It started with a dress.
In 2005, our founder Blythe Hill began hearing about the issue of human trafficking. Despite her deep sense of urgency to help, she felt helpless. She wasn't a lawyer or a doctor or a social worker; her interests and talents were in fashion, trend analysis, and blogging. She didn't think she had much to offer to the fight, until four years later.
In 2009, Blythe challenged herself to wear a dress every day of December (hence: Dressember). Every year since then, more people joined in until Blythe’s one-person challenge blossomed into an international movement to fight human trafficking.
2009
The beginning
Blythe Hill challenged herself to wear a dress every day of December. Friends joined in the following year and word spreads.
2013
Gaining momentum
Dressember became a movement to fundraise for change, with 1,233 participants globally. We partnered with IJM and raised over $165,000!
2015
New partners
Dressember began a partnership with A21. Advocate participation nearly quadrupled since 2013.
2016
$1,000,000 for change
Dressember began first domestic partnership with McMahon Ryan, and for the first time ever, raised over $1M.
2018
Onward together
Dressember began 9 new partnerships across the U.S. and thousands of advocates raised roughl $2.5MM worldwide.
2019
We hit the $10 million mark
Dressember launched their first Canadian campaign. Thousands of advocates came together from around the world to raise over $2.5MM, putting our historic impact at $10 million with 15 partner organizations.
2020
Responding to a crisis
When COVID-19 hit, victims and survivors faced an immediate and ongoing crisis. Our community responded by raising over $3MM to help vulnerable communities around the world.
2021
An Ongoing crisis
The Dressember global community continued to show up in the midst of urgent needs and brought our cumulative fundraising to over $16MM total.
Our impact
Dressember helps provide relief, restoration, prevention, and a platform to amplify survivors around the world. We address root causes and acknowledge changing systems. And we’re committed to mobilizing this community to fuel holistic impact.
Instead of just giving to one aspect of anti-trafficking work, your fundraising efforts enable us to attack the issue head on from multiple different angles. Together, we’re in it to end it. To read more about our impact, click below.
