family members or law enforcement with family permission. Open to the public free of charge.
- Cold Case Spotlight Articles Detailed narrative articles for individual cold cases featuring victim profiles, case details, family interviews, newspaper clippings, and age-progression images, published to raise awareness and generate leads.
- Not Forgotten Video Series A series of minute-long video profiles of unsolved cases, produced in partnership with CROP Creative Media and released monthly to highlight cases in an engaging video format.
- Support Group Meetings Monthly meetings for families of unsolved homicide victims, offered both in-person and via Zoom, with an open-door policy and casual format to provide community support for bereaved families.
- Year of Hope Annual Fundraising Event Project: Cold Case's annual fundraising event featuring auction items for bidding and reports on the organization's previous year in operation and future goals; the flagship annual campaign for donor engagement.
- A Better Community Scholarship A scholarship created in partnership with supporter Steve Brown to support students pursuing education in fields that contribute to positive change in their communities, such as doctors, teachers, social workers, and victim advocates.
- Victim Submission Portal Online form allowing families and law enforcement agencies to submit cold case victims for potential inclusion in the database and case spotlights, including a separate Law Enforcement Case Submission channel.
- Cold Case Homicide Statistics Statistical data and analysis of unsolved homicide rates based on FBI Uniform Crime Report data from the Murder Accountability Project, covering nearly 340,000 unsolved homicide and non-negligent manslaughter cases from 1965 to 2021.
Companies that use Project: Cold Case
Customer profileSegments3 records
Ideal customer profiles3 records
Project: Cold Case technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed No
API detail
- Has API
- No
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Feature3 records
Project: Cold Case partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
15 partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.
- CROP Creative MediacoreCreative media production partner for the 'Not Forgotten' video series — minute-long videos highlighting unsolved cases. New entries are released monthly and uploaded to the Project: Cold Case website.
- Vidocq SocietyminorPartner organization contributing to the organization's mission of solving cold cases. Vidocq Society is a group of forensic experts who volunteer their services.
- SAKI (Sexual Assault Kit Initiative)minorPartner organization supporting the mission of bringing attention to unsolved cases. SAKI works to address sexual assault kit backlogs and support investigations.
- FDLE (Florida Department of Law Enforcement)minorLaw enforcement partner supporting the organization's mission. FDLE is a state law enforcement agency in Florida.
- JSO (Jacksonville Sheriff's Office)minorLocal law enforcement partner in Jacksonville, Florida, where Project: Cold Case is headquartered.
- Steve BrownminorLong-time supporter, local DJ, and social worker who partnered with Project: Cold Case to create a scholarship program for students pursuing education in fields that create positive community change.
- University of North Florida Applied Journalism ClassminorAcademic partnership where journalism students collaborate with Project: Cold Case to produce Cold Case Spotlight articles, gaining real-world reporting experience.
- MACCHIAminorPartner organization visible in the partnerships section of the Project: Cold Case website.
- SEHIAminorPartner organization visible in the partnerships section of the Project: Cold Case website.
- Finker Frenkel Family FoundationminorFoundation partner supporting the organization's mission, visible in the partnerships section of the website.
- The Common GoodminorPartner organization visible in the partnerships section of the Project: Cold Case website.
- Hardage Giddens OaklawnminorPartner organization visible in the partnerships section of the Project: Cold Case website.
- G4-DesignminorPartner organization visible in the partnerships section of the Project: Cold Case website.
- JAAminorPartner organization visible in the partnerships section of the Project: Cold Case website.
- StrokeminorPartner organization visible in the partnerships section of the Project: Cold Case website.
Scale indicators3 records
Recent moves6 records
Expansion highlights5 records
Project: Cold Case competitors and assessment
Company assessmentDirect peers
- The Charley Project: The Charley Project is a widely recognized online archive of cold case missing persons profiles — the closest direct comparator to Project: Cold Case's searchable database. Both are nonprofit databases surfacing long-term missing and unsolved cases for public tips.
