Trust & Safety Professional Association

What Trust & Safety Professional Association does

Trust & Safety Professional Association (TSPA) is a 501(c)(6) non-partisan membership association founded in 2018 and headquartered in San Francisco, with a sibling 501(c)(3) organization, the Trust & Safety Foundation. It supports the global community of practitioners who develop and enforce the principles, policies, and practices that define acceptable behavior and content online, serving individual practitioners, students, civil-society/academic/NGO affiliates, and technology companies that employ T&S teams. The organization is led by Executive Director Charlotte Willner (formerly of Facebook and Pinterest) and a board chaired by Del Harvey, with co-founders Alexander Macgillvray and Eric Goldman.

TSPA's product surface spans membership tiers (Individual, Student, Affiliate, and Annual Corporate Support), three annual conferences (TrustCon in San Francisco, EMEA Summit in Dublin, APAC Summit in Singapore), and a resource library that includes the volunteer-authored T&S Curriculum (with modules on policy, content moderation, investigations, Safety by Design, privacy, and AI/automated systems), the T&S Library, the T&S Job Board, the T&S Compensation Report, Coffee Chats mentorship, and a members-only Slack workspace. The underlying technology stack is entirely third-party — WordPress for the public site, a MemberClicks-backed member portal at members.tspa.org, Slack for community, Zoom and Swoogo for events, and Google Workspace for operations — with no proprietary models, AI/ML components, or disclosed engineering IP.

Revenue is generated through recurring annual individual and affiliate membership dues, student memberships, a sliding-scale Annual Corporate Support program tied to each sponsor's market cap and T&S headcount, per-event conference sponsorship at multiple tiers, and registration fees for the three conferences. Named corporate supporters include Airbnb, Automattic, Cloudflare, Match Group, Meta, Pinterest, and Wikimedia, and the organization operates with approximately six staff and no external venture or private-equity funding.

Name

Trust & Safety Professional Association

Legal name

Trust & Safety Professional Association

Website

https://tspa.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

2018

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

TSPA is a 501(c)(6) nonprofit membership association that provides professional development, conferences (TrustCon, EMEA Summit, APAC Summit), and a curriculum for the global trust and safety profession, serving practitioners, students, and technology-company T&S teams.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Professional Association Services

NAICS

Professional Organizations (81392), Business Associations (813910), Convention and Trade Show Organizers (56192)

SIC

Services-Membership Organizations (8600), Services-Educational Services (8200)

akta.pro primary industry

Association & Society Conference Management (Nonprofit, Professional Bodies) (THAHACAA)

Keywords

• Trust and safety membership
• Professional development association
• Trust and safety conferences
• Content moderation community
• Online safety professional network

Headquarters

HQ city

San Francisco

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B and B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

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

Revenue model

1. Individual Membership Dues: Individual trust and safety practitioners pay annual membership dues to join TSPA. Membership is for one year from when dues are paid. This is a recurring subscription model at the individual level.
2. Annual Corporate Support: Companies with trust and safety employees pay annual corporate support fees to provide TSPA membership to their T&S staff. Fees are set on a sliding scale based on the company's market cap or valuation and number of T&S employees. Corporate supporters receive recognition, job board flagging, and prioritized access to TSPA programming.
3. Event Sponsorship: Companies sponsor TSPA's three annual conferences (TrustCon, EMEA Summit, APAC Summit) at various sponsorship levels. Sponsors gain visibility, community investment credentials, networking access, and recognition within the trust and safety field. This is a per-event, recurring revenue stream.
4. Student Membership Dues: Current students aspiring to work in trust and safety may join as student members for annual dues. Student members may not receive full access to all member benefits.
5. Affiliate Membership Dues: Professionals in civil society, academia, or NGOs whose work directly relates to trust and safety may join as affiliate members for annual dues.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels10 records

Core offering

TSPA is a 501(c)(6) professional membership association that supports trust and safety practitioners through annual membership programs (individual, student, affiliate, and corporate tiers), three annual conferences (TrustCon, EMEA Summit, APAC Summit), and educational resources (T&S Curriculum, T&S Library, T&S Compensation Report, T&S Job Board). The organization also operates a members-only Slack community, mentorship Coffee Chats, and topical events/webinars. Members gain access to networking, professional development resources, career tools, and discounted event pricing.

Product overview

The Trust & Safety Professional Association (TSPA) is a 501(c)(6) non-partisan membership association that provides professional development, networking, and educational resources for trust and safety practitioners globally. TSPA's offerings include individual and corporate membership programs (Individual Membership, Annual Corporate Support, Student Membership, Affiliate Membership), major annual conferences (TrustCon in San Francisco, EMEA Summit in Dublin, APAC Summit in Singapore), professional resources (T&S Curriculum, T&S Library, T&S Compensation Report, T&S Job Board), community platforms (TSPA Member Portal, TSPA Slack Community), and ongoing programming (Coffee Chats, TSPA Newsletter, Trust & Safety Events). The organization serves as a central hub connecting the global community of professionals who develop and enforce principles and policies that define acceptable behavior and content online.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• TrustCon: Annual global conference dedicated to trust and safety professionals, held in San Francisco
• EMEA Summit
• APAC Summit
• Trust & Safety Foundation

