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Giving Back: It’s Who We Are

AFCEA's Alamo Chapter supports the military community through its Wounded Warrior and Military Families Foundation.

Gold Star kids attend a camp together at the Echo Hill Ranch in Texas Hill Country, sharing a common bond and camp experience, with horseback riding, swimming, archery, arts and crafts, and singing around the campfire. The Alamo Chapter's W2MF Foundation donates to a wide variety of charities that support military families.

A U.S. Air Force noncommissioned officer and single mom balanced the daily demands of military service with raising a child with special needs at home. As her daughter grew, she needed extra help getting her daughter into and out of the family van. But Mom could no longer lift her. A local nonprofit heard of this challenge and knew it could do something about it, but it needed a little bit of funding to help.

At the same time, kids who have lost a military family member in combat require community and emotional support. So, a different charity established a Gold Star Kids Camp to bring these children together from around the country to heal through a shared camp experience: horseback riding, swimming, archery and singing around a campfire. Yet, funding was very tight.

AFCEA’s Alamo Chapter wanted to help. So, we built AFCEA’s first and only Wounded Warrior and Military Families (W2MF) Foundation.

The Alamo Chapter really got its first taste of giving back to the military community in 2014, helping to fund a home for a wounded veteran and his family. What a feeling! Seeking to contribute even more, the chapter’s impact began to rapidly grow as our membership gravitated around such a giving mission. To fully institutionalize a new part of our organization’s mission, the chapter in 2018 established a subordinate 501(c)3 structure we call the W2MF Foundation. Its mission is to “provide financial assistance for wounded warriors, veterans and military families through community-based programs and outreach assistance.”

Over the last 10 years, our chapter has financially supported more than 46 different charities serving veterans, military families and wounded and injured service members by donating more than $1 million in grants. We donate to charities we like to call the “frequently overlooked and under-loved organizations who can make maximum impact with modest donation dollars.” And they do.

These charities vary greatly in the services they provide, as each tends to specialize in a specific mission area. This offers us many ways of serving—from backpacks for military school kids, PTSD and traumatic brain injury support, veteran hunting trips, and sponsoring female veterans, Gold Star families, military caregivers and Purple Heart recipients to attend healing retreats. The variety seems limitless and the needs endless.

Our W2MF team also believes in more than simply providing donations to various charities. Using a restricted funds approach, we actively partner with these organizations as they support our community. We love seeing these charities in action, putting our own AFCEA boots on the ground, being part of this unique community and personally witnessing how our chapter’s precious funds are spent. We get to share the experience and help where we can, supporting each charity’s “tactical edge.”

Operating at the center of such a charity ecosystem, two years ago, we decided to live our Alamo Chapter motto of “connecting people, ideas and solutions globally” by constructing a more formal sharing arrangement. This Alamo AFCEA W2MF “Constellation of Care” network has since grown in membership to include 32 different charities, each connected to the others through trusted relationships, able to provide cross-referral support within our military community through a privileged contact list. Our W2MF team also hosts these organizations at a networking event at least once each year, affording them the opportunity to meet, talk and share missions with one another, as we sometimes tell them, “to know who’s who in the zoo!”

A veteran gets a new set of wheels to help with mobility from the Freedom Mobility Foundation.

Military veterans receive dive training and certification through Hero Scuba Group, whose mission is to reduce or eliminate the effects of PTSD, anxiety, trauma and injuries experienced by veterans, first responders and their families via scuba diving, group therapy and aquatic conservation outings.

Military veterans learn the power of competitive driving with VETMotorsports, a nonprofit that connects veterans with professional motorsports teams and hands-on action on the track, helping them rediscover their strengths, passions and sense of belonging in a uniquely immersive environment.

As most of the charities had been previously unaware of each other’s missions and services, they now know that continued support of veterans and military families is just a phone call away. Working with someone who has just completed a substance abuse program but is still dealing with post-traumatic stress? Need a service dog? Ever tried scuba diving? Do you like horses? Well, “we know a guy.”

Unfortunately, the need continues to grow. Today, roughly 22-28% of active-duty families experience food insecurity or struggle to meet basic needs, while nearly half report "just getting by" financially. Yet, we are unaware of a single charity that can do it alone.

Our dedicated W2MF team, through generous Alamo Chapter membership funding and corporate donations, will continue to do what it can to make a difference in the lives of our veterans, military families and wounded and injured service members, because it matters—to them and to us.

Jeff Kendall is a retired U.S. Air Force brigadier general and combat fighter pilot, training professional and cyber policy adviser with more than 35 years in uniform. He is president of JBK Integrated Solutions LLC, a “digital immigrant” company focused on organizational improvement and servant and moral leadership development for small and very small businesses and nonprofits. Kendall was the founding president of the AFCEA Alamo Chapter Wounded Warrior and Military Families (W2MF) Foundation 501(c)3 and served both on the Alamo Chapter board and as W2MF president for almost 11 years until January 2026.