Charity’s Homefront Operations

Grass-roots groups raise millions to help members of the military

Soon after Sgt. Christopher M. Tomlinson left the springtime chill of his Army base in Kansas last year for

the blistering heat of Iraq, he called his mother with an unusual request: Could she send his unit some air conditioners to keep cool?

The answer was yes — 9,000 times over. His mother, Frankie Mayo, decided to start Operation AC, a charity in Bear, Del., that has helped scores of service members stay comfortable by sending more than 9,000 air conditioners to Iraq. The charity also sends plenty of other items that help troops cope with the hardships of war, from sorely needed combat boots to luxuries like inflatable pools, beef jerky, books, and Hot Tamales candy.

Even small items, like the flip-flops the charity sent in May, can make a big difference. When several male marines got hold of the brightly colored shoes intended for female troops, the men paraded around in them as if they were participating in a fashion show.

“You think, ‘Gosh, we made them laugh,’” says Ms. Mayo. “If you raise morale and you do something good for someone, that’s what it’s all about.”

Motivated by worries about a deployed family member or simply a desire to support the military, more than two dozen grass-roots charities, such as Operation AC, have formed in the wake of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and the ensuing conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq. The new groups have raised millions so far, largely through word of mouth and other informal fund-raising approaches.

In addition, several established charities, such as the Veterans of Foreign Wars and the USO, have started new programs to assist with military families’ emergencies, and help them stay in touch. So many charities are now trying to help the troops that the Defense Department in November started a Web site (http://www.americasupportsyou.mil) to help donors find the groups; more than 150 established and new groups are included on the list.

Filling a Void

Some charities say their efforts resemble the swell of support Americans gave the troops during World War II. They view their role as filling gaps that the government and other support groups affiliated with the military, such as the relief societies that offer service members emergency financial aid, don’t cover.

“We have tried to make our program broad enough so we can be there when they have exhausted every other opportunity and they have a legitimate need,” says Rufus L. Forrest Jr., an Air Force brigadier general who helps oversee the Veterans of Foreign Wars Foundation’s Unmet Needs Program, in Kansas City, Mo.

Other charity founders say the hostile way many Americans treated Vietnam War veterans plays a role in their desire to help this generation of soldiers feel appreciated.

However, officials at established charities question some of the newer groups’ ability to provide solid services without much experience, and some nonprofit leaders wonder if it is wise for numerous groups to be offering similar services. “When there are so many organizations that appear to be serving the same kinds of people and appear not to be coordinating, there does seem to be a missed opportunity,” says Diana Aviv, president of Independent Sector, a coalition of nonprofit groups and foundations in Washington.

‘Thrown Into Chaos’

The need for help now may be greater than in other recent conflicts because of the large number of Reserve troops deployed, repeated and lengthy deployments, and the scope of the war, say leaders of the new military charities. About 35 percent of the 150,000 American troops in Iraq are members of the National Guard and reserves — the largest deployment of Reserve troops since World War II — and U.S. Department of Defense studies have shown that about a third of Reserve troops take a pay cut when called to active duty.

As more and more Americans are sent to Iraq and elsewhere, the emotional and financial stress on families of military troops who might need additional child care or help with emergencies, such as car or home repairs, has grown, say some leaders of new charities. When a service member is wounded, family members face additional challenges, especially when they need to take time away from jobs to be with loved ones.

“When you are talking about yearlong deployments or unpredictable deployments, when you have no idea when your spouse is coming home, suddenly the family gets thrown into chaos,” says Meredith Leyva, founder of Operation Homefront, a charity in Santa Ana, Calif., that helps families of low-paid troops overseas with emergency expenses. “Finances get troublesome, the kids start to rebel, and it can get very lonely.”

The best help that groups like hers can provide, she says, is taking care of families of service members so that they are not distracted by domestic worries while on duty abroad.

Officials at charities such as the American Red Cross, in Washington, which has long helped military families connect in emergencies, seek financial assistance, and secure veterans’ benefits, are quick to voice support for the emerging charities.

However, the glut of new groups could be a hindrance to donors, says Eric K. Schuller, a senior policy adviser to Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn, of Illinois.

“We applaud everyone who wants to do this, but sometimes it can be overwhelming for someone who wants to write a check,” he says. “We are getting to a saturation point.”

