--- alias: - National Center for Missing and Exploited Children - National Center for Missing & Exploited Children - The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children - NCMEC category: Private Organization created: 2026-10-01 location: Alexandria, Virginia relations: - fn: 7 reverse: true role: co-founder type: founded with: '[[John Walsh]]' - fn: 7 reverse: true role: co-founder type: founded with: '[[Revé Walsh]]' - fn: 2 reverse: true role: president and chief executive officer type: head_of with: '[[Michelle DeLaune]]' - fn: 8 reverse: true role: president and chief executive officer in December 2009 type: head_of with: '[[Ernie Allen]]' - fn: 3 reverse: true role: federal grants; $41.4 million in fiscal year 2023 type: funded with: '[[Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention]]' - end: 2022 fn: 3 reverse: true role: top corporate donor in 2022, over $1 million start: 2022 type: funded with: '[[Meta Platforms]]' - fn: 2 reverse: true role: chairperson; vice chair until 2025-12-11 start: 2025-12-12 type: director_of with: '[[Regina Schofield]]' - fn: 2 reverse: true role: director on the returns for 2024 and 2025 type: director_of with: '[[Manus Cooney]]' - fn: 2 reverse: true role: director on the returns for 2024 and 2025 type: director_of with: '[[Sean Joyce]]' - end: 2025-04-03 fn: 2 reverse: true role: director on the return for 2024; director through 2025-04-03 type: director_of with: '[[Heidi Heitkamp]]' - fn: 7 reverse: true role: corporate board seat, Amazon Web Services type: director_of with: '[[Jeff Collins]]' - fn: 7 reverse: true role: corporate board seat, Microsoft type: director_of with: '[[Jenny Lay-Flurrie]]' - fn: 7 reverse: true role: corporate board seat, Adobe type: director_of with: '[[John Penn II]]' - fn: 2 reverse: true role: corporate board seat, Verisign start: 2025-12-12 type: director_of with: '[[Ellen Petrocci]]' - fn: 7 reverse: true role: corporate board seat, LexisNexis Special Services type: director_of with: '[[Michael Breslin]]' - fn: 7 reverse: true role: corporate board seat, The Walt Disney Company type: director_of with: '[[David L. Bowdich]]' - fn: 2 reverse: true role: technology contractor paid $291,871 in 2025 type: contractor_to with: '[[Amazon Web Services]]' - fn: 5 role: amicus curiae; held a governmental entity or agent by the Tenth Circuit type: participant_in with: '[[United States v. Ackerman]]' start: 1984 summary: Nonprofit exempt since 1984 that operates the CyberTipline under 18 U.S.C. 2258A, draws about three quarters of its revenue from federal grants, and seats corporate directors from Microsoft, Amazon Web Services and Adobe. tags: - Organization - NCMEC - CyberTipline - CSAM - ChildExploitation - Nonprofit - FederalGrants - PhotoDNA updated: 2026-10-01 --- The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) is a private nonprofit corporation, exempt under section 501(c)(3) since a ruling dated May 1, 1984, with its headquarters in Alexandria, Virginia.[^1] Its return states that its mission is to help find missing children, reduce child sexual exploitation and prevent child victimization, and states that its Exploited Children Division operates the CyberTipline, manages a child victim identification program and maintains a hash-sharing list to support industry detection of online [child sexual abuse material](/concepts/child-sexual-abuse-material/).[^2] The Stanford Internet Observatory wrote in 2024 that Congress authorized NCMEC in 1984 under the Missing Children's Assistance Act of 1983 and that NCMEC created the CyberTipline in 1998.[^3] ### Statutory Role 18 U.S.C. § 2258A requires a provider with actual knowledge of an apparent violation involving child pornography to report to the CyberTipline of NCMEC, and directs that NCMEC "shall make available each report" to federal, state, local or designated foreign law enforcement; section 2258C lets NCMEC give providers hash values and other elements from reports.[^4] In United States v. Ackerman, decided August 5, 2016, the Tenth Circuit (opinion by Judge Neil Gorsuch) held NCMEC a "governmental entity or agent," stating that its "law enforcement powers extend well beyond those enjoyed by private citizens" under 18 U.S.C. § 2258A and 42 U.S.C. § 5773(b). NCMEC appeared as amicus curiae in support of the government, represented in part by Bryan Cave LLP of Kansas City; Dropbox, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Pinterest, Snapchat and Twitter are listed as amici for the government under other counsel.[^5] NCMEC's return for 2025 lists Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner LLP among its five largest independent contractors, paid $303,290 for legal services.