The Battle on the Home Front

Military charities' needs grow though fund raising is strong

By Denise Kersten Wills

Through years of war in Iraq and Afghanistan, Americans have stalwartly supported the troops and

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their families by giving to the charities that serve them.

"The American public has stayed with us through this conflict," says Steven Nardizzi, deputy executive director of operations at the Wounded Warrior Project, a Jacksonville, Fla., nonprofit organization that he helped establish in 2003.

The charity, which assists wounded military veterans in the transition to civilian life, has increased revenue substantially every year. In 2003, it earned $1.4-million, and last year its revenue was $19.3-million.

Many other charities report similar fund-raising success, despite the slowing economy and scrutiny by Congress and the news media prompted by a watchdog group's scathing report on the fund-raising and management practices of 26 large military and veterans' organizations. Longstanding charities have expanded their services, and new grass-roots organizations continue to sprout across the country, many filling gaps in the public and charitable safety net for military families.

Yet despite the public's generous outpouring, charity leaders do not expect to be able to meet all of those families' needs. With this month marking the fifth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, and the conflict in Afghanistan lasting for more than six years so far, the demand for services is immense and growing, especially in the areas of health care for wounded soldiers and financial and other assistance for reservists and National Guard members.

"We've seen a progressive demand for our services," says Michael Landers, deputy national executive director at the Armed Services YMCA, in Alexandria, Va., which serves military families. "We're just pushing the money out there as fast as we can."

Robust Support

Advocates say demand will probably remain very high for many decades. "We're looking at a very young population who have had their lives changed forever," says Michelle Joyner, director of communications at the National Military Family Association, also in Alexandria.

Smaller organizations are struggling to keep up. Peggy Baker says she didn't stop to think about how long the conflicts would last in 2004, when she founded Operation First Response, in Culpeper, Va., to help wounded soldiers and their families. Says Ms. Baker, "We're so busy all the time that we just try to keep going forward."

Most charities that serve soldiers, veterans, and their families have achieved spectacular growth in their donations. Among their accomplishments:

• The Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund, in New York, was able to collect $40-million in just nine months to build a state-of-the-art physical-rehabilitation facility for amputees, which opened in January 2007 at Brooke Army Medical Center, in Fort Sam Houston, Tex. Bill White, the fund's president, says the fund and its two affiliated nonprofit organizations were able to raise approximately $250-million over five years.

• The USO, which provides recreation and entertainment to soldiers, raised $56.8-million in 2007, up from $42.1-million the year before and $30.9-million in 2004. Most of the gifts are small sums raised through direct mail.

• The Fisher House Foundation, in Rockville, Md., which is affiliated with the Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund, topped $40-million in money raised last year. In 2003, the first year of the Iraq conflict, Fisher House, which does not employ a development director, brought in just under $7-million. The group builds lodging for wounded soldiers' families near military medical facilities. The charity hopes to spend $100-million on new buildings in the next four years.

• Homes for Our Troops, in Taunton, Mass., which provides accessible houses for severely injured veterans, raised $8-million in cash and donated products and services last year. Its revenue has doubled every year since its founding in 2004.

• The National Military Family Association raised approximately $6.3-million last year, up from $3.5-million in 2006.

Grass-Roots Growth

With donations so strong, scores of charities are now working to meet the needs of the troops and their families.

In 2005, 150 groups were listed as part of the Defense Department's America Supports You network, an online clearinghouse of military and veterans' charities. The network now lists approximately 350.

The organizations — both longstanding and brand-new charities — provide a range of assistance, like care packages for deployed troops, job placement for returning soldiers, and financial assistance for wounded veterans.

Approximately 12 of the network's organizations have shut down, and others have been absorbed by larger charities. But new groups keep cropping up, especially those that serve wounded service members, help veterans find employment, and support members of the National Guard and military Reserves.

"We get several applications from new groups each week," says Allison Barber, deputy assistant secretary of defense for public liaison, who created the program.

Leaders of the newer groups also say they have found plenty of needs that older charities weren't meeting.

Ginger Dosedel and Michele Cuppy started Sew Much Comfort, in Burnsville, Minn., in 2004 when they gathered 10 women to sew custom-made pants for injured service members who had to wear orthopedic devices and would otherwise have to live in hospital gowns during their physical rehabilitation. They expected to work on the project for about two months.

Last year, the group — which has developed into a network of more than 1,000 tailors across the country — distributed 30,000 pieces of clothing adapted for a variety of injuries. "There are so many needs out there," Ms. Dosedel says. "We're just trying to keep up."

Mike Cash, a program manager for the Navy, in China Lake, Calif., founded Operation Family Fund in 2003 after trying to find a charity through which he could donate $100 to the family of a wounded veteran. The groups he contacted provided loans, not grants.

"That was disconcerting," says Mr. Cash, who used several thousand dollars of his own money to start his charity. Working at night and on weekends, he and seven other volunteers have raised $1.3-million to help wounded veterans and their families cover living expenses.

Cutting Bureaucracy

Leaders of newer groups say they are able to respond faster to emergency situations and to adjust their offerings as needs change, because they have fewer layers of bureaucracy than do more established charities.

