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NRA Civil Rights Defense Fund at a glanceAlso receives grants: funding profile →

· Public charity

NRA Civil Rights Defense Fund

The fund provides legal and financial assistance to selected individuals and organizations defending their right to keep and bear arms.

$965k
Granted FY2024still arriving
7
Grants FY2024still arriving
6
States reached
$505k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
05Through PlinthRead
01What it funds
01100% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2018 to 2024.

Civil Rights$2.9MCrime & Legal$226kRecreation & Sports$205kPublic Benefit$176k
02FY2024 · 7 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

How this is measured
The 7 grants below total $890,256, the rows itemized in this filing. The $965,436 headline is the total grant expense on the return; the other $75,180 is giving the schedule does not break out (grants under the $5,000 itemization floor, grants to individuals, grants on other schedules). Every figure below describes the itemized rows only.

By grant size · FY2024

  • $10k–50k2 grants · $32k
  • $50k–250k4 grants · $354k
  • $250k+1 grant · $505k
$60,000
Median grant
6
States reached
$17M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
National Rifle Association$505,000
Silent Majority Foundation$120,155
Delaware State Sportsmens Association$114,159
Liberty Justice Center$60,000
Association of NJ Rifle and Pistol Club Inc$59,242
Sporting Arms Company$19,447
Western PA Sportmens Club$12,253
02The need
03

Does the money reach high-need areas?

Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.

show:

Dollar for dollar, its grants (FY18–24) land where the poverty rate runs at 7%, against an area that typically sits at 7%. 16% of its dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Its grants skew toward lower-need ZIPs.

area typical 7%Delaware State Sportsmens Association: $114k → 10%Granby Bow & Gun Club: $15k → 12%Western Pennsylvania Sportsmen's Club: $23k → 10%THE INDEPENDENT INSTITUTE: $7k → 10%Hunter Sports Shooting Grounds: $50k → 6%Sporting Arms Company: $19k → 8%Liberty Justice Center: $60k → 10%Deputy Big Shot LLC: $8k → 12%The Buckeye Institute: $35k → 15%Silent Majority Foundation: $120k → 11%Putnam County Part Gun Club: $15k → 10%Association of NJ Rifle and Pistol Club Inc: $59k → 12%National Rifle Association: $652k → 6%Delaware State Sportsmens Association: $49k → 10%Western PA Sportmens Club: $12k → 10%Deputy Big Shot LLC: $8k → 12%Association of NewJersey Rifle: $12k → 12%National Rifle Association: $595k → 6%National Rifle Association: $505k → 6%NATIONAL RIFLE ASSOCIATION: $434k → 6%NATIONAL RIFLE ASSOCIATION: $407k → 6%National Rifle Association: $177k → 6%NATIONAL RIFLE ASSOCIATION: $114k → 6%0%20%40%50%more need →
grant to an above-average-need area below average· circle size = grant amount
How this is measured
Matched: human-services grants are those whose grantee’s IRS cause code is Human Services. Placed by people below the poverty line in the grantee’s ZIP, averaged from the tracts in that ZIP.

Which US states its grants reach

WA
NY
MA
IN
OH
PA
NJ
CA
WV
VA
DE
TX
How this is measured
US grants placed by each grantee’s ZIP, which can differ from where services are delivered. Need from public data (U.S. Census/ACS, CDC PLACES, Eviction Lab, USDA), shown as context about the area, never attributed to the funder’s giving.
03Its grantees
repeat funding

Who it funds again

Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.

91%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$3.2M · 5 repeat orgs$321k to everyone else

5 repeat relationships: 4 still active in FY2024, 1 since wound down; 3 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

5
5

Total granted

$3.2M
$122k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

-4%
+13%

Still filing today

60%
80%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 78% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $200k went to new ones.

50%100%’18’19’20’21’22’23’24
RenewedFirst-time

Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant

’18’19’20’21’22’23’24
Civil RightsRecreation & SportsCrime & LegalOther
How this is measured
First-time means a grantee’s first year in the filing window; renewed means funded in an earlier year too. The renewed share climbs naturally as a portfolio matures, so the signal is a year that bucks it (a wave of new grantees). The earliest year is left-censored: relationships that predate the data read as new. Theme is the grantee’s IRS cause.

