What Mary Ferrell Foundation does

The Mary Ferrell Foundation is a non-profit organization headquartered in Ipswich, Massachusetts, that maintains what it describes as the largest searchable electronic archive of declassified government documents related to the political assassinations of the 1960s, primarily the JFK assassination, with related collections on the MLK and RFK assassinations, Watergate, and intelligence-agency investigations. Its core product is a web-based document archive of over 2 million pages, fronted by specialized tools including the JFK Database Explorer (browsable metadata for 300,000+ records), the RIF Search system, the Mary Ferrell Database of names, the CIA Cryptonyms and Pseudonyms database, the Mary Ferrell Chronologies, and the Dealey Plaza Witness Database. Complementary archives cover essays, scholarly journals, digitized books, photographs, audio (including presidential recordings and witness interviews), and video, alongside the MFF Productions unit which produces original documentaries such as 'The Fourteen Minute Gap' and 'Withheld in Full: Morley v. CIA' distributed on YouTube. The foundation is also an active FOIA advocate, most visibly through its 2022 federal lawsuit seeking the release of JFK records.

Name

Mary Ferrell Foundation

Legal name

Mary Ferrell Foundation

Website

https://maryferrell.org

Company type

Private

Operating status

Operating

Short description

The Mary Ferrell Foundation is a non-profit that maintains the largest searchable electronic archive of declassified government documents related to the 1960s political assassinations, serving academic researchers, historians, journalists, students, and the general public through free online access and paid membership tiers.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Historical Document Archive

NAICS

Libraries and Archives (51921), Web Search Portals, Libraries, Archives, and Other Information Services (5192), Book Publishers (513130)

SIC

Services-Computer Programming, Data Processing, Etc. (7370), Books: Publishing Or Publishing & Printing (2731)

akta.pro primary industry

Digital Archives, Libraries & Institutional Access Platforms (MPAJAMAJ)

akta.pro secondary industries

Libraries, Archives & Special Collections (BPAGAHAF), Conference Proceedings & Research Reports Publishing (EDAGAFAL)

Keywords

• Historical document archive
• Declassified records database
• Digital archive platform
• Primary source research
• Scholarly research resources

Headquarters

HQ city

Ipswich

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Digital Commerce or Content

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Infrastructure, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Membership Fees - Supporting Member: Annual membership providing unlimited searches of the document archive. Priced at $34.95 per year.
2. Membership Fees - Pro Member: Annual membership providing unlimited searches and unlimited free PDF downloads. Priced at $79.95 per year.
3. Donations: The foundation accepts donations from supporters to fund operations and archive maintenance.
4. Institutional Memberships: Special membership tier for universities, libraries, and other organizations. Pricing available upon inquiry to [email protected].

Pricing tiers

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

Mary Ferrell Foundation operates a digital archive platform providing searchable access to over 2 million pages of declassified government documents, along with audio, video, photos, essays, journals, and books related to the 1960s assassinations (JFK, MLK, RFK) and their historical context. The platform includes specialized research databases such as the JFK Database Explorer (300,000+ record metadata), CIA Cryptonyms Database, Mary Ferrell Database, and the Dealey Plaza Witness Database, with annual memberships providing unlimited searches and PDF downloads.

