NRA Revenue Plummets $130 Million From 2018

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The National Rifle Association’s total revenue have plummeted $130 million since 2018, according to a financial report obtained by The Reload.

The report, obtained from the group’s annual conference by The Reload’s Stephen Gutowski, revealed total revenue dropped $130 million from 2018 to a total of $283 million in 2021.

That’s down $47 million from 2020, and $100 million from 2017.

As The Reload notes, 2018 and 2020 were election years, though that doesn’t account for the big drop from 2017.

A drop in membership dues should come as particularly alarming for the NRA, one expert told The Reload:

“It just seems like a continuation of the trend,” Professor Brian Mittendorf, who teaches accounting at Ohio State University and has been following the NRA’s finances for years, told The Reload. “Perhaps a slowing, but a slowing had to happen. I mean, the declines have been pretty substantial.”

Mittendorf said the drop in membership dues is particularly concerning for the organization’s long-term prospects. He said the money raised by member dues, one of the organization’s biggest funding mechanisms, is “markedly different” from previous years.

Member dues fell more than $22 million in 2021, landing just north of $97 million. Dues were down over $30 million from 2017 and nearly $73 million from 2018.

The NRA has been plagued by disfunction and infighting for several years now. The gun rights group now faces an investigation into financial misconduct by the New York attorney general’s office.

The NRA held its annual conference in Houston, Texas last week, the same state where two days earlier an 18-year-old used an AR-15-style rifle to massacre 21 people, including 19 children, at an elementary school.