Military Experience Is Less Common These Days, But These Funders Are Staying True to Veterans

For many ordinary Americans, Veterans Day may now seem like a way of honoring a past that has little to do with them. After all, it’s been 50 years since the draft was used as a means of recruiting. The U.S. Armed Forces last issued a final draft call in 1972, for the Vietnam War, and moved to an all-volunteer force in 1973.

The demographics reflect that. Almost 10% of the U.S. population served in World War II, but active forces now represent just one-half of a percent of the total population. A 2020 U.S. Census report shows that the number of citizens who’ve served has declined by a third in the past two decades, from 28 million to 18 million. Fewer than 1% of the 16 million Americans who served in World War II are still alive.

But military service is hardly a thing of the past, and significant forces remain in harm’s way. Between 2 and 3 million Americans have been deployed to war zones since 9/11. Nearly a third suffer traumatic brain injuries and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Almost 2 million return with some kind of disability.

In philanthropy, funders who support vets are often those who’ve served themselves, or whose family members have served. Given the demographics, that doesn’t bode well for the future. As time marches on, the kind of first-hand knowledge that engenders understanding and empathy is receding.

The military mindset has always included a belief in the “next man up,” a mindset that moves missions forward. So far, that call has been met by a group of loyal and resilient funders, including individual donors, private foundations and corporate funders that serve veterans and their families.

This year, as combat erupts across multiple theaters, post-World War II borders are challenged, and democracy itself continues to be threatened, the hope is that the cost of serving may resonate with a broader slice of Americans — and galvanize more philanthropic funders to stand behind the people who stand up and serve.

Here’s an overview of how key philanthropic backers backed veterans this year, including job training, child care and deploying new tactics to combat invisible wounds like PTSD.

Craig Newmark

Craig Newmark, the founder of Craigslist, has long made helping veterans and military families a priority. He’s also a key — and relatively rare — example of a major donor for veterans who hasn’t served himself. Recently, Craig Newmark Philanthropies (CNP) pledged to boost its existing $42 million in support to $100 million.

Grants will be directed to a “broad coalition of organizations” working on behalf of veterans, service members, their families and caregivers in ways that seek to complement government efforts and fill gaps. Beyond direct support for health and wellbeing, CNP will also help build community-based networks to drive collective advocacy for high-quality care and resources.

So far, the primary recipients of the millions CNP has already granted for veterans are two organizations: Blue Star Families, a community-builder for military families, and the Bob Woodruff Foundation (BWF). BWF was founded in 2006 after reporter Bob Woodruff was wounded by a roadside bomb while covering the war in Iraq. The experience gave him an up-close look at the soldiers and medics who saved him, and the way the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) administers healthcare. Today, BWF provides services for veterans on issues including mental healthcare, housing and service-connected fertility issues. Both Blue Star Families and the Bob Woodruff Foundation help CNP fund national, regional and local partner organizations working for veterans and their families.

To date, $82 million of Newmark’s $100 million pledge has been allocated. New grants around food insecurity include UCLA Meals Partnership Program and Citymeals on Wheels in New York. Housing insecurity grantees include Insight Housing in Berkeley and Bastion Community of Resilience in New Orleans.

Newmark considers his support part of protecting democracy, an overarching goal of much of his philanthropy, and one that has drawn targeted investments of $250 million so far. Asked what drives his dedication to vets and military families, Newmark has said it’s grounded in a deep appreciation of how much “active service members, vets and their families sacrifice for us, to defend us all.”

Said Newmark, “Our Constitution calls for supporting the common defense, but military service today is all but common, with only 1% of the population serving. There is a strong relationship between an all-volunteer force and a strong democracy. My mission is to fund the organizations that are best at helping our veterans and their families. And to then get out of the way. It’s not hyperbole these days to say our democracy is at stake.”

Bob and Renee Parsons

Another stalwart supporter of veterans’ causes also stepped up again this year. After nearly washing out of high school, the GoDaddy and Parsons Xtreme Golf entrepreneur Bob Parsons did a tour of duty in Vietnam. Wounded in action, he earned a Purple Heart and developed a lifelong commitment to helping other vets face the often invisible scars that follow them home.

