On Thursday, September 8, 2022, our General Victims’ Fund was emptied after months of helping those directly impacted by the shootings in Sacramento (CA), Buffalo (NY), Uvalde (TX), and Highland Park (IL).
Unfortunately, at this time we can no longer accept applications for emergency financial assistance through our General Victims’ Fund. However, we will work diligently to replenish our fund for direct-to-victim emergency financial assistance and will continue to find other resources needed, if necessary.
Prior to our final distribution of emergency financial assistance, our account balance was $1,353.44. This is after scrambling many times to find additional funds to keep victims/survivors on their feet through our General Victims’ Fund, which is separately funded for all mass shooting victims across the country.
On Thursday, we transferred $1,146.56 from our Admin Account to help another survivor of the Uvalde School shooting with emergency needs. This allowed us to distribute the maximum amount possible.
Our limit per victim/survivor/family from our General Victims' Fund is set to $2,500.00, allowing us to help the greatest number of victims while still being able to provide enough funds to provide significant financial relief to those directly impacted by a mass casualty crime when they need it most.
This year alone, we helped 70 people with direct financial assistance from 7 different mass shootings through 87 disbursements from our General Victims’ Fund. Those were:
Highland Park - $25,580.67
Uvalde - $36,636.89
Buffalo - $16,400.00
Sacramento - $21,800.00
Vegas - $996.25
Pulse Orlando - $8,153.64
Aurora - $2,191.53
The total amount we distributed between January 1, 2022 and September 8, 2022 was $111,748.98.
In addition to emergency financial assistance, we have also helped victims of this year’s mass shootings with resources, including referrals to trauma specialists, disability specialists, and other significant medical services.
Our work also included securing 180 noise-canceling headphones for the children and families of Uvalde (via Sony Electronics and our friends at Sony Pictures Entertainment) before the Fourth of July festivities, working with law enforcement to ensure the privacy of victims’ families, and bird-dogging fundraisers, nonprofits, and GoFundMe campaigns to make sure that donations meant for victims/survivors actually were donated for them.
We also helped communities behind the scenes navigate their response in the best interests of the victims/survivors.
We will continue to advocate for victims/survivors and educate communities to act in the best interests of victims/survivors like we have been doing in Highland Park, Uvalde, and continue to do in Orlando.
We will also continue to collect donations for mass shooting victims in Uvalde, TX and Highland Park, IL until their deadlines.
Our overall fund for the entire victim base of the Robb Elementary School shooting in Uvalde – which is currently over $7.5 million – will be transferred to the National Compassion Fund (NCF) later this month. 100% will go directly to victims through the Uvalde Together We Rise, which the NCF is administering. This will help the entire victim base for mid-term needs and help others most directly impacted prepare for long-term needs for their families.
We expect to grant our fund for victims of the Highland Park parade shooting to the Highland Park Community Foundation’s July 4 Fund to be distributed directly to victims exclusively through categories A, B, and C in their final protocol. We collected over $930K for the mid-term and long-term needs of Highland Park victims, while also assisting those with immediate financial needs through our General Victims’ Fund (including those present, some of whom were in the line of fire).
Our philosophy is always to make sure that 100% of what we collect goes directly to victims and we have been diligent in making sure that is the case after both shootings.