Backed again, and grew

  • NR
    NATIONAL RIFLE ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA
    7× · 2018–2024 · $2.9M · revenue -51%
  • DS
    DELAWARE STATE SPORTSMAN ASSO
    2× · 2023–2024 · $163k
  • AO
    ASSOCIATION OF NJ RIFLE & PISTOL CLUBS INC
    2× · 2023–2024 · $71k · revenue -4%

Funded once

  • HS
    Hunter Sports Shooting Grounds
    one grant, 2023 · $50k
  • TB
    The Buckeye Institute
    one grant, 2023 · $35k · revenue -1%
  • GB
    Granby Bow & Gun Club Inc
    one grant, 2022 · $15k · revenue +13%
How this is measured

Repeat means funded in two or more distinct years. Growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.

04Its field

Closest unfunded matches

The nonprofits that most resemble its grantees but are not funded by it, scored along the direction from the rest of the field toward the portfolio. A resemblance in what they say they do, not a recommendation.

1
Gatlinburg Sportsman Club

Operation of firearm ranges for local law enforcement agencies.

Recreation & Sports
2
Detroit Gun Club

Member's club

—
3
Pennsylvania Firearms Association

To advocate for the second amendment rights of all law abiding citizens of pennsylvania.

Civil Rights
4
Boise Gun Club Inc

The organization provides shotgun sports recreation and education at its gun range on kuna mora road.

—
5
Big Timber Rifle & Pistol Club

To provide and maintain a shooting range

Recreation & Sports
6
Southern Indiana Rifle & Pistol Club Inc

The club is organized to promote the advancement of and competition in the shooting sports

—
7
Independence Gun Club

The independence gun club purpose is to promote the development of all shooting sports. we are providing opportunities for members and their families to receive shooting instruction,an environment for shooting, fellowship and good…

Recreation & Sports
8
Capital Area Sportsmen League

Provide sport services

—
9
Woburn Sportsmens Association Inc

A private sportsmans club providing range facilities and programs, recreational and competitive, to its membership for different types of shooting, trapping, archery, education and training.

—
10
Redwood Gun Club

Maintenance & operation of a n.r.a. sanctioned public shooting range serving approximately 350 members and 2225 non-members annually. sponsorship of hunter safety classes, n.r.a. and other matches and ccf qualification.

—
11
Huron Pointe Sportsmen's Association Inc

To promote shooting sports and conservation

—
12
Washington State Archery Ass

Recreational archery for members

Recreation & Sports
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is National Rifle Association of America; the most unlike its peers is Western Pennsylvania Sportsmens Club. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
04the grantee network

9 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2025.

Each grant beside the grantee’s revenue from every source, year by year.

How this is measured

Counted here: distinct organizations funded across 2017 to 2025, not grant rows in a single year, so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 9 of the 13 grantees resolved in that span have returns of their own we could reconcile.

Each grantee is resolved to its own IRS returns. Association, dated; never a causal claim.

0
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
1
Early backer (in before they grew)
9/9
Grantees still filing
4/9
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

NATIONAL RIFLE ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA: $2,884,556 · Civil RightsNATIONAL RIFLE ASSOCIATION OF AMERICASILENT MAJORITY FOUNDATION: $120,155 · Civil RightsDELAWARE STATE SPORTSMAN ASSO: $163,423 · OtherDELAWARE STA…ASSOCIATION OF NJ RIFLE & PISTOL CLUBS INC: $71,466 · OtherASSOCIATION …Hunter Sports Shooting Grounds: $50,000 · OtherHunter Sport…The Buckeye Institute: $35,000 · OtherThe Buckeye …Sporting Arms Company: $19,447 · OtherDeputy Big Shot LLC: $15,825 · OtherPUTNAM COUNTY PARKS GUN CLUB: $15,000 · Other+1 more: $6,632 · OtherLIBERTY JUSTICE CENTER: $60,000 · Crime & LegalWESTERN PENNSYLVANIA SPORTSMENS CLUB: $35,381 · Recreation & SportsGranby Bow & Gun Club Inc: $15,000 · Recreation & Sports
Civil Rights$3,004,711Other$376,793Crime & Legal$60,000Recreation & Sports$50,381