From 2022 through 2023, the Bob and Renee Parsons Foundation invested more than $22 million in veterans’ causes. That includes a quarter-million dollars in general operating support to the Armed Services YMCA Camp Pendleton, with an additional $312,000 to support childcare vouchers there. Another $10 million went to Semper Fi and America’s Fund, again in the form of general operating support. And $1 million went to Team Rubicon, a veteran-led humanitarian organization that puts the knowledge and skills vets learn during their service to use in disaster relief efforts, in this case, the Maui wildfires.

Parsons experienced PTSD after his service and brings a personal perspective to the reported $8 million he’s invested in another relevant area: funding research for psychedelic therapies. He credits his wife with connecting him to the treatments, which he said helped him “come home” 50 years after serving in Vietnam.

Finally, for a dozen years now, the Bob and Renee Parsons Foundation has partnered with Parsons Xtreme Golf on a “Double Down for Veterans” matching campaign that benefits Semper Fi & America’s Fund. Should the $10 million match for this year be realized by year’s end, the total raised to date will reach $100 million.

Steven Cohen

Steve Cohen, the hedge fund billionaire and owner of the New York Mets, has been a long and loyal supporter of veterans’ causes, driven by close family ties to military service. Cohen’s father served in the Pacific in World War II, and his son did a tour in Afghanistan with the Marine Corps.

The centerpiece of Cohen’s commitment was a 2016 commitment of $275 million to the Cohen Veterans Network, which he chairs, to build 25 Steven A. Cohen Military Family Clinics across the country. The clinics provide mental healthcare to post-9/11 veterans and their families. In 2023, new clinics opened in Los Angeles and Oklahoma City, bringing the total to 24 across 15 states.

Since the first clinics opened their doors, they have provided more than a half-million clinical sessions to more than 60,000 clients. Telehealth services in eight states have also delivered nearly 300,000 sessions to date.

New network initiatives include an online training program called “Caring for Our Diverse Military Population,” which recognizes the ongoing shift in demographics among service members, 43% of whom now come from minority backgrounds. The support also covers research collaborations and virtual tools to alleviate stressors for military families.

Finding new therapies

Separately, in June, the Steven & Alexandra Cohen Foundation announced a $5 million grant to the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies to advance the approval process for using assisted therapy in treating PTSD, and level up access to treatment for medically underserved communities.

Improving access to mental health services for veterans has been a focus area for the foundation that Alexandra Cohen inspired and founded with her husband, Steve, in 2001, along with equity-based initiatives in child healthcare, food insecurity, the environment, the arts and furthering medical research.

Alexandra Cohen, who is the foundation’s president, feels that “psychedelic compounds represent a new opportunity to address often treatment-resistance conditions,” like PTSD, that adversely impact the “quality of life for millions of Americans,” including veterans and first responders.

The foundation’s funding toward psychedelic treatments for veteran mental health totals $31 million, and includes a $2.1 million gift in 2021 to support a study on MDMA-assisted therapies at Mount Sinai’s Center for Psychedelic Psychotherapy and Trauma Research. Another $2.4 million grant went to the Greater Los Angeles VA in 2022 to fund a clinical trial to treat vets with severe PTSD. And a $1.3 million grant went to the Psychedelics and Health Research Initiative (PHRI) at UC San Diego in 2021 to back research into an acute and often overlooked condition facing veterans: phantom limb pain.

Support for scholarships

Supporting vets through education has been an important lever dating back to the GI Bill of Rights. The popular program for returning World War II service members was tapped by nearly half of all vets, and is widely credited for opening doors to a college education historically reserved for the elite. By 1947, WWII vets accounted for almost half of all college admissions. By 1950, the number of U.S. college graduates had swelled by 300,000 people.

Scholarships are still a regular feature in philanthropy supporting vets. Two such recent commitments aim at supporting veterans pursuing business degrees and STEM studies.

