Luke's Wings, Inc.
Reuniting wounded service members and veterans throughout recovery and rehabilitation
Programs and results
What we aim to solve
To support wounded, ill, and injured veterans, service members, and first responders by providing families with the means to visit during their recovery and rehabilitation through the gift of flight.
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
The Wounded Warrior Transportation Assistance Program (W.W.T.A.P)
Luke’s Wings provides flights for the loved ones of service members wounded while deployed or injured in a training accident as they are receiving continuous medical care. This program line also provides flights for service members, veterans, and their loved traveling to receive on-going care related to past injuries.
Veterans in Hospice Care Transportation Assistance Program (H.T.A.P.)
Luke’s Wings provides flights for the loved ones of veterans in hospice or palliative care so that they can be bedside for their final moments. Veterans who fall within this program line have served our Nation in World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War as well as recent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Luke’s Wings is honored to provide a final salute to our heroes of all generations.
Special Operations Transportation Assistance Program (S.O.T.A.P.)
Luke’s Wings provides flights for the loved ones of Special Operators during recovery, rehabilitation, and certain times of duress. These elite groups include Navy SEALs, Army Green Berets, Army Rangers, and Marine MARSOC, among others. We are honored to be a trusted benevolent partner to the United States Special Operations Command Care Coalition through their Warrior Care Program, allowing us to best serve their close-knit community.
Major Illnesses Transportation Assistance Program (M.I.T.A.P.)
Luke’s Wings provides flights for service members and veterans who are undergoing treatment for major chronic illnesses and cancer, in particular, those that are service connected. These flights not only provide access to medical treatments that take them far from their homes, but also provides travel for their loved ones to be bedside.
Fallen Officer’s Transportation Assistance Program (F.O.T.A.P.)
Luke’s Wings has created the Fallen Officers Transportation Assistance Program (F.O.T.A.P.) to provide emergency travel coordination and complimentary airfare to the families and loved ones of law enforcement officers, immediately following a catastrophic injury or death while serving in the line of duty. Our team is dedicated and committed to helping each and every one of our Nation’s heroes. We will stand ready to serve.
Where we work
Awards
Community Challenge Finalist 2012
Joining Forces
Helping Wounded Warriors be Home for Christmas 2011
North Carolina State Congress - Virginia Foxx
Generous Commitment of Time, Support & Inspiration to our Endeavors 2011
Walter Reed Army Medical Center
Medal of Honor 2012
Ellis Island
Power Player of the Week 2011
Chris Wallace - Sunday Morning
Affiliations & memberships
Special Operations Command Patriot Award 2018
Videos
Our results
How does this organization measure their results? It's a hard question but an important one.
Number of flights booked
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Veterans, Emergency responders, Military personnel, Families, Victims of conflict and war
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Goals & Strategy
Learn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.
Charting impact
Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.
What is the organization aiming to accomplish?
At Luke’s Wings, our mission has always been to keep families together by providing travel planning and
travel tickets to those in need and at critical moments. Since January of 2008, we’ve proudly and
gratefully said “yes” to every flight request that met our mission and fell within our defined program
lines. Since 2008, Luke’s Wings has provided almost 15,000 airplane tickets to our wounded warriors,
veterans in hospice care, active duty ill and injured service members, and our fallen officers and their
families during recovery.
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
To this end, we share with you our 2022 Initiatives as follows:
1. People (securing mature, experienced and qualified long term human capital);
2. Process (defining our intern controls, processes and policies and procedures to help ensure
financial security, donor fiduciary, and operational efficiency and effectiveness);
3. Programs (holding true to our program requirements, establishing the right hospital
connections, and having program discipline when it comes to reviewing and approving flights);
and finally
4. Performance (making sure we increase our overall donation revenue to achieve well above our
target 70/30 passthrough ratio). I’m pleased to report that we doubled on line donations at the
end of last year, and also significantly increased our mailed donations and public service
announcements.
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
Since the middle of 2021, we've worked to implement these four initiatives
within the Luke’s Wings organization. This implementation strategy continues into 2022 and is actively
being realized now. Results follow:
1. Hired an entirely new team including more professional, experienced, and qualified staff;
2. Continued to rebuilt our Luke’s Wings website, and user interface, making the travel application
process even easier for our wounded warriors and their families; In 2022, we will publish unique
applications for each program line (currently, there is only one application);
3. Update and improve our internal tracking systems for both flights and donors.
4. Improved and increasing our marketing efforts on all fronts. Examples including, but are not
limited to: digital marketing, paid advertising, search engine optimization, T.V. news segments
(i.e. earned media), and T.V. advertising (commercials and public service announcements).
