Non-profit

Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence

Website:

BradyCampaign.org

Location:

WASHINGTON, DC

Tax ID:

23-7321017

Tax-Exempt Status:

501(c)(4)

Budget (2020):

Revenue: $3,464,716
Expenses: $3,678,498
Assets: $2,617,894

Formation:

1974

Formerly:

National Council to Control Handguns

Handgun Control, Inc.

Type:

Gun Control Advocacy Organization

Co-Presidents:

Kris Brown

Avery Gardiner

Board Chair:

Kevin Quinn

Contact InfluenceWatch with suggested edits or tips for additional profiles.

The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence (also called “Brady Campaign”) and its 501(c)(3) affiliate, Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence (together referred to as the Brady organizations), engage in political advocacy, education, lawsuits and activism aimed at expanding regulations and restrictions on the right of Americans to possess and use firearms. Created in 1974 as the National Council to Control Handguns, the organizations have since been named after former White House press secretary James Brady, and his wife Sarah, who both became active in the organizations after Mr. Brady sustained crippling head injuries during the 1981 assassination attempt made against President Reagan.

The organization lobbied heavily for a 1993 federal statute that requires prospective handgun purchasers to pass a federal background check before purchasing a pistol from a licensed firearms dealer. Since then the organizations have worked to add additional regulations and legal restrictions on the types of firearms and firearm accessories Americans are permitted to own. This includes supporting state laws and local ordinances that prohibit the possession of modern sporting rifles and opposing the expansion of the right to carry a firearm for personal protection.

Political spending and endorsements by the Brady Campaign have been overwhelmingly to the benefit of Democrats. The organization endorsed 36 candidates for U.S. House and Senate in advance of the 2018 Congressional election, all of them Democrats.

History

Organizational

The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, a 501(c)(4) advocacy organization, and Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt nonprofit, are two distinct legal entities with overlapping agendas and nearly identical staffs and boards. The organizations themselves and popular media accounts frequently shorten these names to “Brady Center” and “Brady Campaign,” or—to refer to both—the “Brady Campaign and Center to Prevent Gun Violence” or even simply “Brady.”
Founded as the National Council to Control Handguns in 1974, the group has become one of the nation’s most prominent gun control advocacy organizations. The advocacy arm was later renamed Handgun Control, Inc. (HCI), and it created a related entity named the Center to Prevent Handgun Violence.

Leadership

Sarah Brady, wife of White House press secretary James Brady, who was wounded in the 1981 assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan, joined the board of HCI in 1985. By the early 1990s, Sarah Brady was the chair of both organizations. In December 2000, the HCI board elected to rename both organizations in honor of the Bradys. Mr. Brady passed away in 2014, and Mrs. Brady died in 2015.1

Former Ft. Wayne, Indiana, mayor Paul Helmke (R) became president of the Brady organizations in 2006, serving for five years. In early 2012, marketing and advertising executive Daniel Gross was named to replace Helmke.2

On September 6, 2017, Kevin Quinn, chair of both organizations, announced that Brady staffers Kris Brown and Avery Gardiner had been promoted as the co-presidents to replace Gross. The statement did not quote Mr. Gross nor reveal a reason for the change in leadership.3

In 2016, Mr. Gross was paid a total of $409,637 to lead the two organizations ($240,581 from the Brady Center4, $135,327 from the Brady Campaign5, and $33,729 in other compensation).

Million Mom March

In early 2001, the Million Mom March, another gun control advocacy organization founded in 2000, and claiming chapters across the nation, affiliated as a subsidiary project within the newly-named Brady organizations.6

Advocacy

Brady Law (1993)

Handgun Control Inc. lobbied heavily for the 1993 passage of the federal Brady Law, which requires a background check on a prospective buyer seeking to purchase a handgun from a licensed firearm dealer.