Fred Smith is a Marine Corps vet who went on to a successful business career after his service, including leadership roles at FedEx, where he still serves as executive chairman. Like many others who’ve served, Smith credits his achievements to the experience he gained in the Marines above all else — and that includes his Yale education.

Smith was a financial backer of the 2022 film “Devotion,” which tells the story of two U.S. Navy fighter pilots who served during the Korean War — one of whom, Jesse Brown, was among the first Black Navy pilots. Smith helped greenlight the project to show how people can come together “as King famously said, by the content of their character, not ethnicity.”

Smith structured part of the film’s proceeds to go to the Marine Corps Scholarship Foundation, with which the family has worked in the past. Specifically, funds will endow the Brown Hudner Navy Scholarship Foundation, which will help the children of service members pursue degrees in STEM subjects.

As the film continues to stream, proceeds could add up to more than $65 million. According to IMDbPro, it has already grossed more than $20 million at the domestic box office since its release, and roughly $21 million worldwide.

Smith sees the gift a way of paying his “dues to the corps” and his country. “I hope it produces a lot of engineers and scientists and mathematicians, and people who are doctors and researchers,” he said — all skillsets he sees as lagging in the U.S.

Meanwhile, veterans’ entry to the business world got a major boost from New York University Stern School of Business alumnus and executive board member Kenneth Langone and his wife, Elaine.

Their $25 million testamentary gift will fund scholarships at the school’s Langone Part-time MBA Program, which was created in the Langones’ name following a $10 million gift in 1999. Designed for working professionals who want to get ahead, the program features highly flexible time horizons and can be accessed on weeknights, weekends and online.

Langone said the gift is part of an effort to “pay it forward” to students from working-class families like the one he grew up in, who are willing to work hard to “make their mark in the world.”

Corporations step up

As IP has highlighted before, companies that employ vets, or have high levels of engagement with the military community, are also loyal supporters of veterans’ causes.

The financial services company USAA has long had a vested interest in the wellbeing of veterans and their families. Its core business looks after veterans’ financial interests, and approximately 1 in 4 of its 35,000 employees are either veterans or military spouses.

In 2014, the USAA Foundation fully aligned its philanthropic focus with veterans’ causes, funding programs that help returning vets gain employment and overcome housing insecurity, and others that promote military family resiliency. USAA CEO Wayne Peacock said that standing with the military community is part of the company’s 100-year legacy, one that compels engagement with whatever challenges service members may face, including difficult ones.

In July of this year, USAA and the USAA Foundation launched an initiative that helps shine a light into a dark corner. The suicide rates for vets are more than 57% higher than for non-vet adults, peaking at almost 40,000 in 2018.

The $41 million initiative, called “Face the Fight,” got off the ground with a $10 million commitment from USAA and the USAA Foundation, along with a three-year, $6 million commitment from the Humana Foundation and a five-year, $25 million commitment from Reach Resilience. Work is intended to complement the efforts of the VA and the Department of Defense. Funding focuses on helping to break stigmas, expand suicide prevention and training, and strengthen the “pipeline” of qualified clinicians who work with vets.

Since the announcement, the USAA-led initiative has expanded to more than 50 members, which include corporations, foundations, nonprofits and veteran-focused organizations. Its latest round of $7.5 million in grants went to 14 nonprofits combatting suicide among veterans, including a Vets4Warriors program that provides round-the-clock peer support to veterans living in places with higher suicide rates, and the Overwatch Project, which battles against a suicide count of 20 vets each day.

Other corporate donors include the Ford Fund and the Ford Motor Company, which also joined forces to support vets through a combination of 17 vehicle donations, employee volunteerism and $2.5 million from the fund. The support went to Team Rubicon’s Ready Reserve Fund, deploying military know-how to disaster recovery efforts around the world.

Another corporate stalwart, Home Depot, has long and deep ties to the military community through nearly half of its associates. Its veterans’ funding supports secure, safe and affordable housing, mortgage-free smart homes, critical repairs, and work to combat homelessness.

