Organization Serving Military Families Exults After Big Cash Infusion From MacKenzie Scott

Operation Homefront/Kathleen Collins Wade

Among the charities benefiting from MacKenzie Scott’s latest series of big donations announced yesterday is Operation Homefront, which has been serving military families by providing them with financial assistance, housing and other services for 20 years. 

The organization, which will soon receive $20 million from Scott, the largest single gift in its history, is led by General John I. Pray, Jr., who retired from the Air Force after 27 years of service. Amounting to nearly half of the charity’s $46 million budget, the donation will be used to expand its services. And it’s a welcome infusion as the charity prepares next month to start a three-year fundraising campaign to raise $100 million. 

Operation Homefront currently serves more than 100,000 military families annually, but Gen. Pray and his colleagues want to offer additional help for more than 1.7 million American military members based overseas who will eventually come home. Service members often struggle in returning to the United States, he said.

“It is a national tragedy when we have military members who try to get back into their communities, but they have short-term financial troubles that turn into big problems,” said Gen. Pray. “They are now on the outside of the American dream looking in. We are trying to prevent that from happening.”

“There is probably not a word big enough to say how excited we are about this gift,” he added, referring to Scott’s largesse.

Margi Kirst, the charity’s lead fundraiser, said that when she and Gen. Pray were initially contacted by Scott’s representatives, she thought they were from a donor-advised fund. Operation Homefront, she said, is contacted about once a month from donor-advised funds whose contributors often choose to remain anonymous.

Kirst says that she was struck by the rigor of questions asked by Scott’s representatives and the fact that they had researched Operation Homefront beforehand. “It was impressive,” she said. 

The latest round of big gifts by Scott brings her total charitable giving to an estimated $12 billion. In her latest blog post released yesterday, Scott reiterated her philanthropic commitment to society’s most vulnerable groups and her belief that serving such people improves society for everyone. 

The military, noted Kirst, includes many people with multiple vulnerabilities related to their finances, race and other factors, including concern about loved ones left behind. “If the soldiers do not have to worry about their families back home,” she said, “they are better able to do their duty. That’s what we are all about.”

A common form of support provided by Operation Homefront, Kirst said, is three months’ worth of financial assistance coupled with training aimed at helping military families become responsible homeowners and renters. “We can get them into a better life instead of a financial crisis,” said Kirst. “We really do this very well, and maybe that is Ms. Scott’s opinion too.”