A Look at How a Veterans-Focused Foundation Backs Mental Healthcare

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Many military veterans find that leaving the service doesn’t mean leaving the war behind. Thirty percent will experience post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in their lifetimes, according to the U.S. National Alliance of Mental Health, and every day, an average of 20 veterans commit suicide. 

The Bob Woodruff Foundation is working to change these grim statistics. It supports an array of programs that serve military vets, including providing and improving mental healthcare as a major part of that work. 

The Bob Woodruff Foundation’s mission is to “ensure that our nation’s veterans, service members and their families — those who stood for us — have stable and successful futures.” It was created in 2006, after Bob Woodruff, a reporter and anchor for ABC, was badly injured while covering the war in Iraq. Woodruff and his family started the foundation because they want to see all veterans receive the high-quality medical care and support he did.

The foundation had $40 million in revenue in 2022, according to its annual report. It received $15 million from MacKenzie Scott that year, and Craig Newmark Philanthropies, which makes veterans a major focus, has been a consistent supporter. Other funders include the NFL, Bread Financial and Veterans on Wall Street. The foundation has raised over $70 million since 2007 with its annual Stand Up for Heroes gala.

The foundation helps veterans by meeting food, housing and legal assistance needs, and as my colleague Dawn Wolfe reported last year, it assists with fertility issues through its Veterans In-Vitro Initiative. It also created the Got Your 6 network, a directory of its grantees and partner organizations. The foundation’s goal with the network, developed with the support of Craig Newmark Philanthropies, is to raise awareness of and create connections between far-flung, veteran-serving organizations, to help streamline those services. The network includes partners in most U.S. counties, as well as American Samoa, Guam and Puerto Rico. 

Meanwhile, veterans’ mental health is a clear foundation priority, according to Dr. Margaret Harrell, the foundation’s chief program officer. “We've been investing heavily in mental health over the last six or seven years, and I don’t see that stopping anytime soon.”  

“They are really able to take their lives back”

The foundation works hard to identify and support approaches to mental healthcare that are evidence based, because, as Harrell pointed out, bad therapy can be worse than no therapy at all.

“Among other things, combat-related PTSD is very different from civilian-based PTSD, and being qualified to treat combat-related PTSD is really important,” she said. “I've had a number of people say, ‘all mental healthcare is good, right? Getting something is better than nothing?’ And the answer is absolutely no. If you're spending somebody's time on a therapy that's not going to work, there's the opportunity cost, but there's also that discouragement cost. If it's not effective for that person, he or she is less likely to seek out therapy that could help, and less likely to recommend therapy to her peer group.” 

Two of the programs the foundation supports are the Suicide and Trauma Reduction Initiative (STRIVE) at Ohio State, and the STRONG STAR Training Initiative at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio.

STRIVE has developed a short-term suicide prevention program that uses cognitive processing therapy; it has been shown to reduce suicidal thinking among participants. STRIVE plans to use funds from the Bob Woodruff Foundation to scale the approach for both active military personnel and veterans experiencing suicidal ideation.  

The STRONG STAR Training Initiative conducts research and training for clinicians so they can provide quality care for PTSD and suicide prevention. Numerous clinical trials in recent years have led to real advances in treatment for PTSD and other mental health issues. But many clinicians still don’t have access to the latest research findings, according to Katy Dondanville, program director of the STRONG STAR Training Initiative. 

The initiative works to fill that information gap through its Learning Community, which supports clinicians working with service members and veterans. Many of the organizations it works with are community-based, veteran-serving organizations that operate on tight budgets; support from the foundation allows the initiative to offer regular trainings at a much lower cost. To date, the initiative has provided support and training for over 3,000 clinicians around the world. 

“A lot of people think of PTSD as a life sentence of misery. And we definitely saw this, you know, 10 or more years ago,” Harrell said. “It took a while for both treatment to improve and for people to recognize that there's therapy that will help you.” 

In fact, Dondanville said, some of the new treatments are so effective that 50 to 60% of those treated no longer meet the criteria for PTSD. “What we’ve seen is that when our veterans and service members are able to engage in these effective treatments, they are really able to take their lives back,” she said.

The bigger picture

Last year, IP’s Liz Longley reported on the small group of funders that provide consistent support for veterans (see also our overview of funders that support military veterans). 

Why do only a reliable few provide regular funding in this area? The need is certainly there. A 2023 report by the Bob Woodruff Foundation found, for example, that the needs of military and veterans populations exceed available resources in many communities. The needs the report cited were basic and essential, including healthcare, mental healthcare, food, housing, emergency financial assistance and transportation.

Harrell pointed to some possible reasons for the dearth of philanthropic support for veterans in general, and veterans’ mental health in particular. One could be the fact that there are fewer wars involving American boots on the ground then there have been at other periods in history. “There's this sense that, you know, wars are over; we still have people deployed, but it's less [in] the news,” she said. “I think there's less public attention to it, and I don't think people realize that we've got a couple hundred thousand who take off their uniform every year and become veterans.”

Some funders may also assume that veterans can access mental health services through the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). However, an array of media reports in recent years have criticized the VA’s response to mental health issues, including an in-depth report earlier this year by ProPublica. Nevertheless, Harrell defended the VA’s mental health efforts. “The VA now has clinics, as well as Vet Centers where you can receive mental health support, and their waiting times are often less than in the civilian community. So I think the VA is doing a tremendous job,” she said.   

But not all veterans have access to VA services. Some veterans don’t qualify for VA support, for example, and others face geographic barriers when it comes to seeking mental healthcare. 

Dondanville also praised the VA’s efforts, but pointed out that it is a huge, sprawling organization that can be challenging to navigate. “We really need more awareness of community-based resources for those who are unable to go to the VA, or unwilling for some reason,” she said. 

For funders who prefer to support direct services, programs like the STRONG STAR Training Initiative – which operates further upstream by serving clinicians who then serve veterans – may not be as appealing. Dondanville hopes they’ll take a closer look. 

“One of the things I really appreciate about the Bob Woodruff Foundation is their ability to see the bigger picture, because oftentimes philanthropy is focused on care,” Dondanville said. “Foundations and philanthropists naturally want to have the biggest impact that they can with their money, but depending on what you are funding, you may have to step back in the pipeline to make sure that you’re ensuring access to good, quality care. Of course, we want to make sure people get care, but we also want to make sure it is quality care.”