Each grantee by its size and the funder’s share of it; top left is load-bearing

25%50%75%100%$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetNATIONAL RIFLE ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA: $2,884,556 over 7y, 0.3% of budgetSILENT MAJORITY FOUNDATION: $120,155 over 1y, 20% of budgetASSOCIATION OF NJ RIFLE & PISTOL CLUBS INC: $71,466 over 2y, 3.4% of budgetLIBERTY JUSTICE CENTER: $60,000 over 1y, 1.9% of budgetWESTERN PENNSYLVANIA SPORTSMENS CLUB: $35,381 over 2y, 11% of budgetThe Buckeye Institute: $35,000 over 1y, 0.8% of budgetGranby Bow & Gun Club Inc: $15,000 over 1y, 11% of budgetPUTNAM COUNTY PARKS GUN CLUB: $15,000 over 1y, 10% of budgetTHE INDEPENDENT INSTITUTE: $6,632 over 1y, 0.2% of budget
Grantee by grantee: a decade per organization, before and after funding

A decade per grantee: revenue shaded, grants as bars, all rows on one timeline.

How much its grantees rely on government

Each dot is one organization NRA Civil Rights Defense Fund funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from NRA Civil Rights Defense Fund. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 10%1%5%11%20%funder's share of their income ↑0%1%3%4%5%share of the org’s income from government →median 1%
  • Granby Bow & Gun Club Inc: 1% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
1get no government money at all
0rely on government for over half their income
⤢ axis zoomed · 0–5%
typical government reliance, FY20–25
How this is measured
Government income is each org’s traced federal awards (USASpending grants and contracts) plus state payments (open checkbooks) as a share of its total revenue (IRS Form 990); the self-reported government-grant line (990 line 1e) is carried for cross-check: a grantee that reports government grants we could not trace to a source is left off the chart rather than shown as receiving none. An association, not a claim that a grant caused the public funding. Coverage is precision-first, a floor rather than a census; state records exist for 9 states, so a grantee outside them shows no state figure (dimmed) rather than a false zero. Federal award amounts are obligations, which can span years, so a single-year share is indicative. 990 filings lag 12 to 24 months.
05Through Plinth

Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

How do I get to NRA Civil Rights Defense Fund?

Find your warmest path to NRA Civil Rights Defense Fund through trustees and officers whose names appear on both boards. Search for your organization and Plinth traces the shortest route it can evidence.

Each link is a name appearing on two organizations’ public IRS 990 filings, matched on that name and, where the filings support it, on location. A same-state match has geographic support, which is a second matching feature rather than confirmation that the two are one person; a cross-state one is the likeliest to be two people who share a name. Every hop shows its tier, low-confidence and distant paths are held back rather than guessed, and it is worth confirming the person before you use the introduction.

On method. Every financial figure here is read from IRS e-file XML, the funder’s own 990/990-PF, and from the multi-year returns of the 13 grantees we resolved, each linked to its source. Grantee outcomes are each organization’s own program-service reporting (Form 990, Part III), read as association with funding, never as caused by it. Low-confidence name matches are suppressed rather than guessed. How we build these →

How this is measured
Each figure carries one of six labels. Filed is what the funder reported on its return. Official is another government record about an organization, such as a federal award or a charity register, joined by name where no shared identifier exists. Resolved is an identity we worked out where the filing named a recipient without an EIN, kept only above a measured confidence threshold. Computed is arithmetic over those, like themes, portfolio clusters and co-funder strength. Context is a statistic about a place rather than about an organization, which is what the need overlay is: it describes the area a grantee’s address sits in, not where its work lands. Inferred is drawn by a model from text, like the partnerships read out of public news and organization websites. Each is labeled where it appears.

Generated from the IRS Form 990 e-file return for fiscal year 2024, released 2024. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

Source object · view filing

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More from the funding graph

The unnamed billions
grants reported with no recipient in the public record
The regranting layer
51% of grant dollars land in the regranting layer
The DAF merry-go-round
$9.7B circulates between donor-advised funds
The endowment market
who holds foundation money, and what just moved
The camps
funders cluster by geography, not ideology
By state
where grant money is based, and what stays home