Among other tangible goals, OnBehalf.org is aiming to bring awareness to the American public of how the Veteran Administration's crippling bureaucracy is causing hardship to our wounded veterans and military families ("backlog"). The statistics are alarming, and only serve to frustrate and complicate the lives of struggling veterans. However, with these problems comes solutions. OnBehalf is dedicated to providing eligible servicemen & women (who have separated from the military with a service-connected disability) with financial grants while they await their benefits. We also realize that cash isn't always the answer, so we're looking to create a nationwide registry of small businesses and independent professionals who may address a veteran's needs through complimentary and discounted items/services. In doing so, burdens on our military families can be addressed, and more awareness can be brought to the systemic procedural delays that hurt our war wounded.

We pride ourselves on being a lean organization. We're vet-founded and -run, and all-volunteer. Always have been, always will be.

Administrative: Like any other NPO, OnBehalf wants to maximize fundraising, minimize expenditures, and streamline our operations for optimum transparency. Grass-roots to the core, our staff works with provider businesses (website maintenance and support, online fundraising, accounting, marketing, merchandise, etc) that can offer discounts for their services (ie, PayPal and Google for Nonprofits). Most expenditures and services however are covered by the board with personal funds, allowing us to enjoy low administrative costs to the organization and provide more cash to vets in need.

Fundraising: we rely heavily on sweat equity (literally). Our motto is "we earn your donation the hard way," as proven by our mud runs and other events we promote and solicit donations for. Our national reach with Google Adwords, social media and relationships we've built with other organizations (ie, IAVA) assist us in our ongoing campaigns to raise funds for wounded vets, as has online donations via our website.

Professional Networking (our Thank a Vet Net): Primarily administered via our website. Independent professionals and small businesses contact us directly with their contribution, and/or join our group on LinkedIn. From there, we can connect our wounded vets with their discounted or complimentary services, thereby giving America's business owners a way to give back, share their generosity with like-minded individuals, and promote their military-friendly businesses to their communities.

Our organization can be run with a computer and a telephone on a limited budget, by veterans who can connect to military families. Through volunteers, interns and our own staff, we're able to maintain our web presence, organize and promote fundraising events with social media, navigate our own claims process (when an injured vet requests a financial grant), and work with participating organizations to expand our reach, all at minimal costs.

We analyze certain key indices that allow us to gauge our progress, most notably website traffic, donations, social media interaction, requests for new partnerships (ie, WWP and IAVA), and fundraising activity by outside individuals. A recent milestone--passing $50,000 in cash donations--assisted us in being recognized as an organization that was having an impact, as is our five-star rating on GreatNonprofits.org. The reviews provided to us by donors, volunteers and veterans themselves are an excellent indicator of how we're doing as an organization, and highlights areas where we could be doing better (ie, contacting VA representatives is a slow and sometimes fruitless process, given most case workers cannot release information regarding their patients. By preparing the necessary HIPAA paperwork first with our injured vet, who's contacted his or her case worker proactively, allows us to bring financial relief to our veterans more quickly and efficiently).

What we've accomplished:
Our recognition by outside agencies like IAVA, WWP, GreatNonprofits.org, Google for NonProfits is extremely gratifying, if not only to demonstrate our dedication to transparency, our legitimacy among veterans and groups that serve them, as well as a well-received ranking among the nonprofit community in general. While necessary for a successful nonprofit, these associations and a well-established online profile will not alone bring contributions. We've learned that fundraising is done the old fashioned way (active, in -person fundraising) along with demonstrating a clear goal with stories of success. To avoid being "lost in the crowd" among other like-minded NPOs, OnBehalf has realigned its mission solely as a resource for military veterans who are struggling with a delayed benefits process with the Veterans Administration, and has steered away from larger societal goals that require extensive manpower (eradicating homelessness among vets, reducing unemployment among the veteran population, etc). However, we do work with such agencies that promote those goals where we are able.