An introduction to the Veterans’ Foundation – a much valued grant maker that supports the work of VOS
As a registered charity, Veterans Outreach Support requires a certain amount of funding, in order to be able to deliver support to veterans and their partners in a variety of ways. We are immensely grateful for such funding, which is critical in supporting our service users. To demonstrate our gratitude, and show just what this support means to VOS, we plan to produce a series of insights into those that support us, what they do and how they help us and other charities to achieve our goals. Our series begins with a spotlight on the Veterans’ Foundation and its wonderful work in supporting the Armed Forces family.
What is the Veterans’ Foundation?
Founded in 2016, the Veterans’ Foundation is one of the country’s fastest growing military charities. It works with hundreds of smaller charities across the UK. The Veterans’ Foundation began simply by sharing stories from the Armed Forces family on social media, which steadily grew into a large community and then became able to provide tangible support. The foundation’s main aim is to provide a better life for members of the Armed Forces family who are in need. Through its grant award scheme, the Veterans’ Foundation provides support and funding to their partner organisations to help them deliver their own projects of support to their beneficiaries.
What does the Veterans’ Foundation do?
The Veterans’ Foundation recognises that small charities are capable of doing amazing work, but will often struggle due financial constraints, so they partner with these charities to provide grants to fund their projects. They also share their initiatives more widely, in order to raise awareness of the challenges faced by the Armed Forces community. The Veterans’ Foundation is able to provide funding thanks to its own generous supporters who make donations, take part in fundraising events and play their Veterans’ Lottery.
The Veterans’ Lottery provides a significant proportion of the Foundation’s fundraising, which in turn enables it to provide its own support and funding. The Lottery offers players an opportunity to win significant cash prizes, whilst their money goes towards supporting military charities and raising awareness of the challenges the Armed Forces family faces.
The Veterans’ Foundation also has its own Hub which connects military charities with individuals and businesses who can help fund their work. The Foundation itself assists both charities and donors by using its own expertise and experience. The Hub’s main aim is to engage the military community and distribute funding to where it is most needed and to where it will help projects have the biggest positive impact.
“The Veterans’ Foundation Hub is focussed on engaging the military community and distributing funding to where it is most needed, to projects that have the biggest impact on lives.” – The Veterans’ Foundation
Since 2016, the Veterans’ Foundation has provided over £11 million in grants to a range of projects that provide support for things like reducing homelessness, increasing employment, providing welfare and medical support, increasing confidence and social integration, reducing substance dependence and other charitable activities.
How has the Veterans’ Foundation supported VOS?
Over the course of the last five years, the Veterans’ Foundation has provided VOS with grants that form a significant contribution to the cost of employing and contracting our in-house team of clinical staff. This means that we are able to deliver psychiatry and psychology services, mental health therapy and substance misuse recovery support to veterans and their close family members, all from our base in the Royal Maritime Club in Portsmouth. Our service users can experience a wide variety of difficulties, so clinical and other support can be a real lifeline for them, from therapy and addiction support to wellbeing activities that focus on making friends, learning new skills and being in a warm social environment. VOS is hugely grateful to the Veterans’ Foundation for their funding which allows us to help those in need, and for the fact that they have continued to support us as we have grown as a charity by increasing their funding in proportion to our growth and the increased demand for our services.
“Funding from the Veterans’ Foundation ensures that we can continue to serve our beneficiaries with accessible, quality clinical and other support, at a time when it has never been in higher demand” – Ian Millen, VOS CEO
Click on the left-hand image to see our CEO, Ian Millen, sending a message of thanks to Veterans Foundation during the stormy waters of the Covid Pandemic, 2020.
(Written by Saskia Egeland-Jensen)
VOS is very grateful to the Veterans’ Foundation, as without their support and funding we would not be able to provide the full range of our clinical and mental health services.
If you’re a veteran from the UK Armed Forces or the Merchant Navy (from any time of service) or a partner to one, VOS would love for you to join our community. We are here to offer our support: call us on 02392 731 767, visit an upcoming drop-in, or email admin@vosuk.org.
