The National Domestic Violence Fatality Review Initiative (NDVFRI) was an initiative funded through a $1,344,025 grant awarded by the Office on Violence Against Women, Office of Justice  Programs, U.S. Department of Justice.

Based at Baylor University from 2005 until April 2009, the NDVFRI was the first of its kind, creating a clearinghouse and resource center dedicated to domestic violence fatality review. Currently 30 states have some form of domestic violence fatality review. Nearly all of the remaining states have expressed interest in conducting reviews and receiving technical assistance to do so. Domestic violence fatality review requires a paradigm shift from a culture of blame to a culture of safety in which deaths are reviewed through a lens of preventive accountability. With vigor, trust, honesty, and candor, communities can establish reliable systems that value accountability and help prevent future death and injury from domestic violence.
Specifically, the Initiative focused on the following objectives:

1. Preventing domestic violence homicides and domestic violence in general,
2. Preserving the safety of battered women,
3. Holding accountable the perpetrators of domestic violence,
4. Identifying gaps in service delivery as well as ways to remedy these shortcomings among agencies and organizations, and
5. Providing technical assistance to the states developing and continuing their fatality review work.