Today, Bennett Weiner, COO of the BBB Wise Giving Alliance, is in Dallas, Texas to participate in the Military Service Initiative Summit which is a one-day conference being held by The Bush Institute at the George W. Bush Presidential Center. They are about 350 guests from various veterans organizations as well as corporate executives, major donors and others concerned about how they can better serve veterans and active duty service members through the growing number of charitable programs that exist today.

Should there be more collaboration among the 45,000 existing veterans and military service organizations? Can impact measurement provide a means to identify those groups that are achieving some success? How can the wide range of existing programs ranging from health needs to job skills training avoid duplication of effort while carrying out their important work? These and similar issues will be discussed at the conference.

There are no any easy answers to these questions but it is helpful that they are being asked. As leaders in the nonprofit sector and the military community consider these challenges, I hope they also remember the important role that trust plays in helping donors make contribution decisions and in enabling veterans to seek out the help they need to transition to civilian life.

There will always be an incentive to become more effective in the work that is carried out by organizations that assist veterans and active service members. Charities want to make a difference. But in seeking out these objectives, BBB WGA also believes that our BBB Standards for Charity Accountability can play a role in helping to ensure that organizations are transparent, well governed, manage finances appropriately, and are mindful to be accurate and honest in their fundraising and communications.

Take a look at BBB charity reports to see if your charity of choice meets this important standard. For an A-Z directory of reports on nationally-soliciting charities, visit give.org/charity-reviews/national/. To access both local and national charity reports, use the search engine on our homepage give.org.

H. Art Taylor, President & CEO
BBB Wise Giving Alliance