A campaign to support military families and veterans

Okay, I’m using my craigconnects thing to do a better job of standing up for stuff I believe in. Sure, I’m about to plunge in over my head even more than usual, and need to talk about that with you.  (We’re working on some way to do a good job of that.)

That’s to say this is not only to support others’ good efforts, but also how to learn to do it better and better.

So, I’m spending July helping to raise awareness and promote the efforts of people and groups who support military families and veterans, who really get the job done. (Hey, please focus on the “getting real stuff done” part; raising awareness, by itself, not so useful.)

My root motivation: help troops and their families, who, I feel, are willing to go somewhere and risk taking a bullet to protect me. Least I can do is help out this way. So, the deal is my first craigconnects campaign, month long, from June 28-July 31.

I’m trying to highlight the real impact of many veterans organizations out there. Key components of the craigconnects Veterans Campaign:

• $100k Grant Challenge Campaign – finalists:
  • Iraq & Afghanistan Veterans of America
  • The Intrepid Family of Foundation
  • Blue Star Families
  • Bob Woodruff Foundation
• Guest blogging on craigconnects.org from the grant challenge finalists and a lot of people doing work for military families and vets, particularly the Department of Veterans Affairs
• Social media promotion of the campaign and the competing vets organizations

This complements my existing DonorsChoose matching grants campaign that help schools which serve military families.

My efforts here are part of my craigconnects thing, not craigslist. The deal is that a lot of good people help military families and vets, and I bear witness to their efforts.

I want to emphasize that there are thousands of groups helping families of vets, what some folks call the “sea of goodwill.” (PDF)   Maybe I should dive in and help people reconcile the different resource tools for all these groups.

My team and I are working with the grant challenge finalists, will be working on building out their profiles on Guidestar, Charity Navigator and Great Nonprofits during the campaign. That will give folks out there a lot more transparency into these vets organizations.

Finally, this is the first of other future campaigns that will be launched for other areas cited on craigconnects.org.

I’d like to specially thank my team, including Jonathan Bernstein, Susan Nesbitt, Nora Rubinoff, Bruce Bonafede, and the folks at RAD Campaign, led by Allyson Kapin.