Forward Observer — Want to Know About Veterans Trust Fund Grant Distributions?

Are you curious as to how Pennsylvania’s Veterans Trust Fund, established in late 2012, has been distributing donor funds to grantees?   Click here to find the distributions for FY 2015 and FY 2016 (as of 16 May 2016) made by the Department of Military AND Veterans Affairs (DMVA).

This year, their desire was for county directors and their Pennsylvania Association of County Directors of Veterans Affairs  to emphasize veteran outreach and veterans’ court initiatives within Pennsylvania at the community, county, regional or statewide level.  For veteran service organizations and 501(c)(3) charitable organizations, the priorities were ” … homelessness, post-traumatic stress disorder, employment and workforce development initiatives and other programs that addressed newly identified, unmet or emerging needs of veterans and their families.”

A Right-to-Know Request revealed that 80 institutions of higher learning, veterans service organizations and nonprofits; and 18 County Directors of Veterans Affairs applied earlier this year.  Two institutions of higher learning, 16 nonprofits doing social work, no veterans service organizations, and 13 County Directors of Veterans Affairs were awarded a total of $550,000 dollars according to a recent Governor’s announcement.  We have analyzed the data several ways for your convenience.

The analysis does not include the fund’s own emergency financial assistance cash distributions of $514,000 plus (as of 18 May 2016) or the onerous $194,000 annual fee charged by PennDOT for indicating one is a veteran on the driver’s license (for little, ultimate worth).  See last year’s article on some of our concerns about this fund.

###

RJH
As of 16 May 2016