[2] Ploughshares Fund enables individual contributors to pool resources and provide support for initiatives[3] to prevent the spread and use of nuclear weapons.

With over $100 million awarded in grants since its founding in 1981, Ploughshares Fund is the largest US philanthropic foundation focused exclusively on nuclear weapons.

[4] Concerned about the world's burgeoning nuclear arsenals, San Francisco philanthropist and activist Sally Lilienthal founded the organization in 1981.

Since it was founded, Ploughshares has made grants totaling nearly $100 million to hundreds of people and organizations around the world.

[6] In 2008, the Board of Directors appointed Joseph Cirincione as Ploughshares Fund's president, the same year that the organization opened an office in Washington, DC.