[^2] ### Finances NCMEC's returns report total revenue of $66,813,108 for 2025, of which contributions and grants were $60,818,469 and government grants $50,280,968; expenses were $62,756,502 and net assets $83,655,346. For 2024 they report revenue of $64,507,554, contributions and grants of $59,854,342, of which government grants were $48,907,021. Its Schedule C reports lobbying expenditures of $212,126 for 2024 and $122,836 for 2025, described as the time of staff and consultants communicating with members of Congress and their offices.[^2][^6] The Nonprofit Explorer series of its returns gives total revenue of $47,255,932 for 2019, $53,896,819 for 2020, $54,122,734 for 2021, $60,183,871 for 2022 and $65,191,787 for 2023.[^1] The Stanford Internet Observatory reported that in 2022 NCMEC received about 68 percent of its $58 million revenue from government contracts and grants, mainly through the Department of Justice's Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention; that in fiscal year 2023 NCMEC received $41.4 million of that office's funds and the 61 Internet Crimes Against Children task forces $40.8 million; and that in 2022 "Meta and Old Navy were the top corporate donors; each contributed over $1 million."[^3] NCMEC's website states: "This Web site is funded, in part, through a grant from the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, Office of Justice Programs, [U.S. Department of Justice](/organizations/department-of-justice/)."[^7] NCMEC's return for 2025 lists these independent contractors paid over $100,000: 1900 Duke Street LP, for office rent, $2,482,621; Motion Recruitment Partners, for technology contract services, $488,563; Creative2 LLC, for website design and maintenance, $326,718; Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner LLP, for legal services, $303,290; and Amazon Web Services, for technology contract services, $291,871.[^2] The list for 2024 names 1900 Duke Street LP ($2,502,776), Motion Recruitment Partners ($741,785), Fortitude Int'l LLC for technology contract services ($523,312), Orr Group Inc. for fundraising strategy services ($308,048) and Pivotal Solutions Inc. for technology contract services ($296,650).[^6] The 2025 return reports 552 employees, 664 volunteers, total assets of $107,288,189 and a governing body of 26 voting members, 24 of them independent; the 2024 return reports 520 employees, 950 volunteers, total assets of $103,543,622 and 30 voting members, 28 of them independent.[^2][^6] ### Officers and Board On the return for 2025 the reportable compensation of the president and chief executive officer, Michelle DeLaune, was $521,550 (plus $27,112 of other compensation); of the chief legal officer, Panayiota Souras, $286,794; of the chief financial officer, Paul Beriault, $273,556; of the chief operating officer, Derrick Driscoll, $268,954; and of John Shehan, senior vice president of the Exploited Children Division, $239,750. Schedule O reports family relationships between John Walsh and Reve Walsh and between John Shehan and Staca Shehan, who is vice president of the Analytical Services Division.[^2] The directors on the 2025 return include Regina Schofield (vice chair until December 11, 2025, chairperson from December 12, 2025), Jon Grosso (chair until December 11, 2025), Bob Trono (chairperson-elect), Reve Walsh, John Walsh, Manus Cooney, Sean Joyce, Heidi Heitkamp (through April 3, 2025), Karen Quintos, Courtney Gregoire, Jeff Collins, Chris Nelson, John Penn, Michael Breslin and Ellen Petrocci (from December 12, 2025).[^2] NCMEC's website, in October 2026, groups its directors into individual seats and corporate seats. The individual seats list Schofield as board chair, Trono with the affiliation "Lockheed Martin Incorporation," Cooney with "American Continental Group," Quintos as "Former CCO & CMO, Dell Technologies," and John and Reve Walsh as co-founders. The corporate seats list Bethany Biesenthal (Jones Day), David L. Bowdich (The Walt Disney Company), Michael Breslin (LexisNexis Special Services, Inc.), Jeff Collins (Amazon Web Services), Jenny Lay-Flurrie (Microsoft), Chris Nelson (Gap Inc.), John Penn II (Adobe) and Ellen Petrocci (Verisign).[^7] The returns for 2024 and 2025 do not list Lay-Flurrie, Bowdich or Biesenthal.[^2][^6] ### Technology and Industry On December 15, 2009 Microsoft announced that it was donating PhotoDNA to NCMEC; the release quoted Ernie Allen as NCMEC's president and chief executive.[^8] The 2024 return of Thorn, which reports software subscription revenue, lists Ernie Allen among its board members.