On Friday, November 14th, Mark Baumgartner — Executive Director and Founder of A Moment of Hope — shot a bystander outside the parking lot of our Planned Parenthood in Columbia, South Carolina.

For more than a decade, he and his organization have created a hostile and dangerous environment at this clinic. Every day, they harass people seeking essential healthcare services, including cancer screenings, birth control, annual exams, and, at times, abortion care. They have been verbally and physically aggressive with clinic greeters and patients for years without consequences.

On Friday, Mark crossed a line when he shot an unarmed man. This level of violence cannot be tolerated. Midlands Gives must end their partnership with A Moment of Hope immediately.

Mark and his employees raise the vast majority of their funding through Midlands Gives, where they are consistently one of the top-funded organizations. Mark pays himself and his wife a six-figure salary — in 2024, their combined compensation accounted for nearly 30% of the organization’s total expenses. Another 40% went toward paying their employees, known as “sidewalk counselors.”

Why does this matter? Because 70% of the funds they receive are used to pay individuals like Mark to stand outside Planned Parenthood—apparently armed—while harassing people accessing their legally protected healthcare. Mark is not the only employee who openly carries a weapon; at least one other staff member now regularly brings a gun as well.

We are insisting that A Moment of Hope be permanently banned from participating in Midlands Gives, and that no organization affiliated with Mark Baumgartner be allowed to participate in the future.