Talmage Cooley

In 1995, Cooley founded The Gun Violence Project, a non-profit organization with the mission to reposition the gun violence issue as an urgent matter of public health rather than the seemingly intractable political wedge issue it had become.[1] In 1996, The Gun Violence Project, in collaboration with The Creative Coalition, created its first campaign (voice-over by Alec Baldwin), which focused on the dangers of kids taking their parents' guns to school. In 1997 The Gun Violence Project became PAX .

By 2000, PAX had become the largest non-lobbying organization working on gun violence prevention as a result of the success and rapid expansion of its ASK[8] and SPEAK UP campaigns. As a result of this success, PAX was invited to become a founding member of the organizing committee for the Million Mom March on the Washington Mall in 2000, and the ASK Campaign was the lead anti-gun violence program promoted by the march due to its family focused message directed at parents.[9] Still active, the ASK (Asking Saves Kids) Campaign leverages partnerships with over 400 national and grassroots organizations that promote the ASK message, driven by the fact that almost 40% of homes with children have a gun, and almost half those guns are either unlocked or loaded. The message to parents is "ASK your neighbors about guns before you send your kids over to play. It's not about politics, it's about common sense parenting.".[10] The SPEAK UP program created a national hotline for young people to anonymously report weapon related threats in their schools and neighborhoods, and has received over 40,000 calls since inception.[11]

Cooley directed commercials for the ASK and SPEAK UP campaigns, with voice-over by Julianne Moore, Alec Baldwin and Susan Sarandon. These campaigns pioneered a new approach to the gun violence issue, designed to have immediate impact on the frequency of gun deaths and injuries while also shifting the national dialogue around guns to a prevention-driven, public health and safety orientation. This innovative, non-partisan approach to gun violence prevention represented a stark contrast to the politics-based framing which had dominated the issue for many years without significant success.[12][13]

In 2011, PAX officially changed its name to The Center to Prevent Youth Violence[14] to better reflect the youth and family focus of its prevention driven campaigns. Cooley resigned as co-CEO of The Center to Prevent Youth Violence in 2004 but remained on the organization's Board of Trustees until its merger with the Brady Center in 2012. By 2018, the ASK and SPEAK UP campaigns had been active for over 18 years, and remain the leading public health and safety campaigns dedicated to gun violence prevention in the US, with over 19 million Americans signing the ASK Pledge (www.askingsaveskids.org) and over 31 million parents reporting that they ask their neighbors about guns where their kids play from a pre-campaign baseline of 3 million parents.[13]

In October 2017, the Harvard School of Public Health and the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a report on the effectiveness of 16 firearm storage awareness programs, ultimately finding the "ASK" program to be the only gun safety program that has been independently evaluated and found to be effective. The report, entitled "Personal Firearms: Programs that Promote Safe Storage and Research on their Effectiveness," was prepared over a two-year period in response to a request by the Congressional HELP (Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions) Committee.[15] The report evaluated 16 programs, both regional and national, that are aimed at spreading awareness of the importance of safe storage of firearms. The ASK campaign was found to be the only verifiably effective program out of the 16 programs. Jim Accomando, president of The National PTA, said "Child and school safety starts at home. When families store their guns responsibly, they're much less likely to end up in schools and tragedies are less likely to occur. National PTA is proud to support the ASK campaign to help prevent gun-related incidents and keep children safe."[16]

In 2012, Cooley founded Democracy.com while attending the Harvard Kennedy School's MPA master's degree program. The company launched its first generation site in 2014, which connected candidates and civic organizations with citizen supporters.[7] The site was awarded "Best Technology Innovation" by the American Association of Political Consultants, "Best Fundraising Platform" by Campaign and Elections Magazine and "Top Campaign and Organizing Tool" by Campaign Workshop.[17][18] The company's site achieved over 30% month on month growth and reached over a million users. Democracy.com was acquired by Mark Cuban in late 2019.[19][20] Since 2010, Cooley has led Fervent Strategy, a social impact consultancy advising social justice organizations, universities, foundations and non-profits.[19]