- Vidocq Society: Vidocq Society is a Philadelphia-based group of forensic experts who volunteer to investigate cold cases. It is an explicit partner of Project: Cold Case and the most comparable cold case investigation organization nationally.
- Black and Missing Foundation: Black and Missing Foundation is a nonprofit dedicated to bringing awareness to missing persons of color, combining a searchable database with media advocacy and family support — a structurally similar victim-advocacy + database model.
- Parents of Murdered Children: Parents of Murdered Children is a long-established nonprofit providing peer support and advocacy specifically to families of homicide victims. It overlaps directly with Project: Cold Case's monthly support group and family-advocacy mission.
- Murder Accountability Project: The Murder Accountability Project is a nonprofit that analyzes unsolved homicide data using FBI UCR statistics — the same data source Project: Cold Case references for its 340,000-case statistic. It is also an explicit partner and operates in the adjacent unsolved-homicide data space.
Broad incumbents
- Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD): MADD is the most recognized victim-advocacy nonprofit in the U.S., serving families of drunk-driving victims with support services, public awareness campaigns, and policy advocacy. While its cause area differs, its operating model (victim support + awareness + donor base) closely parallels Project: Cold Case.
- National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC): NCMEC is the largest U.S. nonprofit dedicated to missing children, offering a national hotline, database, and family advocacy. It is a broad incumbent in victim advocacy with overlapping operational models (database, hotline, public awareness) at significantly greater scale.
- NamUs (National Missing and Unidentified Persons System): NamUs is a federally funded program within the U.S. Department of Justice that maintains the national repository of missing persons and unidentified decedent cases. It is a larger, government-operated database platform serving the same families of missing and suspected homicide victims.
Emerging players
- Cold Case Foundation: The Cold Case Foundation is a nonprofit focused on advancing cold case investigation through grants, training, and awareness. It addresses a narrower version of the unsolved-homicide space and is a more emerging alternative to Project: Cold Case's advocacy-focused niche.
- Aware of Angels: Aware of Angels is a small nonprofit that builds databases and awareness for cold cases involving children and adults. It represents the type of smaller, emerging peer nonprofit that operates a similar database-plus-advocacy model at sub-Project: Cold Case scale.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses4 records
Competitive moat3 records
Key risks5 records
Key highlights7 records
Customer concentration
Project: Cold Case social profiles
Digital presenceProject: Cold Case financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Project: Cold Case leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Project: Cold Case funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds
Investors
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Project: Cold Case M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about Project: Cold Case
What does Project: Cold Case do?
Project: Cold Case is a nonprofit advocacy organization that provides services to families of unsolved homicide victims in the United States. Its core offering is a searchable public Cold Case Database of unsolved homicide victims and long-term missing persons with suspected foul play, paired with editorial Cold Case Spotlight articles and the 'Not Forgotten' video series. The organization also runs monthly support group meetings for bereaved families, academic scholarship programs, and annual fundraising events.
Is Project: Cold Case a public or private company?
Project: Cold Case is a private company. It is classified as nonprofit foundation owned and is currently operating.
When was Project: Cold Case founded?
Project: Cold Case was founded in 2015. It employs 11 to 50 people.
Where is Project: Cold Case based?
Project: Cold Case is headquartered in Jacksonville, United States, in the North America region.
How does Project: Cold Case make money?
Two revenue lines are on record. Donations and Fundraising is the primary driver. The others are scholarship Program.
Who are Project: Cold Case's main competitors?
Direct peers on record are The Charley Project, Vidocq Society, Black and Missing Foundation, Parents of Murdered Children and Murder Accountability Project. Broad incumbents are Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD), National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) and NamUs (National Missing and Unidentified Persons System). Emerging players are Cold Case Foundation and Aware of Angels.
Does Project: Cold Case have an API?
No public API is recorded for Project: Cold Case.
What industry is Project: Cold Case in?
Project: Cold Case's product category is Victim Advocacy Services. Its primary akta.pro industry code is BPAGACAM, Rare Disease & Special Needs Support Organizations. Its NAICS code is 624190 and its SIC code is 8300.