Nonprofits serve veterans in a variety of ways. If you’re looking for ways to support veterans, here are several veterans organizations to check out!
Veterans’ Day–which began in the year 1919 as Armistice Day, a celebration of peace in commemoration of the end of World War I–provides an annual opportunity for Americans to support the members of their community who have served in the military.
Nonprofit organizations serve veterans in a variety of ways - including organizations that provide services to veterans and their families, advocacy organizations fighting for causes important to veterans, and organizations run by veterans to give back to their communities. If you’re looking for ways to support veterans this month, here are several veterans-focused organizations to check out!
Robert Irvine is a world-class chef and entrepreneur, and tireless philanthropic supporter of our nation’s military. The Robert Irvine Foundation supports and strengthens the physical and mental well-being of our service members, veterans, first responders, and their families. They provide these heroes with life-changing opportunities that unlock the potential in their personal and professional lives through food, wellness, community, and financial support.
Some of their key initiatives include serving thousands of hearty meals to service members and veterans, matching service dogs with their forever heroes that struggle with invisible wounds, providing high-tech mobility devices to injured veterans to improve their quality of life, hosting resiliency events for family members of fallen heroes to bond and build a peer network, providing scholarships to children of military families to alleviate financial stress, and distributing holidays grants to Gold Star Families to spread cheer, and disaster & relief grants to heroes in need of urgent help. These a just a few of the many ways the Robert Irvine Foundation is supporting our veterans, service members, Gold Star Families, first responders, and their loved ones.
Team Rubicon is a veteran-led humanitarian organization that serves global communities before, during, and after disasters and crises. Team Rubicon’s mission is providing relief to those affected by disaster or crises, no matter when or where they strike. By pairing the skills and experiences of military veterans with first responders, medical professionals, and technology solutions, Team Rubicon aims to provide the greatest service and impact possible. Through continued service, Team Rubicon seeks to provide our veterans with three things they lose after leaving the military: a purpose, gained through disaster relief; community, built by serving with others; and identity, from recognizing the impact one individual can make. Coupled with leadership development and other opportunities, Team Rubicon looks to help veterans transition from military to civilian life.
Determined to end veteran suicide, K9s For Warriors provides highly-trained Service Dogs to military veterans suffering from PTSD, traumatic brain injury and/or military sexual trauma. With the majority of dogs coming from high-kill rescue shelters, this innovative program allows the K9/Warrior team to build an unwavering bond that facilitates their collective healing and recovery. This program is backed by scientific research and empowers veterans who fought for our freedom to live a life of dignity and independence. Graduates of the program are able to live a life that they previously did not think was possible. Many have reunited with their families, gone back to school, found renewed enjoyment in life, and significantly reduced their medications.
Disabled American Veterans (DAV) is a nonprofit charity that provides a lifetime of support for veterans of all generations and their families, helping more than 1 million veterans in positive, life-changing ways each year. Last year, the organization provided more than 163,000 rides to veterans attending medical appointments and assisted in filing over 151,000 claims for benefits. In 2021, DAV-represented veterans received more than $25 billion in earned benefits. DAV’s services are offered at no cost to all generations of veterans, their families and survivors.
DAV is also a leader in connecting veterans with meaningful employment, hosting job fairs and providing resources to ensure they have the opportunity to participate in the American Dream their sacrifices have made possible. With over 1,200 chapters and more than 1 million members across the country, DAV empowers our nation’s heroes and their families by helping to provide the resources they need and ensuring our nation keeps the promises made to them.
Veterans For Peace is a global organization of Military Veterans and allies whose collective efforts are to build a culture of peace by using their experiences and lifting the voices of veterans. They inform the public of the true causes of war and the enormous costs of wars, with an obligation to heal the wounds of wars. Their network is comprised of over 140 chapters worldwide whose work includes: educating the public, advocating for a dismantling of the war economy, providing services that assist veterans and victims of war, and most significantly, working to end all wars.
About Face: Veterans Against the War is an organization of post-9/11 service members and veterans organizing to end a foreign policy of permanent war and the use of military weapons, tactics, and values in communities across the country. As people intimately familiar with the inner workings of the world’s largest military, they use their knowledge and experiences to expose the truth about these conflicts overseas and the growing militarization of our communities here at home. Originally formed in 2004 as Iraq Veterans Against the War and deeply informed by Vietnam Veterans Against the War, they are part of a legacy of service members organizing against the wars that they served in. They believe that taking action in solidarity with all people impacted by wars abroad and at home is critical to realizing our vision of a world free of militarism.
The Fisher House Foundation builds comfort homes where military & veteran families can stay free of charge, while a loved one is in the hospital. These homes are located at military and VA medical centers around the world. Since inception, the program has saved military and veterans’ families an estimated $547 million in out-of-pocket costs for lodging and transportation.
