There’s a way you can help keep active duty service members and veterans financially healthy during the coronavirus pandemic
Support the PenFed Foundation's COVID-19 Emergency Financial Relief Program.
“We are in the financial space of active-duty service members and veterans,” said retired Army Gen. John Nicholson, who heads up the foundation. “We’ve been doing this since 9/11.”
The fund provides a one-time grant to active-duty service members and veterans to help them cover mortgage payments, rent, and to prevent car repossession due to financial hardship by the pandemic. Nicholson said the initial response to the program was overwhelming, with 6,000 applications received in its first four days.
“That was triple the number of folks we help in a year,” added Nicholson.
The average grant is $1,000, according to Nicholson, which means $6 million is needed to meet current requests.
Forty percent of the applications came from veterans and 10 percent came from active-duty service members. The remaining 50 percent came from Reserve members, some of whom faced losing their civilian jobs and monthly military salary when their training was postponed.
Once the application is approved, the funds are sent directly to the creditor.
“The first checks were on the way to creditors on March 17,” Nicholson said.
The first application that was approved came from a Marine veteran in Jacksonville, North Carolina who lost his job due to the pandemic, he said.
Nicholson said the vision of the foundation is that all active-duty service members are able to serve the country free of financial worry and that every veteran has a strong financial future.
“The mission of the PenFed Foundation for Military Heroes is to empower military service members, veterans and their communities with the skills and resources to realize financial stability and opportunity,” he added.
The program is funded entirely by donations. Nicholson said some past large donors have already established matching grants. That means that they will match an individual donation on a dollar-to-dollar basis.
“We are going out to our largest donors and asking for matching gifts,” he explained.
More than 95 cents of every dollar raised goes directly to beneficiaries.
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Reach Julia LeDoux at Julia@connectingvets.com.
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