9/11 was just the second day of high school for me at a new school and a day I’ll never forget as a native New Yorker. I still remember the smell that lingered over Manhattan for what seemed like months. But in the wake of the attacks in New York City and Washington, D.C., philanthropy stepped up.
At the time, the philanthropic response was so immense that the American Red Cross and September 11th Fund issued public statements saying that they did not wish to receive more money. Yet, approximately $500 million made it to these two organizations by June 2002, according to a Ford Foundation report.
Another anniversary of the 9/11 attacks is also a prime moment to remember veterans funding. Our Grantfinder page for Veterans and Military tracks philanthropies aiming to serve the more than 18 million veterans living in the United States today. Notably, around 2 to 3 million of those veterans served in Iraq or Afghanistan in the post-9/11 era, and many of them went on to face challenges involving healthcare, housing, disabilities and mental health.
In this non-exhaustive list, we’ll be running down some of the top philanthropies that support veterans.
Cantor Fitzgerald Relief Fund
Howard Lutnick, head of the financial firm Cantor Fitzgerald, landed a job at the firm right out of college in 1983 and by 35, he was chairman. The company lost 658 employees — two-thirds of its workforce — in the attack on the World Trade Center on 9/11. Lutnick lost his own brother and likely would also have been inside the North Tower at the time if not for the fact that he took his son to school for his first day.
Lutnick turned tragedy into purpose and started the Cantor Fitzgerald Relief Fund with his sister Edie, president of the fund. Every year on the company’s 9/11 Charity Day, Cantor Fitzgerald and BGC Group donate 100% of their revenues to the fund in support of direct services charities around the world. The fund has raised and distributed more than $300 million. A top cause is supporting veterans and their families, including the nonprofit Building Homes for Heroes in Island Park, New York.
Call of Duty Endowment Fund
One of the biggest video game franchises of all time also leverages its success to help veterans through the Call of Duty Endowment Fund. It was cofounded by Bobby Kotick, former CEO of Activision Blizzard, the American video game holding company based in Santa Monica, California. The endowment helps veterans find high-quality careers by supporting groups that prepare them for the job market and by raising awareness of the value vets bring to the workplace. It recently wrapped up another year of its fundraising CODE Bowl, where U.S., UK. and Canadian military esports teams compete.
Leveraging the powerful Call of Duty brand, CODE has placed more than 130,000 veterans in jobs since its 2009 founding. In our conversation a few years ago, CODE Executive Director Dan Goldenberg emphasized that he believes employment is the top issue facing most veterans today. “The public conception of where the need is is off-kilter,” he said at the time. “More than 3 million have served since 9/11. Of those, about 2,000 have lost a limb. Not taking anything away from these folks who deserve all the help they can get. Fact is, though, everyone leaving the military needs the job.”
Craig Newmark Philanthropies
Craig Newmark, the mild-mannered founder of Craigslist, is also a major supporter of veterans through his Craig Newmark Philanthropies. The motivations here are personal: Newmark is the son of a World War II veteran. Newmark has donated more than $100 million to veteran-focused groups nationally and in local communities.
Some of this work includes leveraging tech, like a nearly $5 million gift a few years ago from Craig Newmark Philanthropies to the Bob Woodruff Foundation and the National Veterans Intermediary (NVI) supporting development of a new assessment tool to determine the capacity of communities to address the needs of veterans returning to civilian life. Other gifts, including establishing a scholarship for veterans at Georgetown’s McCourt School of Public Policy, speak to the scale of Newmark’s commitment to this cause.
Gary Sinise Foundation
When it comes to his giving, actor Gary Sinise, aka Lieutenant Dan in “Forrest Gump,” stays true to the character he once played. In 2011, he established the Gary Sinise Foundation, which squarely focuses on supporting military veterans, first responders and their families. The foundation’s signature R.I.S.E. (Restoring Independence Supporting Empowerment) program focuses on building adapted smart homes for severely wounded servicepeople.