Strengthening the requirements of the background checks at the state and federal levels, and adding other types of firearms (such as rifles) to the background check requirement are still top policy goals pursued by the Brady organizations. Other policy objectives include blocking the expansion of right-to-carry laws; preventing the possession of modern sporting rifles (so-called “assault weapons”) and standard-capacity magazines;7 and instituting duty to retreat laws curtailing self-defense rights.8

The Brady Center’s Legal Action Project (LAP) litigates against firearms manufacturers and sellers and to increase federal and state firearms regulations.9

The Brady Campaign’s 2016 financial statement shows $9,378,722 in “legal action” spending, implying the LAP may be more than half of the total spending for all Brady organizations and far and away the most expensive project they are involved in. Lawyers for a Safer America is a subsidiary project within the LAP, designed to recruit lawyers and firms willing to work on LAP cases and to raise funding for the LAP. The 2016 financial statement shows the Brady organizations received $8,305,809 in donated legal services.10

Jonathan E. Lowy is the Brady Center’s vice president for the Legal Action project and the main attorney for their firearms litigation. Avery W. Gardiner, now the co-president of both Brady organizations, was the Brady chief legal officer prior to her promotion.11
Controversies

Aurora Lawsuit Controversy

During September 2014, the Brady Center’s Legal Action Project sued several online retailers whose ammunition and other firearm-related products (though not, it seems, actual firearms) were purchased by the gunman who in 2012 shot and killed a number of people at a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado. The LAP lawyers sued on behalf of the parents of a young woman murdered in the attack.12

The case was dismissed because U.S. District Court Judge Richard S. Matsch ruled the Brady Center lawyers had failed to prove a case and had also asked for a verdict his court did not have the power to grant – essentially that it was a frivolous lawsuit. As a result, on June 17, 2015, Judge Matsch ordered the Brady clients to pay more than $200,000 in attorney fees and expenses to the online retailers they were suing.

The Brady Campaign website does not appear to offer an update regarding how and why the case went against them, nor whether or not the organization assisted the parents of the murdered woman in paying the six-figure legal fee imposed by the judge.13 One of the Brady clients, writing in the left-leaning publication Mother Jones, claimed the $200,000 imposed by the court had helped force her and her husband to file for bankruptcy.14

Politics

The Brady Campaign is, like all 501(c) organizations, formally nonpartisan. In practice, its endorsements have been overwhelmingly and sometimes exclusively given to Democrats.

The Brady Campaign spent a total of $392,272 on the federal election cycles that took place from 2002 through 2016, with 87.6 percent of the partisan spending benefitting Democrats. There has been zero spending on behalf of Republicans since the 2008 cycle, and less than one percent of the total spending since 2002 has been for the benefit of Republicans. The spending pattern has been erratic, with the Brady Campaign spending $138,356 in 2002, then just $2,552 for 2016, with an uptick to at least $50,000 for the 2018 cycle.15

2018 Midterm Election

For the 2018 midterm Congressional elections, the Brady Campaign endorsed general election candidates in 36 U.S. House and Senate races. All 36 were Democrats, and 18 of them were from just three very “blue” states that have some of the nation’s toughest restrictions on citizens possessing firearms: New York, New Jersey and California.16 Incumbent New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) received the Brady Campaign endorsement for re-election; he is the brother of Brady Center and Brady Campaign board member Maria Cuomo Cole. 17

2016 Presidential Election

The Brady Campaign has carved out a very demanding position regarding its endorsements in U.S. Presidential contests. Early in the 2016 presidential election, the Brady Campaign endorsed Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton and publicly rebuked her socialist primary rival, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont), for Sanders’s former support of the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA), a law which protects firearm manufacturers and dealers who comply with federal law from lawsuits by organizations like the Brady Center if their products are later used in crime. Then-Brady Campaign president Doug Gross characterized Sanders’s support for PLCAA “truly evil.”18

2008 Presidential Election

Then-U.S. Sen. Barack Obama (D-Illinois) received the Brady Campaign endorsement for President in 2008, but in January 2010 the group gave President Obama a grade of “F” for failing to advance aggressive gun control policies during his first year in office.19

