Home Depot begins dispensing $30 million to veterans charities
Published: April 13, 2011
View Photo Gallery »
Home Depot’s charitable foundation will dedicate $30 million to helping veterans to improve where they live. But don’t show up at your local store asking for a few grand to remodel your house.
“That’s a very important point,” company spokesman Stephen Holmes said in an email. “All of The Foundation funding must be funneled through grants to non-profits, not directly to individuals.”
On Wednesday, The Home Depot Foundation announced it will start by offering $3.1 million to three charities:
- Fisher House Foundation, which offers housing for the families of troops and veterans receiving care at major government hospitals, will get $500,000;
- Volunteers of America, one of America’s largest nonprofit providers of affordable housing for veterans and low-income families with children will get $1.8 million, and
- The Mission Continues, which offers fellowships for wounded and disabled veterans to continue serving by working with volunteer groups in their communities, will get $1.05 million.
The Foundation is looking for other partners, and plans to hand out the remaining $26.9 million over the next three years.
In 2009, the government estimates that more than 136,000 veterans spent at least one night in a homeless shelter or other transitional housing program. Last year, according to the VA, more than 20,000 military members and veterans faced foreclosure.
“We surveyed the landscape of groups who are having a particularly hard time staying in their homes and need some extra help, we kept coming back to one group: veterans,” Holmes continued. “I just think that, plus the fact that we’re so personally connected through our own veteran and active duty associates, really sums up why we chose veterans as our focus.”
