Veterans of Foreign Wars of The United States

Veterans Service Activities - The VFW Mission includes the mandate to preserve and strengthen comradeship among veterans and to provide assistance to them, their widows and orphans. To meet this obligation, the VFW delivers a broad range of programs and services to veterans through a National organization structure that extends to posts in communities throughout the country. This includes grants of $9,843,491 to support VFW and veteran service activities all over the world. At the state level, the Department service officer plays a key role in assisting veterans in dealing with the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and other agencies. These officers are formally trained and accredited to represent both member and non-member veterans and their family members or survivors in applying for and obtaining VA benefits. The VFW National Veterans Service staff provides additional specialized expertise such as representation at the VA Board of Veterans Appeals and at the Pre-Discharge locations on major military installations to assist soon-to-be discharged active-duty military in filing VA disability claims. This structure ensures that no veteran, family member, or survivor needs to interact with the agencies administering veteran's programs without expert representation. In addition, professionally trained, VA accredited VFW representatives advocate directly with governmental agencies to resolve issues impacting veterans. The VFW provided training to 424 service officers at Basic, Advanced, and Proficiency Training Conferences. This training ensures VFW Service Officers remain proficient in understanding VA administered veterans benefit programs and policies to provide quality representation to their clients, who often maintain relationships with the VFW as their VA representation for years after filing an initial claim. For the 2025 federal fiscal year, the Department of Veterans Affairs reported over 608,000 veterans and eligible dependents represented by VFW Service Officers received more than $16.2 billion in earned benefits. Additionally, the VFW provided over $1.3 million in Help-A-Hero scholarships to 317 service members and veterans to help them complete educational goals. This program provides up to $5,000 in scholarships to veterans or current military personnel with a rank of E-5 or below. VFW National Legislative Service serves veterans, service members, and their families through protection and enhancement of federal benefits. This service ensures the views of veterans are presented to legislators and provides recommendations concerning proposed legislation. The membership is kept informed of these activities through the VFW magazine, the VFW Action Corps and other print and digital material. VFW regularly appeals to lawmakers and defense leadership to ensure the highest level of training, equipment and compensation for America's soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines and Coast Guard personnel. The VFW testifies before Congress over 20 times every year on important issues impacting veterans.

Fraternal and Member Service Activities - Fraternal activities and member services are vital support components to the VFW National Headquarters as it works to accomplish the VFW mission at state and local levels. This includes grants of $537,800 to support these activities and to provide training on leadership and administration with the information and incentives needed to mobilize volunteer efforts in local communities around the world. These efforts include patriotic activities, community projects, youth activities and support of active-duty military personnel, Guard and Reserves. The VFW National Headquarters also provides dues processing services, fundraising services, and other administrative support to allow the VFW state and local levels to focus their resources on veteran service and community service activities. VFW provides a magazine and emblematic supplies to members and veterans to promote historical education, and commemoration and promotion of patriotic support and activities. The VFW magazine ensures members and the public remain apprised of legislative and administrative issues concerning veterans, health problems confronting veterans, historical and commemorative events and activities, support provided by members in support of VFW-sponsored programs in their local communities and other information to encourage members to take action.