About

About Ploughshares Fund

As a public foundation, we enable you to influence one of the most urgent global challenges of our time: achieve a safe, secure, nuclear weapon-free world. Combining high-level advocacy, an enhanced grantmaking capacity and our own expertise, we are helping to fundamentally change nuclear weapons policy. For 28 years we have identified and supported the smartest people with the best ideas for preventing the spread and use of nuclear weapons and building stability in regions of proliferation concern.

History

Ploughshares Fund was created in 1982 by philanthropist, activist, mother and grandmother Sally Lilienthal, to give the average citizen practical ways to help solve the urgent nuclear threat.

We have proven time and again that the right amount of money, given to the right people at the right time, can yield profound results. Through our grants and advocacy we have:

  • Helped redirect the U.S. nuclear weapons posture from a Cold War framework to address the real risks of today; nuclear terrorism and proliferation.
  • Convened the first-ever U.S.-Russian joint threat assessment of Iranian nuclear and ballistic missile potential.  Our analysis informed the decision by the Obama Administration to cancel plans for missile defenses in Europe that did not work and did not address real threats.
  • Saved a billion dollars from the 2009 economic stimulus package by supporting a coalition of groups that lobbied against including nuclear weapons in the bill.
  • Demonstrated definitively that a nuclear test ban could be verified, clearing the way for ratification of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty
  • Supported successful advocacy to prevent the development of a new generation of nuclear weapons
  • Established innovative diplomacy with at-risk states to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons
  • Ensured the success of international treaties to outlaw chemical weapons and landmines

Why Now?

There has never been a more critical time to join us in building a safe, secure, nuclear weapon-free world.  This is our window of opportunity. Ploughshares Fund supports a global network of experts and advocates who are now poised to help President Obama set a new direction for America’s nuclear weapons policy.

Ploughshares Fund is a non-profit 501(c) (3) organization.
Ploughshares Fund has been awarded the top rating by Charity Navigator, America’s largest independent evaluator of charities.