Mr. Schuller helps get the word out about the Illinois Military Family Relief Fund, which was established in 2003 and raises money mainly through donations of income-tax refunds to help needy National Guard and Reserve families. Twenty-two states have started similar programs for military families, he says.

In addition, some older charities that work with the military point to their longevity as proof of their credibility with donors and question if some of the new groups will be around in 5 or 10 years to tell donors what their contributions accomplished. However, officials at many of the new charities say they don’t plan to close their organizations when the Iraq war ends, as the needs of families with a wounded soldier might continue indefinitely.

“There is a long-term role for our group,” says John A. Melia, who started the Wounded Warrior Project, in Roanoke, Va., which helps injured veterans with benefits and the readjustment to civilian life. “We are hoping these guys we helped today will come back and help the next generation of warriors.”

Carving Out a Role

Even though many established charities serve military families, officials at newer groups say they have a distinctive role to play.

New charities say they are helping a wider circle of clients, while established organizations often have more restrictions about who is eligible for aid. Also, new charities tend to provide outright gifts of cash, while relief societies, which are affiliated with every military branch, mostly offer interest-free loans.

In addition, new groups, because they often have volunteers available around the clock, can react to a crisis more quickly than an established group, which might be more wedded to bureaucracy and bankers’ hours, says Ms. Leyva, of Operation Homefront.

“We are more like the ambulance to the scene,” says Ms. Leyva, whose group has 32 chapters around the country. “The family-support offices, as well as the other nonprofits, are like the hospital itself — but you’ve got to deal with the immediate bleeding first.”

Some officials at established charities, however, say they also do all they can to speed help to those who need it.

“If someone walks into our office they can walk out with a check,” says John W. Alexander, a spokesman for the Navy-Marine Corps Relief Society, in Arlington, Va. What’s more, he says, the group makes it easy for people to find a staff member or a local Red Cross to help out if an emergency occurs after the organization’s offices have closed for the day. Leaders of new charities that help military families say that when they began their efforts a year or two ago, they did so because they saw no one else filling needs. But the creation of such groups has posed some challenges.

Several founders of the new charities have received e-mail messages from opponents of the war lambasting them or their charities. However, most charities try to make clear that their work is about helping troops and military families, not about supporting the Bush administration or the war in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“I do not make policy on Iraq, I just support the troops,” says Ms. Mayo of Operation AC. “If our soldiers were deployed to Mars, I would be sending them things to Mars.”

Beyond the emotional attacks and the hours they devote to charity work, the founders of the nonprofit groups often spend thousands of their own dollars getting their organizations started.

Susan Brewer, a former interior designer, sold her house in Texas and moved to Washington to start America’s Heroes of Freedom in April 2002 in response to the terrorist attacks of September 11.

She says she has spent $75,000 of her own money so far to start her group, which first organized an event for surviving family members of those killed in the attack on the Pentagon.

The charity now solicits donated goods and organizes events such as holiday parties for wounded soldiers and occasions when military personnel and their families receive free haircuts, manicures, and other beauty treatments — extras that the military does not cover.

“I’m a big gap-filler where the military cannot fund it,” says Ms. Brewer.

Officials at the U.S. Department of Defense say they appreciate the help charities provide.

“We want to do everything we can for the military, but we can’t do it all,” says Allison Barber, deputy assistant secretary of public affairs at the Pentagon. “We are counting on these organizations to come alongside our military members and help them out.”

(In late August, after the Chronicle went to press with this article, Ms. Brewer’s charity was barred from Walter Reed Army Medical Center after allegations that the group had exploited wounded service members for publicity purposes, charges Ms. Brewer denied. For more information, see this NBC4.com article.)

Joining Forces

Now that multiple charities have sprouted around the country, several have merged forces, and some are beginning to collaborate with one another, sharing information on the people they have helped.

For example, last fall the former commander of Walter Reed Army Medical Center, in Washington, arranged a lunch for officials of the nonprofit groups that help service members there. After the event, volunteers for Comfort for America’s Uniformed Services Elite, or Cause, began baking cookies for the USO of Metropolitan Washington’s events at Walter Reed, and the same USO donated 300 DVD’s to a digital library that Cause had created at the hospital, says Barbara Lau, one of the founders of Cause, in Herndon, Va.

The lunch “took the relationship from conversations to organizing events,” she says.

