Because the Battle Doesn't End on the Battlefield

Over the past few months, we have been working to gain the support necessary to provide our services to veterans that need to get away from things that may have followed them home from the battlefield. We have created a GoFundMe page that has seen very little activity and we have received a number of commitments that have simply never materialized. I continue to explore various fundraising opportunities and push for the support necessary to maintain our operations as we submit our application to the IRS for 501c3 non-profit approval. We currently have no paid employees and all donations received go to the organization, yet most of our operating expenses still come from the pockets of myself and one of our board members.

As I ponder where I can improve our efforts and why we are struggling to gain the support we need, I begin to realize that many people may not understand what it is that we do and what our overall goal for the organization is. Since this is our first year and the obstacles that we have to overcome are plenty, my expectation for support was pretty low. However, I will admit that I had hoped we could achieve donations to exceed $10,000 by the end of the year to cover basic operating and maintenance costs. Since our start in February, we have received less than $2,750 in monetary support.

Although we have made a few trips with our veterans, the real potential of the organization has yet to be seen. One of our goals is to provide jobs for disabled veterans, working within the organization as charter captains, first mates and repair technicians. It will take us some time to get there, because this can only be done with outside support. However, this is not our greatest goal, which is more aligned as our purpose.

Our purpose is to provide a recreational outlet for our veterans that have experienced physical and emotional trauma due to military service, regardless of what branch of service they have served in. We also provide our services regardless of the approach taken to military service, whether it be active duty, Rese