Fisher House Foundation also operates the Hero Miles program, using donated frequent flyer miles to bring family members to the bedside of injured service members as well as the Hotels for Heroes program using donated hotel points to allow family members to stay at hotels near medical centers without charge. The Foundation also manages a grant program that supports other charities and scholarship funds for military children, spouses, and children of fallen and disabled veterans.
Wounded Warrior Project (WWP) began in 2003 as a small, grassroots effort providing simple care and comfort items to the hospital bedsides of the first wounded service members returning home from the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. As their post-service needs evolved, so have WWP’s programs and services. Today, through their direct programs in mental health, career counseling, and long-term rehabilitative care, along with their advocacy efforts, they improve the lives of millions of warriors and their families.
The Veterans Legal Institute (VLI) is among the only non-profit public interest law firms in the nation dedicated exclusively to the legal needs of current and former military members. VLI provides pro bono legal assistance to homeless, at risk, disabled and low income current and former service members to eradicate barriers to housing, healthcare, education, and employment and foster self-sufficiency. VLI’s staff hopes to empower clients in achieving a greater measure of self-sufficiency, and with that, to experience the lives they deserve.
Common Defense is the largest grassroots membership organization of progressive veterans standing up for our communities against the rising tide of racism, hate, and violence. First founded in 2016 as a grassroots effort led by veterans who opposed Trump’s corrupt agenda of hate, they are committed to organizing a multi-racial, multi-generational, inclusive movement that empowers all veterans – a movement that fully represents the diversity of the veteran community. Common Defense is the country’s largest veteran-led grassroots organization committed to engaging, organizing, training and mobilizing veterans to elect accountable leaders and promote progressive values.
Paralyzed Veterans of America, a congressionally chartered veterans service organization founded in 1946, has developed a unique expertise on a wide variety of issues involving the special needs of our members – veterans of the armed forces who have experienced spinal cord injury or dysfunction. PVA was originally founded by a band of service members who came home from World War II with spinal cord injuries. They returned to a grateful nation, but also to a world with few solutions to the major challenges they faced. They created Paralyzed Veterans of America, an organization dedicated to serving veterans—and to medical research, advocacy and civil rights for all people with disabilities.Since then, Paralyzed Veterans of America has been on a mission to change lives and build brighter futures for our seriously injured heroes. We’ve had a single-minded mission—to empower our brave men and women to regain what they fought for: their freedom and independence.
Protect Our Defenders is the pre-eminent national human rights organization dedicated to ending sexual violence, victim retaliation, misogyny, sexual prejudice, and racism in the military and combating a culture that has allowed it to persist. Protect Our Defenders provides free legal and other assistance for military sexual assault survivors, including active-duty service members, veterans, and civilians. They seek reform to ensure all service members are provided a safe and respectful work environment free from misogyny and racism, and have access to a fair, impartially administered system of justice. Protect Our Defenders deploys a multifaceted effort towards reform. Every day, through policy reform, advocacy, public education, and pro bono support, they work to provide those who serve in our military a safe and respectful environment free from harassment and abuse, and to create a justice system that can fairly and effectively adjudicate these crimes.
Glass Soldier is a duty bound and data driven nonprofit organization dedicated to the elimination of Sexual Assault in the Military, ending the epidemic of rape and sexual trauma in the armed forces and combating a culture of pervasive misogyny, sexual harassment, and retribution against victims. This veteran-led organization is challenging the powers that be and building solutions that make a positive impact for survivors. Seeking to reform a broken system to ensure all survivors and service members are provided a safe, respectful work environment and have access to a fair, impartially administered system of justice.
Homes For Our Troops (HFOT) is a publicly funded 501(c) (3) nonprofit organization that builds and donates specially adapted custom homes nationwide for severely injured post-9/11 Veterans, to enable them to rebuild their lives. Most of these Veterans have sustained injuries including multiple limb amputations, partial or full paralysis, and/or severe traumatic brain injury. Since its inception in 2004, nearly 90 cents out of every dollar spent has gone directly to our program services for Veterans. HFOT builds these homes where the Veteran chooses to live, and continues its relationship with the Veterans after home delivery to assist them with rebuilding their lives.
Hope For The Warriors believes those touched by military service can succeed at home by restoring their sense of self, family, and hope. Nationally, Hope For The Warriors provides comprehensive support programs for service members, veterans, and military families that are focused on transition, health and wellness, peer engagement, and connections to community resources. They believe in a holistic approach to well-being and understand that many factors impact a service member’s life—family, community, employment, and countless others. As such, their programs take a 360° approach to service, promoting whole-person wellness for each service member we support. Through three program areas—Transition Services, Clinical Health & Wellness, and Sports & Recreation—they help service members and military families on their journey to wellness and a successful transition to civilian life.
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