In May, the Home Depot Foundation announced grants totaling nearly $15 million to boost supportive housing and disaster preparedness. Ten million dollars will fund the construction of more than 750 units of supported housing for vets through partners like U.S. Vets and the Housing Assistance Council.

In September, the foundation also announced $6 million in skills training investments that include a partnership with Bunker Labs’ eight-week entrepreneur program, and a Path to Pro scholarship program for separated service members. All told, the foundation has put nearly a half-billion dollars toward veterans causes since 2011.

A final example is Google. Its main means of support for veterans has been helping the estimated 200,000 service members who transition to civilian life each year translate the skills they gained during service to employment in the private sector through career training and grants from Google.org.

Since 2022, Google.org has broadened that to supporting veterans’ mental health through the social enterprise organization ReflexAI, which has previously helped build crisis service capacity for organizations like the Trevor Project.

Google.org invested $1.5 million to pursue using AI-powered tools to help veterans support each other on matters of mental health and to combat growing suicide rates. The resulting free, public-facing platform Home Team was designed with veterans, for veterans. More than 600 former service members were involved in its creation, along with veterans organizations like the Purple Heart Foundation and Irreverent Warriors, which uses humor and camaraderie to heal. Features include education modules on priority topics and “flight training” on peer-to-peer communication.

Foundation backing

Several private foundations also made notable commitments to veterans this year.

In June, the Lilly Endowment announced a three-year, $5 million grant to support the Military Family Research Institute (MFRI) at Purdue University. It includes $3.5 million in direct funding and another $1.5 million in matching funds.

MRFI will support military families by creating system linkages between military and civilian organizations, and increase the understanding of how veterans’ families operate and their transition to civilian life. Since 2007, the Lilly Endowment has approved eight grants totaling $39 million to Purdue for MFRI research.

The Lilly Endowment has also made other grants to organizations that support veterans and active-duty military service members and their families. Many are focused on the endowment’s home state of Indiana, such as the Hoosier Veterans Assistance Fund. Purdue’s MFRI work also has national reach, as do its grants to organizations like Caring for Military Families/Elizabeth Dole Foundation, which supports and empowers military caregivers. In 2021, the endowment granted the organization $450,000 to support research on caregivers, building upon an earlier half-million-dollar grant made in 2013.

Situated in Seattle, the Schultz Family Foundation represents a different model of engagement in veterans’ affairs. Howard Schultz, the former chairman of Starbucks, traces his funding interest back to conversations with former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, who once served on the company’s board. Gates often talked about his father’s return to nothing but low-wage laborer jobs after serving in the U.S. Army during WWII.

Since 2014, the foundation has consistently made supporting vets an impact area within its overarching goal of providing access to opportunity. To date, it has invested more than $60 million in veterans’ programs. In 2021, its focus transitioned from post-9/11 vets to the subpopulation of veterans with the worst transitional outcomes: junior enlisted service members between the ages of 18 and 24. Nearly half are people of color, and only 20% have jobs lined up before transition.

The support includes recent investments of more than $4 million to improve employment outcomes for young veterans through a primary partner, the United States Service Organization (USO) Pathfinder Transition program.

After seed funding a master data system used by USO to help smooth veterans’ post-service transition, the foundation is now supporting its ability to increase the number of junior enlisted veterans entering USO’s training programs and boost the technology that streamlines registration, analyzes data and connects its community of stakeholders.

The foundation also backed a number of organizations that help the USO program integrate public service programming and public sector partners, including Hire Heroes, which works in career readiness, and Hesperus, the sole national veterans service organization that specifically supports Native American vets.

Sheri K. Schultz, co-founder of the Schultz Family Foundation, credits “the hard work of its partners” with the increases the foundation has seen in Pathfinder program capacity, which has “more than tripled engagement with junior enlisted clients,” jumping from 2,300 in 2020 to more than 7,300 at the end of 2022. The “young veterans who have selflessly served our country too often experience hardships upon their return,” she said, but with the right support, “there’s no limit to what they can achieve.”

Finally, as covered previously in IP, the Rockefeller Foundation also backed vets this year by including them in its food insecurity work to create access to healthy food.

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