"We want to be as people-friendly as possible, so that people don't have to jump through hoops," says David Coker, president of the Fisher House Foundation.

He recalls speaking one evening with a woman whose husband had been wounded. She was trying to get to his bedside. "I said, 'You'll be on a flight in the morning,'" says Mr. Coker, whose group provides such clients with donated frequent-flier miles. "She was just astounded."

Still, observers say the proliferation of start-up organizations may be too much of a good thing.

"We love to see any group that wants to support families," says Kathleen Burke, director of development at the National Military Family Association. "There is, however, a question about the efficiency of having that many people doing redundant work."

Some of the newer organizations do not have a clear understanding of where the real needs are, Ms. Burke says. Many, for example, are starting college scholarship funds for children of soldiers killed in action. "The groups that already offer that are doing very well," she says, "and Congress enacted legislation to provide educational benefits."

The surge in charities serving young veterans "correlates directly to the urgency of the war itself," says Nancy Berglass, a consultant for the Iraq and Afghanistan Deployment Impact Fund.

Run by the California Community Foundation, in Los Angeles, the fund has given more than $143-million to military and veterans' groups, and offers guidance and management help to fledging charities.

"I suspect, over time, those that are excellent will sustain," says Ms. Berglass. "Those that are not will fade away, close shop when they're not needed, or merge with larger organizations."

In the meantime, though, she sees a benefit to the growing number of groups.

"We know that some veterans are fading into the woodwork," she says. "At least there are lots of folks out there trying to hold out that safety net. It's not effective, but the compassion component is a good start."

Health Care

But neither compassion nor fund-raising success may be enough to help charities meet all of the pressing needs of military veterans.

"I could give you a multibillion-dollar list of unmet needs," says Mr. White, of the Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund. "That's not going to be funded by [the Department of Veterans Affairs], it's not going to be funded by [the Defense Department], and it's definitely not being raised by the American people within the philanthropic organizations we know about."

Health care is among the biggest concerns, Mr. White says, especially treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury, a condition caused by mortar attacks and roadside bombs. Advocates say soldiers are coming home with high rates of both conditions, which often require continuing care.

Government Aid

Paul Rieckhoff, an Iraq veteran and founder of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, a nonprofit advocacy and support organization in New York, says fund raising can be challenging because the public often overestimates the benefits that members of the military receive.

"Most folks think that when you get home from war, you can go to school for free," Mr. Rieckhoff says.

Today the typical veteran receives an average of $6,000 a year in college tuition, which is not enough to foot the annual bill at many institutions.

Similarly, while the government does offer grants to help wounded veterans pay to adapt their housing to accommodate their handicaps, the maximum amount is $50,000 for the most severely wounded, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs.

"What the government gives is good up to a point, but it just doesn't get you there," says Tom Benoit, chief financial officer of Homes for Our Troops.

According to his research, the maximum grant in 1974 covered 69 percent of the average new-home price. In 2006, it covered just 16 percent, Mr. Benoit says — enough to install a wheelchair ramp or perhaps adapt a kitchen, but not to remake an entire home for a severely injured veteran.

As a result, Mr. Benoit says, some veterans cannot go upstairs in their own homes; some are confined to a single room.

Homes for Our Troops does not advertise its services, he says, because it does not want to raise false hopes. The group already has a waiting list of about 25 veterans, and homes cost an average of $250,000 to build.

Challenges Ahead

The nature of the requests for help that charities receive has changed as the Iraq and Afghanistan wars have dragged on, says Meredith Leyva, founder of Operation Homefront, a group in Santa Ana, Calif., that provides emergency assistance to such families.

"When we first started out, we had a lot of car repairs and minor household repairs," she says. "As people have had their third or fourth deployment, we're now dealing with six months of utility bills or other major issues."

Reservists and members of the National Guard are especially vulnerable. They usually take pay cuts from their regular jobs during deployments, and their families don't have access to the resources offered on military installations.

"They're isolated, they have no support network, and many folks are struggling financially," says Ms. Berglass, consultant to the Iraq and Afghanistan Deployment Fund.

Preventing burnout among volunteers and charity employees is another concern, says Joseph Bobrow, a clinical psychologist who founded the Coming Home Project, which provides Iraq and Afghanistan veterans and their families with counseling and other support.

At an annual America Supports You summit, Mr. Bobrow led a session on dealing with such burnout. However, he notes, the organizations that participated did not seem to have taken significant steps to prevent burnout among their employees and volunteers.

"We get very tired because we listen to some very, very tragic cases," says Ms. Baker of Operation First Response. "On the other hand, it empowers us, because you've got to find a way to help."

Public Opinion

While public support for military and veterans' groups has been strong thus far, some worry that that could change.

"This is a long war, and it's been in the public eye for a long time," Ms. Joyner says. "We're concerned that when there is reduced troop activity overseas or public opinion shifts, that the public still understands that military families are going to have needs for years to come."

In addition, leaders of veterans charities note, even when U.S. forces are not engaged in combat, there are troops deployed to countries across the globe, and injuries from training and other accidents.

"There are 50 multiple amputations that have nothing to do with war every year," says Mr. White, of the Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund. "Unfortunately, we're always going to be in business."