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BY MARC LEEPSON
Thirty years ago, a brash, new veterans’ service organization
was founded in Washington, D.C. Vietnam Veterans of America
quickly qualified as a 501(c) (19), the special, tax-exempt,
non-profit designation given by the IRS to organizations
made up of war veterans that have programs that help needy
and disabled veterans and their families and do community
service work. But soon after that, VVA added a new component,
the Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation, which was organized
as a 501 (c) (3).
“There was always a question about the fundraising
abilities of a c-19,” said Skip Roberts, who served
as VVAF’s executive director in the late 1980s. “All
the other veterans’ service organizations had foundations;
that’s how they raised funds outside of membership
dues. I don’t think any VSO can survive just on membership
dues.”
At first the Foundation was used, Roberts said, “as
a checking account mechanism to fund VVA.” Then, beginning
in August of 1987 when Bobby Muller stepped aside as VVA’s
first president and headed the VVAF, the Foundation began
making charitable contributions. That included providing
grants to homeless veterans’ programs and the Vets
Vote! program, which worked, Roberts said, “on voter
registration and other ways to get veterans involved in the
political process.”
The bulk of VVA’s operating
budget still was funneled through the Foundation. Most of
that income came from the VVA Household Goods Solicitation
Program (the thrift stores around the country associated
with VVA) and the Combined Federal Campaign, in which federal
government employees and members of the military contribute
to charities through payroll deductions.
The Assistance Fund Is Born
That situation lasted until 1990 when VVA and the Foundation
parted ways. The main bone of contention was control of the
Household Goods Program and the Combined Federal Campaign.
That year the Household Goods program ended its relationship
with the Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation (now known
as Veterans For America), and began working directly with
Vietnam Veterans of America.
The following year, VVA’s
Board of Directors established a new VVAF—the Vietnam
Veterans Assistance Fund—as
a separate but affiliated 501 (c) (3) charitable organization.
The Fund remains a vital part of VVA today. Aside from providing
money for VVA’s operations, the VVAF also has an important
humanitarian and education mission: to help veterans and
their families by awarding grants to organizations in three
main areas: outreach projects, benefits assistance, and housing
programs for the homeless. Since 2003, VVAF has provided
some $2 million in grants to some seventy charitable projects
in twenty-seven states across the nation. Back in 1991, the
Household Goods Program stayed with VVA, but a two-year legal
battle with the old VVAF ensued over which organization would
be the beneficiary of the Combined Federal Campaign funds.
VVA’s new Fund was able to get off the ground by soliciting “start-up
funds from VVA’s State Councils and chapters,” said
Joe Sternburg, VVAF’s long-time executive director, “but
the loss of CFC contributions was a devastating blow to those
who had worked so hard to get the organization off the ground.”
Finally,
in 1993, the Vietnam Veterans Assistance Fund received good
news. It took an act of Congress, but the Combined Federal
Campaign funds were once again directed to the Vietnam Veterans
Assistance Fund. It was an important victory and one that
allowed VVAF’s charitable work to expand significantly.
VVAF,
which has its offices today at VVA’s national
headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland, then began in earnest
to do its charitable work, as well as provide significant
financial assistance to VVA and to the VVA State Councils.
Helping
homeless veterans quickly became one of the Vietnam Veterans
Assistance Fund’s top charitable priorities.
In 1992, VVAF began funding non-profit organizations that
help homeless veterans and their families all around the
country. The first effort along those lines was supporting
an ambitious homeless veterans housing program in West Haven,
Connecticut, in cooperation with the VA’s Connecticut
Healthcare System and the Connecticut Department of Social
Services. That relationship continues to this day.
The other
early 1990s programs VVAF supported included helping to finance
a Symposium on Women Veterans and the Mass of Reconciliation
and Remembrance held in conjunction with the dedication of
the Vietnam Women’s Memorial; distributing
food to flood victims in Illinois, Iowa, and Missouri; and
supporting VVA’s nationwide network of hundreds of
paid and volunteer accredited veterans’ service representatives.
