Our History

In the twenty-seven years since Ploughshares Fund was founded, we have made grants totaling nearly $60 million to hundreds of people and organizations around the world. Ploughshares Fund was founded in 1981 by San Francisco philanthropist and activist Sally Lilienthal. Her ability to draw people in and motivate them to act fueled the organization's early growth.  Under Sally’s guidance, Ploughshares Fund made grants whose impact far exceeded their size.  An early grant enabled scientists at the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Soviet Academy of Scientists to prove that a nuclear test ban could be verified and removed one of the last hurdles standing in the way of a test ban treaty.  Ploughshares Fund was one of the original and most consistent funders of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, which garnered a global treaty in record time, and the Nobel Peace Prize for its advocates.

Naila Bolus joined Ploughshares Fund in 1997 as executive director and has overseen the expansion of the Fund's grantmaking capacity and its role as a convenor of the peace and security community.  In 2008, recognizing the unique political opportunities that were unfolding to achieve Sally’s original vision of a world without nuclear weapons, the Board of Directors appointed Joseph Cirincione as Ploughshares Fund’s president, tasked with leading the organization’s expansion and elevating its profile and policy impact.