• Assets: $27,941,369 (2005)
• Grants Received: $5,500,248 (2005)
• Grants Awarded: $4,091,070 (2005)

Established in 1981 by Sally Lilienthal, the Ploughshares Fund describes itself as "a public grantmaking foundation that supports initiatives to prevent the spread and use of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons and other weapons of war, and to prevent conflicts that could lead to the use of weapons of mass destruction." It also opposes America's development of a missile defense system. 

According to its website, between 1981 and 2005 Ploughshares made grants totaling more than $40 million, "to become the largest grantmaking foundation in the U.S. focusing exclusively on peace and security issues." In 2004-2005 Ploughshares made 123 grants totaling $4,071,669. A self-defined "venture funder," Ploughshares specializes in "giving start-up funding to promising new endeavors, and then helping to leverage more substantial support from other sources."

A member organization of the Peace and Security Funders Group, the Ploughshares Fund contributes to many organizations that are highly critical of American foreign policies and military ventures. Among these are the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace; the U.S. Campaign to Ban Land Mines; the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation; Citizens for Environmental Justice; Back from the Brink; Peace Action; Women's Action for New Directions; Nonviolent Peaceforce; the Natural Resources Defense Council; EcoDefense; Fund for Peace; Independent Media Institute; the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom; the Institute for Policy Studies; the International Crisis Group; the Lawyers' Committee on Nuclear Policy; Physicians for Social Responsibility; Win Without War; the Union of Concerned Scientists; September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows; the Nation Institute; the National Security Archive; Physicians for Human Rights; and Global Green USA.

In 2004 the Ploughshares Fund placed Michael Douglas, a high-profile Hollywood actor, on its Board of Directors. The Executive Director of the Ploughshares Fund is Naila Bolus, a former Co-Director of the environmentalist and anti-war group 20/20 Vision, and a co-founder of WiLL, the Women Legislators' Lobby whose goal is to "persuade Congress to redirect excessive military spending toward unmet human and environmental needs."

The Ploughshares Fund is supported by donations from approximately 2,000 individuals annually and a small number of foundations. Among its benefactors are the Buffett Foundation; the Compton Foundation; the Carnegie Corporation of New York; the Ford Foundation; the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation; the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation; the Minneapolis Foundation; the Prospect Hill Foundation; the Rockefeller Brothers Fund; the Rockefeller Foundation the Scherman Foundation; George Soros’s Open Society Institute; and the Turner Foundation.