How ODMP Uses Donations

We want you to know that your donations are well-spent and that they make a difference. As such, we are registered with Guidestar.org, the world’s largest source of information on non-profit organizations. You can read our charity profile here, see how donations are used, and get a better understanding of what ODMP does as an organization. Currently, just over 85% of donations go directly to supporting our mission and just under 15% is used for overhead and administration costs. We constantly work to keep that number low and to ensure that our first priority is, always, to remember the fallen.

We want people to feel confident that when they donate their hard-earned dollars to the Officer Down Memorial Page, those dollars are being used appropriately and in support of the mission. 

Donations to the Officer Down Memorial Page are currently used to: 

Right now, ODMP maintains Memorial & Reflection pages for more than 26,000 law enforcement officers. Annually, our site has about 9.6 million unique visitors who come to ODMP to learn more about line of duty deaths across the country, to pay their respects to the fallen, and to leave reflections for friends, loved ones, and even complete strangers who have made the ultimate sacrifice in service to the citizens of this nation. ODMP also maintains an extensive database of line of duty death statistics, and that information is used to study trends and patterns with the hopes of lowering annual line of duty deaths as a whole. 

ODMP sent out about 7.5 million LODD notifications in the last year alone -- nearly double the number from the previous year. Our notifications are available to our supporters via email, Facebook, Twitter, and on the ODMP Mobile App. In addition to Line of Duty Death notifications, we also send out monthly newsletters that feature an End of Watch Report honoring all the officers who died the previous month, as well as relevant news, updates, and events that we feel our supporters should know about.

ODMP provides the ODMP Mobile App free of charge. The Mobile App provides immediate LODD notifications and LODD mapping based on the user’s location, in addition to access to ODMP’s Memorial & Reflection pages. At ODMP, we make it a priority to invest in the latest technology to ensure that ODMP remains the go-to organization for memorializing officers online and providing accurate, real-time statistics.

ODMP staff and researchers uncovered more than 2,000 fallen law enforcement officers who have been forgotten through time, including the earliest known line of duty death in America which occurred in 1786. Donations cover expenses incurred by researchers, including subscriptions to historic document services and fees required by government agencies and libraries.

ODMP's No Parole for Cop Killers program tracks parole hearings for inmates convicted of killing law enforcement officers. No Parole enables citizens to send in letters to the appropriate parole boards across the country requesting that paroles are denied and cop killers are kept behind bars where they belong. In just the last 6 months, more than 10,000 letters have been generated by our No Parole program.

ODMP K9 honors those K9 officers who have died in the line of duty serving alongside America's law enforcement officers. These loyal companions have given their lives to ensure their handlers, fellow officers, and citizens stay safe. These four-legged officers deserve recognition for their sacrifices. ODMP K9 sends out LODD notifications for fallen K9 law enforcement officers and honors them with Memorial Pages that pay tribute to their service.

ODMP partners with the St. Michael's Shield project to provide ballistic vests to officers who are not issued this potentially life-saving equipment by their agencies, usually due to lack of funding. We work to raise awareness of this dire need and help the Armor of God project in their efforts to collect usable used vests and raise money to purchase new vests. ODMP also partners with Below100, an initiative with the aim of reducing preventable line of duty deaths and getting total annual LODDs to below 100 per year -- a number not reached since 1943. Below100 training is offered across the country to educate officers and agencies in how best to reduce preventable LODDs.