by The NRA Foundation has decided they needed to weigh in on the NRA’s reorganization. According to a news release posted Tuesday in The Tactical Wire, they said they wanted to clarify their “independence” from the NRA.
From the release:
Amid recent news about the National Rifle Association’s (NRA) restructuring announcement, the NRA Foundation today reaffirmed its independence, stability, and continued focus on its charitable mission.
“The NRA Foundation is an independent, nonprofit public charity with its own staff leadership, legal structure, board of trustees, and mission,” said Tom King, President of the NRA Foundation. “While the NRA undergoes its internal restructuring, the Foundation’s work continues uninterrupted. We remain focused on preserving America’s shooting and hunting traditions for future generations.”
The NRA Foundation is not part of the NRA’s organizational or financial structure. Its role is educational, charitable, and safety-focused – not political or advocacy-driven.
When the NRA Foundation revised their bylaws after their consent decree with the DC Attorney General the way that Foundation trustees were elected was changed in August 2024. It should be noted that the consent decree did not mandate a change in the method of election of trustees. Previously, the trustees of the NRA Foundation were elected by the NRA Board of Directors. They are now elected by the trustees themselves. If this sounds a little self-selecting and incestuous that is because it is.
More troubling is that the overwhelming majority of the trustees are from what I term the Old Guard. You have your Cottons, your Kings, your Coys, and many others from their camp on the Board. It’s as if a conscious decision was made, somewhere, sometime, by the Old Guard that if they could not remain in power at the NRA then the Foundation would become their new locus of power. I and others find this disturbing.
The Articles of Incorporation of the NRA Foundation, as amended, state that among other things they are to support the 501(c)(3) activities of the National Rifle Association. Neither the 2024 amendment to the Articles of Incorporation nor the bylaws adopted in July 2025 changed that.
I really question the need for the NRA Foundation to release any statement regarding the reorganization going on at the NRA. First, it does not impact them in any way. Second, it only serves to muddy the issues. Third, it seems a conscious effort to denigrate the leadership and management of the NRA at a time when they are cleaning up the mess left behind by the self-same Old Guard. It is as if the powers that be at the Foundation are just hoping for failure which I find utterly disgusting.
Self-perpetuating boards are quite common in the corporate world.
So, what legal leverage do we have? Can this be taken to Judge Cohen to reopen the case and note that “Team Wayne traded NRA for NRA Foundation and are running the same scam under new name”?
The Foundation is a separate legal entity and officially incorporated in Washington, DC. A New York judge can’t just insert himself and say that he’s taking control of management issues of a group outside of his jurisdiction and legally separate from the entity in a case he was previously handling.
The Foundation has already been subject to a lawsuit for mismanagement, and the settlement on that is part of why the NRA Board now has no more oversight over the Foundation Board which continues to raise money in NRA’s name & tell people they are “helping” the NRA.
My gut is that to make it painful for reformers, King & Crew will engage in malicious compliance to read that separation to an extreme. Paired with what Jeff Knox says he is hearing they are telling donors, it sounds like they are willing to burn down anything they don’t control.
FWIW, after the the statement came out, I hit up Tom King’s StrongNRA allies who are on X and asked if they stand by his statement and actions since they ran alongside him and presumably did so because they share at least some views on necessary action and strategy in management of NRA & related work. Not a single one will respond. Funny how people run on platitudes of answering to members, but a 20+ year highly involved NRA life member asks them to clarify the positions and they all avoid it.
So maybe they need to be hit with another lawsuit for mismanagement. Either that or completely amputated like a gangrenous limb even though it means loss of lease revenue.
They have to answer to somebody, somehow, I can’t imagine any way it legally stands that an org’s directors are only accountable to the rest of their board.
The consent decree with the DC’s Attorney General did not say anything about changing the way the Foundation’s trustees were selected. It mandated things like an audit committee, board training, a conflict of interest policy, and required the NRA to submit written grant requests.
As best as I can tell, the Foundation and its trustees took it upon their initiative to change their bylaws and the way that trustees were selected.
So it sounds like a Foundation donor would be the only one with standing to sue.
Is it known how many employees Foundation has spun off from NRA? I left the org about 5 years ago but my job was one in which I worked for all of the nra related organizations. I was paid by NRA and did not bill my hours worked for NRAF, CDRF, WC, ect. I don’t think anyone was actually employed by NRAF or were their salary reimbursed by NRAF.