End Family Fire Campaign

During August of 2018, the Brady Center launched a public service advertising campaign, assisted by the Ad Council, to raise awareness of what the Brady Center has called “family fire” – shootings in the home involving children who discover and then mishandle firearms. The “End Family Fire” campaign, scheduled to run at least one year, features online, TV and digital video dramatizations designed to encourage secure storage of firearms, the use of trigger locks, and storage of weapons separate from ammunition. Brady Center spokespersons have stated they do not intend for the spots to be political, controversial, or anti-firearm, and hope their suggestions for firearm safety can be supported by all sides in the debate over firearms ownership. They compare their videos to broadcast media campaigns aimed at discouraging drunken driving.20

Finances and Funding

The 2016 consolidated financial statements released by the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence and its affiliates show total revenues of $18,282,359, and expenses of $17,365,852. The largest single expenditure listed, at $9,378,722, was “legal action,” likely the work of the Legal Action Project’s lawsuits. Donated legal services comprise $8,305,809 of the revenue reported.21

The total combined revenue as reported separately by the Brady Center and Brady Campaign (which leaves out the donated legal services and voter education fund) is a little more than $9 million. The Brady Center reported 2016 revenue of $6,113,520, against expenses of $4,329,018.22 The Brady Campaign reported 2016 revenue of $2,926,223, against expenses of $3,799,295.23 Between the two there was a combined surplus of $911,430.
The two organizations combined spent $319,204 for outside professional fundraising services in 2016, and reported a combined $2,299,572 spent for all fundraising activities.24

Charitable foundations contributed $968,147 to the Brady organizations between 2002 and 2017 (a $60,509 average per year). Noteworthy foundation donors were as follows:

Brady Campaign Donors
Tides Foundation (2003-2004) 25 $54,000
Kenneth Cole Foundation (2016) 26 $25,000
Norman Raab Foundation (2014-2016) 27 $150,000
Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation (2005) 28 $100,000
Frank S. and Julia M. Ladner Family Foundation (2008-2015) 29 $81,000

Leadership

Avery Gardiner and Kris Brown

The co-presidents of both organizations are Avery Gardiner and Kris Brown. Both women are attorneys with experience in private sector fields, and both worked within the Brady organizations prior to their elevation as co-presidents. Gardiner was the chief legal officer and worked on lawsuits for the Legal Action Project. Brown was also a staffer for former U.S. Congressman Jim Moran (D-Virginia), with firearms issues being one of her policy specialties.30

Kevin Quinn

Kevin Quinn is chairman of the board of both Brady Campaign organizations. He is the founder of Genki Advisory, an investment firm, and is a former executive of Goldman Sachs. He lives in New Jersey.31

Maria Cuomo Cole

Mario Cuomo Cole is a documentary filmmaker, the daughter of former New York Gov. Mario Cuomo (D), the sister of current New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D), and the spouse of fashion designer Kenneth Cole.