Products and services

• Individual Membership Annual individual membership for trust and safety practitioners, providing access to the TSPA Slack community, T&S Curriculum, T&S Library, T&S Job Board, Coffee Chats mentorship, webinars, and member-discounted pricing at TrustCon, EMEA Summit, and APAC Summit.
• Annual Corporate Support Corporate membership program allowing companies to extend TSPA membership to all of their trust and safety employees for an annual fee set on a sliding scale based on market cap/valuation and number of T&S employees. Includes recognition on the supporters page, flagged job postings on the T&S Job Board, prioritized programming access, and discounted event registration.
• Student Membership Annual membership for current students aspiring to work in trust and safety upon graduation. Provides access to introductory community and resources; some programs and benefits may not extend to student members.
• Affiliate Membership Annual membership for professionals in civil society, academia, or NGOs whose work or research directly relates to trust and safety, enabling participation in the T&S community of practice.
• TrustCon Annual global conference held in San Francisco dedicated to trust and safety professionals, offering workshops, presentations, networking opportunities, and thought leadership on the practice of trust and safety.
• EMEA Summit Regional annual summit held in Dublin, Ireland for trust and safety professionals in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, focusing on hands-on problem-solving and knowledge sharing specific to the region.
• APAC Summit Regional annual summit held in Singapore for trust and safety professionals in the Asia-Pacific region, curating programming relevant to T&S professionals in the region.
• T&S Curriculum Comprehensive curriculum defining core concepts, terms, and standard practices in trust and safety, written by volunteer practitioners. Covers topics including industry overview, policy creation and enforcement, content moderation and operations, transparency reporting, automated systems and AI, law enforcement engagement, data use, legal and regulatory considerations, investigations and intelligence, external engagement, Safety by Design, and privacy.
• T&S Library Curated compilation of publications and resources to inform trust and safety professionals across all aspects of their role, covering policy, operations, research, and best practices.
• T&S Compensation Report Research publication providing compensation data and analysis for trust and safety professionals globally, supporting career development and industry benchmarking.
• T&S Job Board Online job board connecting trust and safety professionals with career opportunities across the globe, featuring job postings from member companies (corporate supporter job openings are flagged).

Quantifiable outcome

• Over 1,300 attendees at TrustCon 2024
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers7 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature6 records

Partnerships

One partnership is on record.

• Trust & Safety Foundation (TSF)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerTSF is TSPA's sibling organization — a non-partisan 501(c)(3) with the mission to convene stakeholders, share knowledge, and engage in activities that facilitate meaningful advancements in trust and safety. TSF provides researchers with space and resources to investigate T&S topics and generates insights for all stakeholders. TSPA may share member personal information with TSF for purposes such as processing payments and sending promotional materials.

Scale indicators3 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Broad incumbents

• Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM): SHRM is a large professional membership association for HR practitioners. It is comparable as a benchmark for the membership-association, conference-driven, certification-anchored operating model that TSPA is building toward in the T&S field.
• Association of Corporate Counsel (ACC): ACC is a global membership association for in-house counsel. It is comparable as a mature professional membership body serving a specialized corporate function with annual conferences, resources, and corporate memberships analogous to TSPA's corporate support program.
• Internet Society (ISOC): ISOC is a global nonprofit membership organization supporting the development and governance of the internet. It overlaps with TSPA in serving internet-policy and standards-adjacent professionals and operates a comparable membership, conference, and chapter model.

Regional players

• Online News Association: ONA is a membership organization for digital journalism professionals. It is comparable as a nonprofit association serving a digital-content profession with conferences, training, and a community of practice.

Direct peers

• (ISC)²: (ISC)² is a global nonprofit membership association for cybersecurity professionals. It is highly comparable to TSPA as a membership-based professional body that runs a major annual conference, publishes a canonical body of knowledge, offers certifications, and serves a corporate-supporter base.
• ISACA: ISACA is a global professional association for IT governance, risk, and cybersecurity practitioners. It mirrors TSPA's model of individual and corporate memberships, certifications, a curriculum framework, and annual conferences serving a defined practitioner community.
• Digital Trust & Safety Partnership: DTSP is an industry consortium of technology companies committed to advancing trust & safety practices. It is comparable as a T&S-specific organizational vehicle for the same platforms that fund TSPA, though it operates as a corporate membership body rather than an individual professional association.

Others

• Center for Democracy & Technology: CDT is a nonprofit that works on internet governance, platform accountability, and online trust & safety policy. It is comparable as an ecosystem participant serving the same regulatory and policy discussion that frames TSPA's practitioner community.
• Global Network Initiative: GNI is a multistakeholder organization focused on freedom of expression and privacy in the ICT sector. It overlaps with TSPA's T&S stakeholder base and runs convening and policy work relevant to TSPA's corporate supporters.

Emerging players

• Trust & Safety Foundation: TSF is TSPA's sibling 501(c)(3) organization focused on research and convening in trust & safety. It shares the same ecosystem and partially overlapping stakeholder base, but operates in a nonprofit research capacity rather than as a membership association.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xthreads.net/@tspainfo
• YouTubeyoutube.com/@tspa
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/trust-safety-professional-association
• Instagraminstagram.com/tspainfo

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles10 records

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 Trust & Safety Professional Association