VVA service representatives help disabled veterans, without
charge, to obtain the government benefits to which they are
entitled.
Many charitable organizations have received VVAF
grants, including the Kenny Nickelson Memorial Foundation,
which runs homeless programs in California; the Minnesota
Council for Veterans, which administers transitional living
houses for homeless veterans; the Veterans Emergency Relief
Foundation in New York; and VVA’s own nationwide Veterans
Against Drugs program.
Funds also have gone to bush pilots who fly
into the Alaskan wilds to supply veterans who live in extreme
rural areas; to stand-downs in several states in which indigent
and homeless veterans and their families receive benefits
counseling, medical assistance, dental care, clothing, hot
showers, clothing, household supplies, and other basic essentials;
to mobile medical and dental facilities to provide services
to homeless veterans; to vocational training programs for
incarcerated veterans; to emergency relief funds that help
veterans and their families; to counseling and group therapy
services for veterans and family members affected by post-traumatic
stress disorder; and to therapeutic horseback riding and
trail riding programs for veterans and individuals with disabilities.
VVAF
grants also go to a wide array of community-service programs
across the country. These include endeavors such as educational
scholarships for veterans and their families; the Toys for
Tots program; student education about the Vietnam War; and
playgrounds for disabled children.
Changes Are Coming
VVAF today is more involved than ever in
fundraising. The Fund has relied heavily on the Combined
Federal Campaign contributions, and that funding stream has
diminished in recent years. “Over the years, those
funds have dwindled from a high of $700,000 a year down to
barely $300,000,” said
VVAF President Keith King.
In order to continue funding its
charitable endeavors and high-ticket items such as the VVA
Service Representative program, King said, the Fund needs
to find new sources of revenue. “In the past, fundraising
was not a priority,” he
said. “Today, we find ourselves in the position where
we must aggressively pursue fundraising or simply cut the
program donations.”
An in-depth study of the VVAF’s
fundraising options revealed that the organization’s
name itself had become an important factor in declining revenues. “The
words ‘Vietnam
veterans’ had become a hindrance,” King said. “The
fact is that today Vietnam veterans are in their sixties
and getting ready to retire, and there is a new generation
of warriors to take care of. Those who give to charities
want to make sure that the young veterans are being taken
care of.”
The upshot is that the Fund has come up with
a new name. Some time in 2009 the Vietnam Veterans Assistance
Fund will become known as the Veterans Support Foundation
(VSF). VVAF, in fact, already has begun the transition by
including the VSF name and logo on its new web site and printed
material, and by submitting the new name to the Combined
Federal Campaign. But while there may be a new name, the
mission remains the same.
VVAF leaders believe that the name change will spur
more Combined Federal Campaign donations. But they also are
working on other fundraising efforts. That includes the Michael
Manning National Veterans Program, a coin can collecting
endeavor that began last year in cooperation with the Benevolent
Protective Order of the Elks of the USA. “Thanks to
the leadership of the Elks, this program is now being rolled
out nationwide,” King
said. “We have also made this program available to
chapter and state councils to earn funds for themselves.”
Another
fundraiser was the publication last November of the commemorative
VVA book celebrating the 25th anniversary of the dedication
of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. “Most
of our members know about The Wall book, which we produced
with Boston Publishing,” King said. “It is an
outstanding publication, and we need every VVA and AVVA member
to buy two or three copies. Give them to your local library,
VA hospital, your family, and other veterans. This is an
important effort that will help fund and support our programs.”
With
a new name and with new sources of funding, VVA’s
leaders believe that the organization’s charitable
foundation will remain viable for many years.
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©2006-
2011, Vietnam Veterans of America. All Rights Reserved. 8719 Colesville Road, Suite 100, Silver Spring, MD 20910