References

  1. “Jim and Sarah Brady.” Brady Campaign. Accessed September 4, 2018. http://www.bradycampaign.org/jim-and-sarah-brady
  2. Eversley, Melanie. “Brady gun-control organization gets new president.” USA Today. February 6, 2012. Accessed September 4, 2018. http://content.usatoday.com/communities/ondeadline/post/2012/02/brady-gun-control-organization-gets-new-president/1#.W5AyQWhKjEa
  3. “STATEMENT FROM THE CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD, KEVIN QUINN.” Brady Campaign. September 7, 2017. Accessed September 4, 2018. http://www.bradycampaign.org/press-room/statement-from-the-chairman-of-the-board-kevin-quinn
  4. Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence. IRS Form 990, 2016.
  5. Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence. IRS Form 990, 2016.
  6. “Million Mom Timeline – 15 Year Anniversary.” Brady Campaign. Accessed September 4, 2018. http://www.bradycampaign.org/million-mom-timeline-15-year-anniversary
  7. “ Brady Center to Defend Deerfield, IL Assault Weapon Ban.” Brady Campaign. Accessed September 4, 2018.  http://www.bradycampaign.org/press-room/brady-center-to-defend-deerfield-il-assault-weapon-ban
  8. Lowy, Jonathan E. “‘STAND YOUR GROUND’ LAWS: CIVIL RIGHTS AND PUBLIC SAFETY IMPLICATIONS OF THE EXPANDED USE OF DEADLY FORCE.” Testimony Before the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary. October 29, 2013. Accessed September 4, 2018. http://www.bradycampaign.org/sites/default/files/Testimony-SYGround.pdf
  9. “Legal Action Project: Working to Reduce Gun Violence Through the Courts.” Brady Campaign. Accessed September 4, 2018. http://www.bradycampaign.org/legal-action-project
  10. “The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence and Affiliates: Consolidated Financial Report (Compiled). Brady Campaign. December 31, 2016. Accessed September 4, 2018. https://www.bradycampaign.org/sites/default/files/BradyCampaign-and-Affiliates2016-Consolidated-Financial-Report.pdf; and “Lawyers for a Safer America.” Brady Campaign. Accessed September 4, 2018. http://www.bradycampaign.org/our-impact/campaigns/lawyers-for-a-safer-america
  11. “Our Team.” Brady Center. Accessed September 4, 2018. http://www.bradycampaign.org/our-team
  12. “Brady Center Sues Online Sellers of Ammunition and Equipment Used in Aurora Movie Theater Massacre.” Brady Campaign. September 16, 2015. Accessed September 4, 2018. http://www.bradycampaign.org/press-room/brady-center-sues-online-sellers-of-ammunition-and-equipment-used-in-aurora-movie-theater
  13. Brock, Sam; Rachel Witte and David Burgess “Family to Pay Price for Trying to Sue Ammo Dealers.” NBC Bay Area. June 30, 2015. Accessed September 4, 2018. https://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/national-international/Family-to-Pay-Price-for-Trying-to-Sue-Ammo-Dealers-320224111.html
  14. Phillips, Sandy. “My Daughter Was Murdered in a Mass Shooting. Then I Was Ordered to Pay Her Killer’s Gun Dealer.” Mother Jones. June 20, 2017. Accessed September 4, 2018. https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2017/07/my-daughter-was-murdered-in-a-mass-shooting-then-i-was-ordered-to-pay-her-killers-gun-dealer/
  15. “Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence: Totals.” Open Secrets. Accessed September 4, 2018. https://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/totals.php?id=D000024445&cycle=2016
  16. “Brady Endorsed Candidates.” Brady Campaign. Accessed September 4, 2018. http://www.bradycampaign.org/brady-endorsed-candidates-2018-midterms; and “The 10 states with the most restrictive gun laws.” Deseret News. October 13, 2015. Accessed September 4, 2018. https://www.deseretnews.com/top/3427/0/The-10-states-with-the-most-restrictive-gun-laws.html
  17. “Endorsements.” Andrew Cuomo Campaign Website. Accessed September 4, 2018. https://www.andrewcuomo.com/endorsements#endorsement-141
  18. Barkan, Ross. “Hillary Clinton Enlists Brady Campaign to Hammer Bernie Sanders.” New York Observer. January 13, 2016. Accessed September 4, 2018. https://observer.com/2016/01/hillary-clinton-enlists-brady-campaign-to-hammer-bernie-sanders/
  19. Helmke, Paul. “Jim And Sarah Brady, Brady Campaign Endorse Barack Obama And Joe Biden.” Huffington Post. November 13, 2008. Accessed September 4, 2018. https://www.huffingtonpost.com/paul-helmke/jim-and-sarah-brady-brady_b_134096.html; and Lee, Carol E. “Gun control group fails Obama.” Politico. January 18, 2010. Accessed September 4, 2018. http://www.politico.com/politico44/perm/0110/brady_campaign_f_4e52b8a5-4d03-44ce-9f5c-adbad49ed0bd.html
  20. Romero, Dennis. “Gun control group targets firearms owners with new ads, seeks common ground.” NBC News. August 8, 2018. Accessed September 4, 2018.  https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/gun-control-group-targets-firearms-owners-new-ads-seeks-common-n898561
  21. “The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence and Affiliates: Consolidated Financial Report (Compiled). Brady Campaign. December 31, 2016. Accessed September 4, 2018. https://www.bradycampaign.org/sites/default/files/BradyCampaign-and-Affiliates2016-Consolidated-Financial-Report.pdf
  22. Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence. IRS Form 990, 2016. Accessed via Foundation Search on September 10, 2018.
  23. Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence. IRS Form 990, 2016. Accessed via Foundation Search on September 10, 2018.
  24. Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence. IRS Form 990, 2016. Accessed via Foundation Search on September 10, 2018.; and Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence. IRS Form 990, 2016. Accessed via Foundation Search on September 10, 2018.
  25. Tides Foundation. IRS Form 990, 2003 and 2004. Accessed via Foundation Search on September 10, 2018.
  26. Kenneth Cole Foundation. IRS Form 990, 2016. Accessed via Foundation Search on September 10, 2018.
  27. Norman Raab Foundation. IRS Form 990, 2014-2016. Accessed via Foundation Search on September 10, 2018.
  28. Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation. IRS Form 990, 2005. Accessed via Foundation Search on September 10, 2018.
  29. Frank S. and Julia M. Ladner Family Foundation. IRS Form 990, 2008-2015. Accessed via Foundation Search on September 10, 2018.
  30. “Our Team.” Brady Center. Accessed September 4, 2018. http://www.bradycampaign.org/our-team
  31. “Global Advisory Board: Kevin Quinn ’91.”  The Jerome A. Chazen Institute for Global Business. Accessed September 4, 2018. https://www8.gsb.columbia.edu/chazen/about/iab/quinn

