USAA Foundation

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OVERVIEW: The USAA Foundation supports military and veteran families in Texas and nationally. It provides funding for education, arts and culture, economic and workforce development, financial readiness and the needs of families.

IP TAKE: The USAA Foundation is a major ally of veterans and military families. However, it does not provide much information on the types of organizations it funds or in what amounts. Additionally, it does not accept unsolicited requests for funding and asks that grantseekers “don't submit requests via email, text, phone or U.S. mail.” That said, the foundation does have an employee matching program which could possibly be a way for groups to get on this otherwise inaccessible foundation’s radar.

PROFILE: Based in San Antonio, Texas, the USAA Foundation is a corporate foundation and charitable extension of the USAA company that offers insurance, banking and retirement services exclusively to members of the military, veterans and their families. The USAA Foundation aims to “care for military families, a community that reflects our nation's racial, social and economic diversity."

  • With its National Focus, the funder supports mental health, military children, careers and entrepreneurship and financial readiness.

  • At the Local Focus level, the USAA Foundation is interested in education, housing affordability, arts and culture, economic development, natural disaster response and environmental sustainability.

  • Additional interests are STEM education, hunger and homelessness.

  • Across all geographic areas, USAA looks to promote diversity, equity and inclusion. All foundation grantmaking is centered on the needs of members of the military, veterans and their families.

There is also a separate philanthropic entity called the USAA Educational Foundation that offers free financial education resources from finance and military life experts.

Grants for Military and Veterans

The USAA Foundation conducts grantmaking for military and veterans across all of its programs. It divides programs into work with a National and Local focus, each either their own interests.

Grants for Public Health and Economic Development

The USAA Foundation considers supporting military families to be the signature cause of its National Focus program, which seeks to “to make a positive impact in the lives of service members and their families by supporting programs that help them weather the challenges of military life.”

  • The Foundation takes a multifaceted approach to its grantmaking here and supports groups that focus on improving veterans’ and military families’ mental and physical health, and assisting service members transition to civilian employment.

  • The USAA Foundation is one of the founding partners of Face the Fight, an initiative created to raise awareness and support for veteran suicide prevention.

  • It also supports veterans’ financial readiness and financial education, both through grants to other organizations and through the USAA Educational Foundation, which “offers free financial education resources from experts in personal finance and military life.”

  • Previous grantees include College Options Foundation, Veterans Education Success, Military Family Advisory Network, Association for Financial Counseling and Planning Education, and Military Spouse Advocacy Network.

Grants for Education, Community Development, and Disaster Relief

USAA’s Local Focus program works to make local communities better places to live. These grants support organizations and programs that address hunger and homelessness, promote professional development for educators and increase access to STEM education for students, and teach safety and disaster preparedness and provide relief and recovery when disaster hits.

  • Its giving through this program is limited to locations where it has a physical location: San Antonio, Texas; Charlotte, North Carolina; Chesapeake, Virginia; Colorado Springs, Colorado; Dallas, Texas; Phoenix, Arizona; and Tampa, Florida.

  • Previous grantees in this area include the United Way of San Antonio and Bexar County, the American Red Cross, San Antonio Area Foundation, Boy Scouts of America, Girls Incorporated of San Antonio, and National Merit Scholarship Corporation.

Other Grantmaking Opportunities

Like many other corporate and corporate-adjacent funders, the Foundation has an employee volunteerism and donation match program.

  • USAA Serves matches employees’ contributions to eligible nonprofits one to one, up to $1,000 per employee each year.

  • It invites nonprofits to submit opportunities for contribution through Benevity. It will not fund political parties, organizations, or campaigns and will not support groups that discriminate in any way.

Important Grant Details:

Grants range from $1,000 to $5.75 million; however, the typical amount is closer to $5,000. The USAA Foundation accepts applications by invitation only and does not consider unsolicited proposals or requests for funding.

PEOPLE:

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