Every few months brings another story of a tragic mass shooting somewhere in America, followed by rounds of debate about restricting firearms access, stronger background checks, red flag laws and mental health. But nearly every time the end result is the same: No change happens, and it fades from the news until the next shooting. As we explain below, if progressives hope to bring an end to this vicious cycle, they need to prioritize winning close elections and supporting advocacy, organizing and research on gun issues. In this brief, we’ll get into the details of those strategies, along with some tips for donors getting started.

Why Donate to Reduce Gun Violence?  

More than 40,000 Americans died of gun-related injuries in 2023, including nearly 20,000 murders. Despite these chilling trends, national action on gun control has been close to nonexistent since the 1990s, thanks in large part to the Republican Party’s near unconditional opposition to gun safety measures. The party is buttressed by a right-wing judicial movement that has continuously knocked down state and local gun control measures, as well as advocacy and grassroots organizations like the National Rifle Association that are generously funded by the firearms industry. Despite these difficult odds, progressives have continued to push for stricter gun laws and are seeing some success at the state and local level, with research showing a clear correlation between strong gun safety laws and reduced gun violence. But making those reforms stick — and enacting further changes — will require greater investments by progressive donors.

Where to Donate to Reduce Gun Violence

• Gun safety PACs and swing district campaigns. The vast majority of Democratic elected leaders support common-sense gun safety policy reform. What this means for donors is that achieving meaningful change is a simple matter of electing more Democrats, as even many of the party’s more conservative members will still vote with their party for things like universal background checks, red flag laws and restrictions on high-powered weapons and ammunition. Donors with a special focus on guns should therefore help Democrats at all levels in swing races that could flip control of congress or state legislatures. Donors can also contribute to PACs that target vulnerable NRA-backed candidates while supporting pro-gun control campaigns. These PACs include the Giffords PAC, Brady PAC and Everytown for Gun Safety Action Fund.

• Organizations advocating and organizing to advance and defend stricter gun laws. Along with electing politicians who will support gun safety laws, sustaining that change will require a broader political movement that can both overcome barriers to enacting bigger reforms and hold strong against inevitable backlash. Well-known national organizations focused on pushing gun reform laws through politics and advocacy are The Brady Campaign, March for Our Lives and Giffords, all of which operate state and federal programming on gun violence prevention legislation (some of these are associated but separate groups from the PACs mentioned above). Donors can also support groups focused purely on the state and local level, like the Ohio Coalition Against Gun Violence and the Hope and Heal Fund, which promotes community-driven public health solutions to gun violence in California. 

• Research and public health. While gun violence has reached epidemic proportions in the U.S., there has been a dearth of public health research into the subject, in part due to congressional restrictions on such research by the federal government. Donors can help to close that gap, following the lead of big-name funders like Robert Wood Johnson and Arnold Ventures, that have been investing millions into research on gun violence. Groups they support include the National Collaborative for Gun Violence Research, a program currently housed at the RAND Corporation, and the Center for Gun Violence Solutions at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

For Donors Getting Started

• Give through a funding intermediary or collaborative. Donors uncertain about which organizations to support directly may consider supporting a funding intermediary like the Fund for a Safer Future or the Hope and Heal Fund, mentioned above. 

• Make sure you understand the different types of nonprofits and political groups and what that means for your giving. The examples we cited above include different types of organizations, from standard 501(c)(3)s to the more politically minded (c)(4)s, as well as PACs. Donors should read up on the different limits and tax incentives when it comes to giving to these groups, especially when looking to give through a foundation. Many of these groups also maintain multiple related but different organizations operating under similar names but different legal structures, so donors should also always double check that they’re giving to the group they intended to support.