A publication of Vietnam Veterans of America, Inc. ®
An organization chartered by the U.S. Congress
June 2000/July 2000
Vietnam Veterans Assistance Fund Report
The Annual Grant Request Review
A VVA Staff Report
On June 14 and 15 the VVAF Board of Directors gathered for the annual grant request review meeting. Thirty-four grant requests were submitted, with total requests of almost $900,000. As in the past, the grant proposals covered such areas as scholarships, oral histories, emergency assistance, and homelessness. However, only a few proposals were of top quality.
Ultimately, the VVAF board awarded five grants totaling $275,000. The majority went to VVA to support its Service Representative program. The directors felt strongly that while the purpose of VVAF is to disburse funds, they were not willing to fund grant proposals that were incomplete or insufficiently detailed. Several proposals should have gone to the VVA Veterans Benefits Department because they dealt with Service Representative issues.
The board expressed concern with the quality of the proposals and the failure of many applicants to follow the grant instructions. These items will be addressed in more detail in a future issue of The VVA Veteran. The board also will address the Conference of State Council Presidents at their January 2001 meeting and will discuss this problem at the Leadership Conference in August in the hope of soliciting more and better proposals next year.
The good news is that CFC pledges to VVAF increased almost 40 percent over last year. We have worked hard to improve the awareness of VVAF, and we thank all of you who participate in the CFC.
Again, as in the past, VVAF will contribute to its Reserve fund. This Reserve fund is intended to provide a constant source of funds should our fund-raising decrease.
The VVAF officers and directors thank all those who submitted grant proposals. The next VVAF grant cycle begins in January 2001.
Vietnam Veterans Assistance Fund (VVAF) is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization founded by Vietnam Veterans o f America in 1991. VVAF is organized and operated exclusively for scientific, charitable, and educational purposes. The major objectives are to assist disabled and needy veterans and the widows and orphans of veterans. VVAF is funded entirely from contributions from federal employees and members of the uniformed services who choose to support the organization through the Combined Federal Campaign (CFC), the federal government's workplace fund-raising drive. Federal emmployees may support the work of VVAF by designating 2115 on their CFC pledge form. Visit www.vvafund.org for details.
E-mail us at TheVeteran@vva.org