We build life-saving evacuation technology for schools, places of worship, and community spaces — and support families impacted by gun violence.
Most communities have a plan on paper. Few have one for the next ninety seconds.
In an emergency, the difference between safety and tragedy is measured in seconds — not minutes. Most people don’t know where to go, which exit is safest, or who to listen to.
Schools and houses of worship were not designed for what they now have to prepare for. Families left behind carry the cost long after the news cycle moves on.
Seconds, not minutes.
Emergency outcomes in public spaces are often decided in the first ninety seconds — before professional responders can arrive on scene.
Plans on paper, not in practice.
Many schools and houses of worship have written emergency policies but have never rehearsed an evacuation for anything other than fire.
Community spaces, left out.
Most U.S. houses of worship, community centers, and gathering places lack the dedicated emergency guidance systems available to larger institutions.
Families, after the headlines.
Survivors and family members carry the long-term costs of public tragedy — and the support available to them often ends when the news cycle does.
We will publish sourced figures from independent research and government data here as our research partnerships come online.
A serious response to a problem we refuse to accept as normal.
Every Second Count exists to put life-saving tools and human support where they are needed most — in the everyday places where Americans live, learn, and worship.
Build technology that gets people out safely.
Open, accessible, audited tools that deliver real-time evacuation guidance to anyone inside a building during an emergency.
Stand with families for the long term.
Direct relief, counseling support, and community programs for the people whose lives are reshaped by gun violence.
Strengthen the spaces that hold communities together.
Practical preparedness for schools, places of worship, and gathering places — at no cost to the communities that need it most.
Quiet, dependable tools designed for the moments that matter most.
Our work focuses on three categories of life-saving technology — each developed with input from the communities that will use them, and reviewed by independent safety experts.
Real-time safety guidance
Tools that turn the spaces people are already in — phones, posted screens, classroom devices — into clear, calm instructions when seconds matter.
Safe evacuation pathways
Pre-mapped routes and exit guidance reviewed by school safety officers, first responders, and the people who know each building best.
Community safety technology
Practical, low-cost preparedness systems for houses of worship and community gathering spaces that have historically been left out.
The places that hold us together.
We prioritize the communities most often overlooked by commercial safety products — and we never charge them for the work we do.
Schools
Public, private, and after-school programs serving children and educators — especially under-resourced districts.
Places of Worship
Congregations of every tradition — churches, synagogues, mosques, temples, and gurdwaras — spaces that deserve to remain safe places of refuge.
Libraries, Centers & Gathering Places
Libraries, community centers, food pantries, and small venues — the everyday infrastructure of public life.
Every dollar supports one of five program areas.
Donations to Every Second Count are directed across five focused programs. To make a contribution, or ask where your support would go, please reach out to us directly.
Technology development
Engineering, accessibility audits, and security review for our evacuation guidance tools.
Pilot deployments
Putting safety technology into the hands of schools and places of worship at no cost to them.
Emergency preparedness resources
Training materials, drills, and printable guidance for staff and volunteers.
Family relief support
Direct assistance and long-term programs for families impacted by gun violence.
Community outreach
Listening sessions, partnerships, and on-the-ground program coordination.
Make a donation
Your contribution funds the five program areas listed here. To make a one-time or recurring gift, or to ask how your support would be directed, please contact us directly.
The work doesn’t end when the headlines do. It begins there.
— A founding board member, Every Second Count
For the families who carry this with them every day.
Technology can only do so much. The families we work with have told us what they need most — and we built our family support programs around their answers.
Direct family relief
Emergency funds for families in the immediate aftermath — without paperwork, without proving worthiness.
Counseling referrals
Connections to trauma-informed counselors and community mental-health partners, with long-term follow-up.
Survivor community
Spaces for families to be in conversation with one another — on their own terms, at their own pace.
Anniversary care
Long-term outreach in the months and years after, when the rest of the world has moved on.
Our commitments to you.
We hold ourselves to the standards we’d want any nonprofit holding our money to follow — and we publish them here so you can hold us to them.
Accountability commitments
Reviewed annuallyPrograms first.
We hold ourselves to a 90%+ programs-to-overhead ratio. Operations and fundraising stay lean.
Independent audit.
Our financials are reviewed annually by an independent third-party auditor and published in full.
Public 990 & annual report.
We publish our Form 990 filings and a plain-language annual report so anyone can review where the dollars go.
No surprise disclosures.
You shouldn't have to ask. We proactively publish program outcomes, deployment locations, and what we learned.
Open by default.
We publish what we build, how we test it, and who reviewed it. Our partner spaces always see our work first.
No data we don’t need.
We don’t collect personal information about the people our technology helps. Privacy is a safety feature.
Community-governed.
Our board includes educators, faith leaders, public-safety experts, and a survivor advisory council.
Tell us when we're wrong.
We invite partners and the public to challenge our work in the open, through a public feedback channel.
Help us put life-saving tools into the places that hold us together.
Every contribution, of any size, funds the work above — and lets us reach one more school, one more sanctuary, one more family. Thank you for standing with us.