Gun reform is one of the most polarizing issues in American culture, and one few brands have had the courage to take on. But when the Thousand Oaks shooting claimed 13 lives just miles from TOMS HQ, we felt a responsibility to do something.

TOMS pledged $5 million to organizations committed to ending gun violence, and our in-house team launched an integrated campaign to pass universal background checks in Congress. At the heart of the campaign was a tool on the TOMS website that enabled people to send a physical postcard to their Representative. And we got Jimmy Fallon to send the first one.

We activated in TOMS stores, on social, through collaborations with artists including Shepard Fairey, and at town hall events on a road trip from LA to DC. There, TOMS employees, partners, and hundreds of volunteers hand-delivered over 700K postcards to our elected officials on Capitol Hill. Shortly after, the bill HR8 was passed in the House—a historical first step towards making universal background checks law.