As it helps victims and survivors get the assistance they need, the Polaris Project, a Washington nonprofit, is turning those phone calls and texts into an enormous storehouse of information about the shadowy world of trafficking. By analyzing this data and connecting it with public sources, the nonprofit is drawing detailed pictures of how trafficking networks operate. That knowledge, in turn, shapes the group's prevention efforts, its policy work, and even law-enforcement investigations. 

How our data team analyzes the numbers from the hotlines we run—and uses it to work with other anti-trafficking advocates globally.

Palantir Technologies, the data analytics companyprofiled in the current issue of Fortune, isn’t unique in its efforts to turn its software toward social good—plenty of tech companies do that. But unlike most, Palantir says it treats nonprofits like any other customer, not just as a “corporate social responsibility” afterthought.