REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS
Gun Violence Prevention Research, 2024
The Fund for a Safer Future, a fiscally sponsored project of Global Impact, is pleased to announce this request for proposals to support research that will help answer the question: What works to prevent firearm-related death, injury, harm, trauma, and to promote healing?
Background
Firearm deaths and injuries and their toll on communities continue to be a significant and growing public health problem in the United States. Based on CDC data, every year, over 44,000 people in the United States are killed by guns and nearly 97,000 more are shot and wounded. We are increasingly confronted with the widespread and long-term trauma this issue is having on our nation’s emotional and mental health. And the CDC has found widening racial and ethnic disparities in firearm injury and death, with the greatest increase among racially minoritized groups.
The Fund for a Safer Future is a donor collaborative committed to achieving and implementing effective public policies and practices to reduce firearm-related harms including fatal and nonfatal assault, intentional self-inflicted, legal intervention, and unintentional shootings. The Fund supports local, state, and national-level projects to inform and advance evidence-based policy reform.
The Fund is announcing this competitive funding opportunity for academic institutions, researchers, and nonprofits to support projects that will inform the policy and practice of gun violence prevention and response effectiveness. The goal is for grant recipients to produce applied research that can advance the development and/or implementation of gun violence prevention, mitigation, or intervention policies or strategies within three years.
Previous recipients of a research grant from the Fund for a Safer Future are available on the Fund’s website here and here. For this 2024 RFP, we expect to support research grants totaling at least $1.1 million.
Grant Awards
The Fund will support projects with a total budget of between $25,000 and $250,000 that will result in peer-reviewed, published articles by grant recipients within three years. Note: research funded by the Fund for a Safer Future and appearing in peer-reviewed journal publications must be made freely and immediately available for all.
Eligibility
Institutions of higher education, individuals associated with institutions of higher education, and non-profit organizations (including but not limited to community-based organizations, civic groups, think tanks, or direct service organizations) are eligible to apply. We encourage partnerships that bring together diverse stakeholders, particularly those that operate locally.
Please note that primary investigators who currently have an active grant from the Fund for a Safer Future are not invited to apply. There is no restriction on applications from affiliated institutions or researchers.
Research Priorities
The Fund welcomes applied or policy research proposals that inform effective prevention, mitigation, intervention, and response to all forms of gun violence and its comprehensive impact on communities.
We support research across these main areas of interest, and in topics that cut across multiple areas, including suicide and suicidal ideation, homicide and assault, intimate partner violence and homicide, unintentional shootings, use of lethal force by law enforcement, issues that particularly impact rural communities, and the trauma to individuals and communities that results from these events.
We are particularly interested in projects that directly engage communities most impacted by gun violence and center the voices of survivors and of communities with high burdens of firearm violence, including through Participatory Action Research (PAR) or other appropriate methodologies and through projects that compensate participants for their partnership and expertise.
We encourage submissions in traditional areas of public health and criminal justice as well as in other equally critical areas essential to violence prevention. These can include communications and media, economics, legal scholarship, clinician training and involvement, historical perspectives, multidisciplinary partnerships across these domains, and more.
The Fund welcomes projects using a broad range of methodologies or a mix of approaches: qualitative, quantitative, evaluations, cost/benefit, case research, comparative analyses, and more.
Dissemination of findings is a critical component of this research project. The Fund is looking for findings from this research to be published both in open-access academic journals and in broader, accessible channels. This could include, but is not limited to, activities such as public talks in impacted communities, presentations to community organizations, editorials to media outlets, technical reports to collaborating partners, and other efforts to share the research with stakeholders relevant to the proposed research.
How to Apply
Applicants should submit a brief letter of intent (LOI)—maximum of 4 pages single-spaced including budget)—no later than June 21, 2024, via an online portal, Zengine, linked here.
The LOI should address the following questions:
- Summary: What question(s) will the project seek to answer? How will it build on and differ from existing knowledge on this topic?
- Outcomes: What are the expected impacts for this project? For example:
- How will the project advance the field of gun violence prevention or intervention?
- How will the project seek to understand solutions for gun violence prevention among communities and groups most affected by this problem?
- Methodology: What is the proposed research methodology/ies? If engaging communities or groups directly affected by this gun violence, what is your approach to centering their perspectives in your methodology?
- Experience: What are the qualifications and experience of the proposed research team?
- Equity: How will the project incorporate an equity lens into the analysis?
- Timeline: What is the expected completion date?
- Budget: What is the budget for the project? For the LOI, we expect a brief (under one-page, to be counted as part of the 4-page LOI) budget only listing major budget categories (personnel; non-personnel such as stipends for participants, indirect, etc.).
- Dissemination plan: How will you disseminate the results and to whom? Who will be responsible for this dissemination?
- Funding sources: Are there other funders for this project? Do you have any proposals pending or do you plan to submit other proposals to support all or a portion of the project?
- Capacity building: How will the project diversify the pool of researchers working in the field of gun violence prevention?
Hyperlinks are allowed and there is no specific formatting required.
LOIs will be reviewed by a research advisory committee on the following basis:
| CRITERIA | WEIGHT (%) |
| Summary | 15% |
| Outcomes | 15% |
| Methodology | 15% |
| Experience | 10% |
| Equity | 10% |
| Timeline | 5% |
| Budget | 5% |
| Dissemination plan | 15% |
| Funding sources | 5% |
| Capacity building | 5% |
| Total | 100% |
Respondents may submit questions to the Fund for a Safer Future and Global Impact by June 5, 2024. Global Impact will disseminate responses to questions by June 11, 2024.
Responses to questions are available for download, linked here.
Selected applicants will be invited to submit full proposals. Note that the project budgets may include up to, but no more than, 10% in indirect costs. It is expected projects will commence on or before January 1, 2025, and be completed within three years.
Full Proposals
Applicants will receive a response to their LOIs by July 12, 2024, with full proposals due no later than August 16, 2024, and grants announced in late October. Full proposals will require:
- Project narrative (up to 10 pages, single spaced, exclusive of references);
- Description of the organization, including its background, purpose, objectives, and experience in the area for which funds are sought;
- Itemized project budget with narrative We recognize there are costs associated with the requirement to make peer-reviewed research publications Open Access, typically $2,000–$5,000 per manuscript. Accordingly, these costs can be included in the budget, as well as any additional costs related to broad dissemination.;
- Names and qualifications of people involved in the project;
- Board member titles and contact information;
- Organizational expenses and income for previous, current, and coming fiscal year;
- Most recent audited financial statements;
- Internal Revenue Service Form 990 for the most recently completed fiscal year; and
- Internal Revenue Service verification that the organization is a 501(c)(3) tax exempt organization and qualifies as a public charity as defined in IRS Code section509 (a)(1), (2), or (3). or W9 if the applying organization is not a 501(c)(3) entity.
Contact Information
Letters of intent should be submitted electronically via Zengine. Click this link or copy and paste the URL to be taken to the submission portal: https://webportalapp.com/sp/login/2024research.
Please contact Megan Hophan at info@fundforasaferfuture.org with any questions about the RFP.
Date issued: May 22, 2024.