In the aftermath of a mass shooting, the immediate focus is often on providing financial support and relief to those most affected. However, ensuring that donations are distributed equitably and effectively can be a complex challenge.
This is where a Centralized Victims' Fund becomes crucial. Here’s why:
Equitable Distribution: We support victims' families and survivors who create fundraisers of their own, as these can be a source of immediate financial relief. However, we also recognize that not everyone can do this promptly as they grapple with the impact of being a victim of mass violence. Others do not have access to the help, technology, and resources needed to craft and launch a fundraiser of their own. We also know from our own experiences that not all individual fundraisers are successful. After a tragedy, certain victims or survivors may receive more media attention than others, leading to significant disparities in donations. A Centralized Victims' Fund ensures that every victim and survivor receives an equitable portion of the funds collected. As a collective endeavor, this prevents families and survivors from being overlooked and ensures that financial assistance is based on shared experiences of tragic death, injury, harm, and trauma rather than the visibility of any individual story. In short, a Centralized Victims' Fund ensures equitable access to donations and that no victim/survivor is left behind.
Protection Against Fraud and Financial Penalties: When properly managed, a Centralized Victims' Fund can safeguard against fraud, ensuring that donations reach those who truly need them. Additionally, such a fund can be structured to avoid interfering with public benefits or triggering tax penalties for recipients, protecting their financial well-being.
Maximizing Donor Impact: Donors often seek to make the most significant impact possible with their contributions. By donating to a Centralized Victims' Fund, they can be assured that their money will be distributed widely and effectively, reaching more victims and survivors directly. This collective approach amplifies the positive impact of each donation. Furthermore, when a Centralized Victims' Fund is managed and administered by a 501(c)(3) nonprofit like VictimsFirst or the Mass Violence Survivor's Fund, donations are tax-deductible and this encourages giving.
Direct Support to Victims/Survivors: A genuine Centralized Victims' Fund is designed to ensure that 100% of the collected donations go directly to victims and survivors. This transparency builds trust with donors and guarantees that every dollar is given to those in need. When money goes to nonprofit organizations, there is often no transparency in how the money is spent and the public never knows how many victims/survivors are actually helped. In many cases, people affected by mass violence have their own trusted care providers and need financial support to continue or expand the care they receive from those with whom they feel most comfortable.
Empowering Victims/Survivors: A Centralized Victims' Fund should distribute all collected funds promptly, rather than leaving victims/survivors dependent on nonprofit organizations indefinitely. This approach empowers victims and survivors to use the financial assistance in ways that best support their healing and the management of their grief, fostering independence and strength. Direct emergency cash assistance provides victims/survivors with the opportunity to acquire their own care and meet their own needs themselves, without the oversight, interference, and invasiveness of a nonprofit at a time when privacy and control are essential. This approach is trauma-informed, human-centered, and preserves the dignity of victims/survivors.
Providing Significant Relief to Victims/Survivors: The needs of victims, survivors, and the broader community are vast and varied in the wake of mass violence. While no single solution can address every challenge, a Centralized Victims' Fund can provide significant relief, offering a foundation of support during an intensely painful time. For those directly impacted, this is also the most effective use of funds. Nonprofits can never sufficiently meet the wide-ranging and individualized needs of mass violence victims/survivors in the aftermath of atrocity and, oftentimes, money given to nonprofits is spent on operational costs and results in inadequate and ineffective social services.
In conclusion, a Centralized Victims' Fund is not just about collecting donations; it’s about ensuring those donations are distributed fairly, effectively, and transparently and have the most significant impact. When managed correctly, such a fund can provide crucial support to those affected, helping them address the immense challenges they face and take control of the process of healing and coping. This is the first and necessary step in responding to mass violence in a way that is restorative, trauma-informed, and victim-centered.
In many communities, nonprofits play a significant role in providing care and social support, but their funding should not rely on the murder and injury of those they serve. While injections of funding to trusted nonprofits may be necessary in times of crisis, nonprofits have access to alternative local, state, and federal funding sources that victims/survivors do not. The donations from the generous public in the direct aftermath of an atrocity may be the only significant financial help they will ever receive—the support that prevents them from falling through the cracks. These monetary gifts can make the difference between life and death. Therefore, it is crucial to give donors the option to choose where their financial contributions go. A Centralized Victims' Fund provides a clear choice, allowing donors to decide whether to give directly to victims/survivors or support the programs offered by nonprofits.
A Centralized Victims' Fund also safeguards nonprofits by providing transparency in how money is collected and ensuring that donations are used as intended. This approach prevents public misunderstandings about how donations are used and eliminates the risks associated with commingling funds.
VictimsFirst can and has administered Centralized Victims’ Funds in the past (including in Allen, TX and Boulder, CO) in a limited capacity, ensuring 100% of all donations go directly to victims/survivors. However, we fully endorse the Mass Violence Survivors Fund (MVSF) and encourage communities to invite them in to administer mass violence relief funds as they can accomplish this work in a much more comprehensive, public, and democratic way. and communal Jeff Dion and the team at MVSF have unmatched experience and are the nation’s leaders in leading the ethical and transparent distribution of donations to mass violence victims/survivors. MVSF does what no other organization can do—and it has a proven track record of success.
Since 2014, their team has distributed more than $150 million to more than 4,000 survivors and has administered 31 funds, including the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting; the Robb Elementary shooting in Uvalde, TX; the Covenant School shooting in Nashville, TN; the Oxford High School Shooting in Oxford Township, MI; the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando; the Las Vegas Route 91 Harvest Festival Shooting; the Atlanta Spa Shootings; Walmart shooting in El Paso, TX; the Brewery shooting in Milwaukee, WI; the Tops Supermarket shooting in Buffalo, NY; the Club Q shooting in Colorado Springs, CO; and the mass shooting in Lewiston, ME.
It is important to know that Centralized Victims'Funds provide essential mid-term financial relief in the months following a mass casualty crime. This is because it takes time to collect donations and large corporate donors often wait until the end of their financial quarter to make financial contributions to nonprofits. This is why VictimsFirst manages the National Mass Shooting Victims’ Fund—the only fund that provides direct and immediate emergency financial assistance to families and survivors of mass violence across the United States.
We are also assisting VTVCare in establishing state-run long-term mass violence survivor funds.
Together, these efforts show how victims' families, survivors, and trusted advocates have developed the only model that ensures a victim-centered, trauma-informed continuum of care for those affected by mass violence. And, we accomplished this at the grassroots level; from the ground up.
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