Directors, Employees & Supporters

  1. Kris Brown
    Co-President
  2. Avery Gardiner
    Co-President
  3. Dan Gross
    Former President
  4. Mike Naple
    Former Press Secretary (2013-2015)
  See an error? Let us know!

Nonprofit Information

  • Accounting Period: June - May
  • Tax Exemption Received: June 1, 1974

  • Available Filings

    Period Form Type Total revenue Total functional expenses Total assets (EOY) Total liabilities (EOY) Unrelated business income? Total contributions Program service revenue Investment income Comp. of current officers, directors, etc. Form 990
    2020 Jun Form 990 $3,464,716 $3,678,498 $2,617,894 $4,803,937 N $3,385,176 $0 $951 $111,127
    2019 Jun Form 990 $2,911,709 $3,676,632 $1,839,165 $3,810,244 N $2,831,357 $0 $3,042 $135,445 PDF
    2018 Jun Form 990 $3,391,613 $4,168,824 $1,951,102 $3,159,658 N $3,357,105 $0 $3,872 $378,699 PDF
    2017 Jun Form 990 $1,203,705 $1,907,199 $2,208,581 $2,636,885 N $1,184,232 $0 $1,058 $243,038 PDF
    2016 Dec Form 990 $2,926,223 $3,799,295 $2,171,249 $1,896,157 N $2,892,693 $0 $2,644 $339,662 PDF
    2015 Dec Form 990 $3,138,422 $4,223,134 $3,187,628 $2,041,308 N $3,113,736 $0 $7,838 $427,417 PDF
    2014 Dec Form 990 $3,361,528 $3,083,534 $3,949,115 $1,721,616 N $3,339,930 $0 $16,264 $168,610 PDF
    2013 Dec Form 990 $4,269,926 $3,667,100 $3,431,103 $1,481,173 N $4,179,355 $0 $9,793 $258,302 PDF
    2012 Dec Form 990 $4,914,821 $2,719,405 $2,538,509 $1,210,012 N $4,876,442 $0 $11,617 $135,261 PDF
    2011 Dec Form 990 $2,930,876 $3,037,725 $490,956 $1,376,801 N $2,887,422 $0 $11,641 $194,158 PDF
    2010 Dec Form 990 $2,892,465 $3,114,527 $521,072 $1,289,715 N $2,829,097 $0 $17,274 $692,246 PDF

    Additional Filings (PDFs)

    Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence

    840 1ST ST NE STE 400
    WASHINGTON, DC 20002-8040