National Mass Shooting Victims' Fund
About
In our first years as a nonprofit, VictimsFirst provided emergency financial assistance to victims of mass violence through our General Victims Fund. On January 1, 2023, the board voted to streamline our efforts and rename our General Victims' Fund as the National Mass Shooting Victims' Fund (NMSVF). The NMSVF was open to all victims/survivors of mass violence, whether from a mass shooting, bombing, or some other form of attack that occurred in the United States. Since mass shootings make up the majority of mass casualty crimes in the United States, we opted to reference mass shootings specifically in the name of the fund in hopes that we will be able to reach more victims/survivors. We define a mass casualty crime as a single incident in which four or more people are murdered in a random act of mass violence. A mass shooting or mass casualty crime typically occurs in a single place and time, but can include multiple locations in proximity to each other.
The NMSVF is the only national fund of its kind in the United States. With this fund, we have been able to help hundreds of mass shooting victims/survivors throughout the country—helping address a need so great that we completely depleted the fund's financial resources.
However, with increasing incidents of mass violence and their cumulative effects, we have struggled to meet the growing needs of victims and survivors. Unfortunately, we have been forced to pause the National Mass Shooting Victims' Fund entirely to fundraise for a $1M endowment that will make the NMSVF sustainable for years to come.
We will continue to collect and distribute separate, location-specific funds for direct-to-victim disbursement. However, we are no longer able to provide direct emergency financial assistance through the NMSVF.
If you have any questions about the fund or the endowment, please reach out to us by emailing us at contact@victimsfirst.org or by calling us at 706-VICTIMS.