And Pat Kerr, the ombudsman for the Missouri Veterans Commission, in Jefferson City, organized a breakfast meeting in February for a handful of new charities, so officials could discuss how to help one another. She is planning a second meeting in Chicago in November.

Sharing information is critical to reducing fraud and getting needy people the maximum amount of help, says Dan Kurtenbach, who helped coordinate donors and aid as chairman of a committee that formed after the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995. Collaboration “reduces time to respond and get the issue addressed,” says Mr. Kurtenbach, now the president of Goodwill of Monocacy Valley, in Frederick, Md. “It eliminates the duplication of services, and it makes sure that whatever your clients’ needs are, they are going to be in front of as many resources as possible.”

The potential for fraud rises when charities are raising money for a cause that tugs strongly on emotions, such as helping the family of a wounded soldier, says Trent Stamp, executive director of Charity Navigator, a watchdog group in Mahwah, N.J. Such groups “get extra latitude in the public perception and get less scrutiny because they are brand-new and don’t have a track record to analyze.”

Leaders of many of the new charities say they are taking steps to demonstrate that they are using donations wisely.

Many of the groups provide help to clients just once and pay bills directly to the provider. USA Cares set up an internal database that lists grants to ensure recipients are only applying for the same needs once; its two caseworkers confirm that the families who seek aid are in the military, ask detailed questions about their needs, and follow up with clients after six months to keep track of their progress. But sometimes it is hard to verify every would-be client’s story, says Roger Stradley, the group’s founder: “You gotta believe.”

Still, some leaders of established charities question whether some new groups have the skills to help service members.

“Some of these other folks are well-intentioned and their hearts are in the right place, but they in many cases are not as well-equipped and as well-trained as we are,” says David E. Autry, a spokesman for Disabled American Veterans, in Cold Spring, Ky. “We are not trying to discourage them from doing it, as there are more vets out there than we can handle, so long as what they do does not wind up hurting the overall efforts of other vet services.”

Ms. Aviv, president of Independent Sector, applauds the generosity that drives the creation of the new charities, but questions their long-term viability.

“I suspect if the war in Iraq goes away, getting help for these groups is going to be very difficult,” she says. “Ask how many organizations lately have raised money for the tsunami. We tend to be very fickle in our compassion. We go from issue to issue.”

Planning for Peacetime

Despite potential management and fund-raising challenges, many groups have no plans to disband when the war ends, and some would even like to expand their reach.

For example, officials at Cause, which has raised about $100,000 to start the digital library at Walter Reed and provide other services, want to raise an additional $120,000 to install digital libraries at two more military medical hospitals. America’s Heroes of Freedom hopes to make the transition from an all-volunteer organization to paying several staff members next year.

And Operation Homefront is seeking a new executive director with fund-raising experience, to tap corporate giving and wealthy individuals for support.

Mike Cash, who started Operation Family Fund, in Ridgecrest, Calif., a charity that provides financial assistance to families of service members who were seriously wounded or killed in the Iraq war, predicts the war will last at least 10 years.

He hopes to raise $250-million, the amount of money that he estimates will be needed to help families who have lost income because of a service member’s injuries. So far the charity has raised $200,000. “Obviously we are way short of our goal,” says Mr. Cash. “The need is far greater than we can provide.”

Operation AC also plans to help at least as long as the Iraq war continues. After serving five years in the Army, Ms. Mayo’s son, Mr. Tomlinson, returned home to Delaware in July and now helps his mother with Operation AC. He says working with the charity takes the edge off the difficult decision to leave his platoon, which is now back in Iraq.

“This is my way of being there for them, so I can make sure they are going to be OK and get the best of what they need,” says Mr. Tomlinson, now 23.

While he and his fellow soldiers always appreciated getting goods from the charity, he says, the message of caring behind the shipments from his mother and other volunteers matters most.

“You feel like you have an undying faith back home that is making sure you are prayed and cared for,” he says. “You feel like you are part of someone else’s family you have never met.”

Ms. Mayo says the charity’s role has changed a bit — demand for air conditioners has slowed, she says, as the military has expanded the amount of permanent housing in Iraq. But the group still sends the troops plenty of other extras to make their time overseas more bearable, she says.

Says Ms. Mayo: “Until the last pair of American boots are out of Iraq, we’ll be here.”