[^9] ### Reporting Disputes NBC News reported in July 2023 that NCMEC's senior vice president John Shehan said NCMEC had rescinded an invitation to [Discord](/organizations/discord/) to join its CyberTipline Roundtable after the company failed to "identify a senior child safety representative to attend," and that NCMEC said Discord's average response to takedown notifications had slowed from about three days in 2021 to nearly five days in 2022.[^10] NCMEC's published tables give 75,038 takedown notifications to providers for 2021 and 80,969 for 2022.[^11] On April 29, 2025, Senator Marsha Blackburn wrote to the chief executives of Discord and X, citing "recent testimony from NCMEC's President and CEO to the [Senate Judiciary Committee](/organizations/senate-judiciary-committee/)" and NCMEC data on declines in reports in 2024.[^12] On April 9, 2026, Senator Chuck Grassley released data that NCMEC had given his office on March 16, 2026 about eight companies, quoting NCMEC's statement that "Many ESPs regularly tout the number of reports they submit to the CyberTipline, but fail to disclose that millions of reports lack basic information," and a list of "poor reporter" companies whose reports in large part lacked location information.[^13] [^1]: ProPublica, Nonprofit Explorer API, organization 521328557 (National Center for Missing and Exploited Children), IRS ruling date 1984-05-01, subsection 501(c)(3), filings 2011 to 2024. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/api/v2/organizations/521328557.json [^2]: The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, IRS Form 990 for the year ended December 31, 2025 (IRS object ID 202611699349301126), Parts I, III, VII and VIII, Schedules C and O. https://apps.irs.gov/pub/epostcard/990/xml/2026/2026_TEOS_XML_06A.zip [^3]: Stanford Internet Observatory, "The Strengths and Weaknesses of the Online Child Safety Ecosystem: Perspectives from Platforms, NCMEC, and Law Enforcement on the CyberTipline and How to Improve It," April 22, 2024, secs. 2 and 2.1. https://purl.stanford.edu/pr592kc5483 [^4]: 18 U.S.C. §§ 2258A(c), 2258C, Legal Information Institute. https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/2258A ; https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/2258C [^5]: United States v. Ackerman, 831 F.3d 1292 (10th Cir. 2016), No. 14-3265, counsel listing and paras. 14-17. https://openjurist.org/831/f3d/1292/united-states-v-ackerman [^6]: The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, IRS Form 990 for the year ended December 31, 2024 (IRS object ID 202502169349301015). https://apps.irs.gov/pub/epostcard/990/xml/2025/2025_TEOS_XML_08A.zip [^7]: National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, "Leadership: Board of Directors," accessed October 2026. https://www.missingkids.org/footer/about/leadership/leadership-profiles [^8]: Microsoft, "Microsoft and National Center for Missing & Exploited Children Push for Action to Fight Child Pornography," Microsoft Source, December 15, 2009. https://news.microsoft.com/source/2009/12/15/microsoft-and-national-center-for-missing-exploited-children-push-for-action-to-fight-child-pornography/ [^9]: Thorn, IRS Form 990 for the year ended December 31, 2024 (IRS object ID 202503189349315755), Part VII. https://apps.irs.gov/pub/epostcard/990/xml/2025/2025_TEOS_XML_11A.zip [^10]: Ben Goggin, "Child predators are using Discord, a popular app among teens, for sextortion and abductions," NBC News, July 21, 2023. https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/social-media/discord-child-safety-social-platform-challenges-rcna89769 [^11]: National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, "2021 Notifications by NCMEC per ESP" and "2022 Notifications by NCMEC per ESP." https://www.missingkids.org/content/dam/missingkids/pdfs/2021-notifications-by-ncmec-per-esp.pdf ; https://www.missingkids.org/content/dam/missingkids/pdfs/2022-notifications-by-ncmec-per-esp.pdf [^12]: Marsha Blackburn, letters of April 29, 2025 to Jason Citron (Discord) and Linda Yaccarino (X Corp.). https://www.blackburn.senate.gov/services/files/2DCCC15A-5004-4640-9F08-B56C98F6D3E6 ; https://www.blackburn.senate.gov/services/files/C3C2DD2F-EAC2-45B5-BDC3-02CF414782DB [^13]: Senate Judiciary Committee, "Grassley Releases New and Disturbing Information on Online Child Exploitation, Presses Tech Giants for Answers," April 9, 2026. https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/press/rep/releases/grassley-releases-new-and-disturbing-information-on-online-child-exploitation-presses-tech-giants-for-answers