Friends of NRA—the fundraising program under The NRA Foundation established in 1992—funded more than 2,100 grants supporting youth shooting programs across the nation in 2023 alone. Total value came in at nearly $8 million.
Programs benefitting from the funds included 4-H, JROTC, Scouts, school clubs and teams and other youth shooting programs. From air rifle to smallbore rifle and trap/skeet/clay programs, the grants are helping our nation’s next generation of leaders to learn safe, responsible firearm handling.
Safety is a key focus, and the financial support provided by Friends of NRA has already allowed the programs to purchase more than 12,000 pairs of safety glasses, over 120,000 pairs of foam ear plugs, another 1,000 earmuff sets and nearly 200 trauma kits. The organizations also added 90 gun safes to their inventories.
Youth shooting programs were also able to bolster their firing-line training and fun with more than 400 new shotguns and 500 rimfire firearms through the grants. The funds also allowed the purchase of 7 million shotshells, 5.7 million rimfire rounds, nearly 200 reactive targets, more than 500 shooting mats and kneeling rolls and $700,000 in archery supplies.
The Piedmont Council Boy Scouts of America, based in Gastonia, NC, explained, “Without the NRA Foundation grant, our program this year would have been significantly scaled back. The impact of the grant goes beyond numbers. It positively affected the lives of our youth because we were able to run a successful shooting sports program. These young men and women learn responsibility as they worked to improve good sportsmanship, self-discipline, logic and concentration. They gained confidence and were trained in safe habits and attitudes, which will last a lifetime.”
Friends of NRA is a 100-percent grassroots effort dedicated to securing the Second Amendment and raising money for the shooting sports. Each year, volunteers across the country raise charitable dollars—and donors provide gifts—that are then awarded as grants in support of educational and public service programs relating to the shooting sports.