5. With the increased marketing efforts, our 2021 “No Soldier Spends Christmas Alone Campaign”
resulted in a 100% increase in line donations as well as several very large corporate sponsorship
wins.
6. Our 2021 Heroes Golf Tournament was produced, but left room for improvement in 2022. Our
2022 Gala was produced on April 30 th . Almost three hundred (300) guests attended and
supported. The theme for the 2022 Gala was “Hidden Heroes.”
How we listen
Seeking feedback from people served makes programs more responsive and effective. Here’s how this organization is listening.
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How is your organization using feedback from the people you serve?
To identify and remedy poor client service experiences, To identify bright spots and enhance positive service experiences, To make fundamental changes to our programs and/or operations, To inform the development of new programs/projects, To identify where we are less inclusive or equitable across demographic groups, To strengthen relationships with the people we serve, To understand people's needs and how we can help them achieve their goals
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Which of the following feedback practices does your organization routinely carry out?
We collect feedback from the people we serve at least annually, We take steps to get feedback from marginalized or under-represented people, We aim to collect feedback from as many people we serve as possible, We take steps to ensure people feel comfortable being honest with us, We look for patterns in feedback based on demographics (e.g., race, age, gender, etc.), We look for patterns in feedback based on people’s interactions with us (e.g., site, frequency of service, etc.), We engage the people who provide feedback in looking for ways we can improve in response, We act on the feedback we receive
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What challenges does the organization face when collecting feedback?
It is difficult to get the people we serve to respond to requests for feedback
Financials
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Operations
The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.
Connect with nonprofit leaders
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- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.
Connect with nonprofit leaders
SubscribeBuild relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.
- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.
Luke's Wings, Inc.
Board of directorsas of 05/15/2023
U.S. Army Staff Sergeant James Pierce (Ret.)
National Parks Service
Term: 2019 - 2021
Fletcher Gill
The Genau Group
Jason Sickels
Formula Sports & Entertainment Group
John Ennis
IBM
James Pierce
National Park Service
Emily Fletcher
Kilpatrick Towsend
Matt Suttmiller
RedPeg Marketing
Board leadership practices
GuideStar worked with BoardSource, the national leader in nonprofit board leadership and governance, to create this section.
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Board orientation and education
Does the board conduct a formal orientation for new board members and require all board members to sign a written agreement regarding their roles, responsibilities, and expectations? Yes -
CEO oversight
Has the board conducted a formal, written assessment of the chief executive within the past year ? Yes -
Ethics and transparency
Have the board and senior staff reviewed the conflict-of-interest policy and completed and signed disclosure statements in the past year? Yes -
Board composition
Does the board ensure an inclusive board member recruitment process that results in diversity of thought and leadership? Yes -
Board performance
Has the board conducted a formal, written self-assessment of its performance within the past three years? Yes
Organizational demographics
Who works and leads organizations that serve our diverse communities? Candid partnered with CHANGE Philanthropy on this demographic section.
Leadership
The organization's leader identifies as:
Race & ethnicity
Gender identity
Transgender Identity
Sexual orientation
Disability
We do not display disability information for organizations with fewer than 15 staff.
Equity strategies
Last updated: 09/29/2021GuideStar partnered with Equity in the Center - an organization that works to shift mindsets, practices, and systems to increase racial equity - to create this section. Learn more
- We review compensation data across the organization (and by staff levels) to identify disparities by race.
- We ask team members to identify racial disparities in their programs and / or portfolios.
- We analyze disaggregated data and root causes of race disparities that impact the organization's programs, portfolios, and the populations served.
- We disaggregate data to adjust programming goals to keep pace with changing needs of the communities we support.
- We employ non-traditional ways of gathering feedback on programs and trainings, which may include interviews, roundtables, and external reviews with/by community stakeholders.
- We disaggregate data by demographics, including race, in every policy and program measured.
- We have long-term strategic plans and measurable goals for creating a culture such that one’s race identity has no influence on how they fare within the organization.
- We use a vetting process to identify vendors and partners that share our commitment to race equity.
- We have a promotion process that anticipates and mitigates implicit and explicit biases about people of color serving in leadership positions.
- We seek individuals from various race backgrounds for board and executive director/CEO positions within our organization.
- We have community representation at the board level, either on the board itself or through a community advisory board.
- We help senior leadership understand how to be inclusive leaders with learning approaches that emphasize reflection, iteration, and adaptability.
- We engage everyone, from the board to staff levels of the organization, in race equity work and ensure that individuals understand their roles in creating culture such that one’s race identity has no influence on how they fare within the organization.