Product overview

The Mary Ferrell Foundation operates a unified digital archive platform centered on its Document Archive—the largest searchable electronic repository of assassination-related records with over 2 million pages of declassified government documents. The platform includes specialized databases (JFK Database Explorer, CIA Cryptonyms Database, Mary Ferrell Database, Dealey Plaza Witness Database) for navigating and filtering records. Multimedia collections (Audio Archive, Video Archive, Photo Archive) provide access to recordings and footage. The MFF Productions division creates original documentaries. Essays, Journals, and Books collections offer contextual analysis. Two membership tiers (Supporting at $34.95/yr and Pro at $79.95/yr) provide enhanced access with unlimited searches and PDF downloads for Pro members.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Document Archive The MFF Document Archive is the largest searchable electronic archive of information relating to the assassinations of the 1960s and their larger historical context, including over 2 million pages of declassified government documents accessible via the RIF Search tool on maryferrell.org.
• JFK Database Explorer A web-based tool that allows users to browse, search, and filter metadata for over 300,000 records in the JFK Collection, including the ability to drill down by agency, constrain by date range, and view document metadata with direct links to available documents.
• MFF Productions Original short documentaries, video interviews with authors and experts, Unredacted audio interviews, and supporting video series including The Fourteen Minute Gap documentary and the Withheld in Full series.
• Audio Archive A digital collection of presidential recordings, taped interviews with assassination witnesses, and recorded interviews with authors and experts, presented as an online audio archive.
• Video Archive A portal to online video clips related to JFK, MLK, and RFK assassinations, including MFF's own unique productions and curated third-party content.
• Photo Archive Thousands of online photos from the JFK and RFK assassination investigations and the National Archives, plus JFK White House photos.
• Essays Collection An online portal of essays on the assassinations and related topics, hosted on MFF and aggregated from sites across the internet.
• Journals Collection Electronic copies of several prominent journals related to the JFK assassination, unlocked for reading and searching on the MFF platform.
• Books Collection Hundreds of digitized books searchable for names, words, and phrases, with some books having chapters unlocked for online reading.
• CIA Cryptonyms Database A searchable database that decodes and shares the meaning of CIA crypts assigned to organizations, individuals, and projects, accompanied by the CIA Pseudonyms and Aliases project.
• Mary Ferrell Database Mary Ferrell's vast database of names converted into a searchable web version, allowing users to look up individuals and entities relevant to the assassinations of the 1960s.
• Dealey Plaza Witness Database An interactive visual tool showing what witnesses said about the number and direction of shots during the JFK assassination.

Quantifiable outcome

• Over 2 million pages of declassified documents made accessible online
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers5 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature7 records

Partnerships

One partnership is on record.

• National Archives and Records Administration (NARA)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerNARA is the primary source of the declassified documents in the MFF Archive. The foundation receives JFK Collection documents from NARA, processes them, and integrates them into their online archive. MFF works with NARA to identify and address gaps in document releases and advocate for transparency.

Scale indicators6 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Emerging players

• JFK Lancer Productions & Publications: JFK Lancer is a niche research and conference organization focused on the JFK assassination. It overlaps with MFF in subject matter and audience (historians and researchers), and co-hosts the November in Dallas conference where MFF presents.
• Coalition on Political Assassinations (COPA): COPA is a non-profit research and educational organization focused on the political assassinations of the 1960s. It overlaps with MFF in mission and audience, hosts conferences attended by MFF leadership, and pursues overlapping FOIA advocacy goals.
• History-Matters.com: History-Matters.com hosts the Dealey Plaza Witness Database, which MFF prominently references and links to. It is a niche archival resource focused on JFK research and shares subject-matter overlap with MFF's specialized databases.

Broad incumbents

• Internet Archive: The Internet Archive is a large-scale non-profit digital library offering free public access to digitized materials including books, audio, video, and webpages. It serves a much broader mission than MFF but competes for the same audience of researchers seeking free historical document access.
• HathiTrust Digital Library: HathiTrust is a large-scale collaborative digital preservation repository serving academic and research libraries. It overlaps with MFF as a non-profit digital archive serving institutional research needs, though at far greater scale and broader scope.
• Digital Public Library of America (DPLA): DPLA is a large non-profit digital library aggregating content from U.S. libraries, archives, and museums. While much broader in scope than MFF, it serves similar institutional and academic audiences seeking free access to primary historical sources.
• ProQuest History Vault: ProQuest History Vault provides digitized archival collections to universities and libraries, including U.S. government records. It is a commercial incumbent offering institutional subscriptions that compete for the same university and library budget allocated to MFF's institutional memberships.

Direct peers

• National Security Archive: The National Security Archive (at George Washington University) is the most direct peer — it is a non-profit that collects and publishes declassified U.S. government documents obtained through FOIA. Like MFF, it operates as a digital archive, advocates for transparency, and serves researchers, journalists, and historians.
• Assassination Archives and Research Center (AARC): AARC is a non-profit research institute and library specializing in the political assassinations of the 1960s. It is one of the closest direct peers to MFF, operating a physical and digital archive of related documents and hosting conferences that MFF's president attends.

Others

• WikiLeaks: WikiLeaks is a non-profit transparency organization that publishes leaked government documents. While differing sharply in subject focus and methodology, it shares with MFF a mission around government document disclosure and serves an audience interested in declassified material.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xtwitter.com/InfoMferrell
• YouTubeyoutube.com/user/MFerrellFoundation
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/4189851

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Mary Ferrell Foundation