Sinise, who had been interested in this cause since the ’80s, started doing “handshake tours” with United Service Organizations (USO), meeting a new generation of men and women coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan after 9/11. “The more I did, the more I wanted to do. Putting my boots on the ground. Going to the war zones. Going to the hospitals. Going to the events that would support [veterans] in different ways,” Sinise told Inside Philanthropy.
Steven and Alexandra Cohen Foundation
The foundation of Wall Street power couple Steven and Alexandra Cohen has given over $1.2 billion since its inception. In 2016, the foundation launched the Cohen Veterans Network with a $275 million gift. There are now 24 Cohen Veterans Network clinics around the country, focusing on caring for post-9/11 veterans, active duty personnel and families — emphasizing ease of access, short wait times and treating the entire military family and serving veterans regardless of role or discharge status.
Cohen, worth more than $20 billion as of this writing, has a son who joined the U.S. Marine Corps and was deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan in the early 2010s.
Bob and Renee Parsons Foundation
Billionaire GoDaddy founder Bob Parsons started the Bob and Renee Parsons Foundation to support a range of causes. The foundation’s Military and First Responders grantmaking program focuses on supporting major veterans organizations including Semper Fi & America’s Fund, the National Museum of the U.S. Marine Corps and the Headstrong Project, a national organization that offers “stigma-free, evidence-based, trauma-focused mental health treatment for our nation’s military, veterans, and their associated family members.”
The foundation has also shown an interest in backing veterans work at universities, including the University of Baltimore, which has received nearly $7 million. Grants here have focused on career-focused education for vets. Like others in this rundown, Bob Parsons himself has close ties to this community — he’s a Marine Corps veteran.
Marcus Foundation
Bernie Marcus — along with Arthur Blank — attained billionaire status as cofounder of home improvement giant Home Depot. In an interview several years ago, Marcus told IP that he got involved with Shepherd Center, a hospital focusing on the medical treatment, research and rehabilitation for people with spinal cord injury and disease. The institution puts out a monthly magazine, and Marcus was moved by a story it published about a young soldier suffering from a spinal injury at a VA hospital.
He began supporting the Shepherd Center and started a post-9/11 veterans-focused program called Operation Share, pivoting away from spinal cord injury and instead focusing on traumatic brain injury and PTSD, where he felt there was a greater need. This later escalated into the creation of the Marcus Institute for Brain Health at University of Colorado Anschutz Medical, which serves military veterans, first responders and retired athletes.
For his 90th birthday, Marcus and his old business partner Blank committed $20 million each to the Gary Sinise Foundation’s Avalon Network. “There are people who are the finest product we have in the United States,” he said, referring to those who serve.
Pritzker Military Foundation
The Pritzker family of Chicago, well known in philanthropy and in politics, includes retired Lieutenant Colonel Jennifer Pritzker, who inherited stakes in the family’s Hyatt chain. Unsurprisingly, she prioritizes military and veterans issues in her philanthropy through several charities. The Pritzker Military Foundation serves as the grantmaking arm of Pritzker Military Museum & Library in Chicago, preserving American military history as well as restoring historic military artifacts and making them available to the public.
She also works with the Women in Military Service Memorial Foundation, the fundraising arm of the Women In Military Service For America Memorial. “There are not very many monuments dedicated solely to women who have served,” Pritzker once told IP. “Only one I can think of is in New Orleans, Marine Corps Molly, honoring those who fought starting in World War II.”
Bob Woodruff Foundation
Last but not least, the Bob Woodruff Foundation, bearing the name of the “ABC News Tonight” anchor who was seriously injured in Iraq, has supported veterans since 2006. Its recent focuses include community-building, employment, housing, and food insecurity — as well as the mental health of veterans and their kids.
The foundation receives significant support from other funders, including MacKenzie Scott and Craig Newmark Philanthropies, as well as the NFL, Bread Financial and Veterans on Wall Street. It’s raised tens of millions since 2007 through its annual Stand Up for Heroes gala.
