Give an Hour
Mental Health. For Life.
Programs and results
What we aim to solve
Unaddressed mental health conditions represent the greatest global health crisis in generations. Around the world, nations are increasingly dedicating more fiscal and human capital to programs to assist those in need while also advancing efforts to better educate societies on the signs, symptoms and appropriate responses to these treatable conditions. Only by increasing access to effective mental health care globally and by changing the culture surrounding mental health, mental illness and emotional well-being, will we ensure that all in need receive the care and support they deserve. Before COVID, 20% of Americans suffered from a mental health condition during any given year. Those numbers have doubled during the pandemic, with over 40% of adults now reporting depression, anxiety and substance use problems. Suicidal ideation is up among young people, with 1 in 4 people ages 18-24 yrs. seriously considering suicide in the prior 30 days. Caring for emotional health care is vital!
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
Military and Veteran Mental Health Services and Consulting
Our Web site matches mental health providers to military personnel and their families. Our site has the capacity to match based on geographic requirement and areas of need. We are continually recruiting new providers as we build partnerships with organizations that represent the mental health professional as well as those connected to the military.Our providers also offer consultation to employers, first-responders, schools, and other veterans service organizations; in-service training to counseling centers; and education and outreach services, to inform the larger community on issues affecting the mental health of veterans.
Enhancing the District’s Response to Trauma (EDRT)
The District of Columbia Office of Victim Services and Justice Grants has partnered with Give an Hour to develop a new initiative: Enhancing the District’s Response to Trauma (EDRT). At Give an Hour we believe that within our communities we have the resources to address many of society’s challenges that result in emotional pain and suffering. By harnessing the skills and generosity of citizens across our nation and around the world, we provide those in need with help and hope. EDRT will provide free and confidential trauma-specific mental health services to residents of the District of Columbia and their families who are victims of crime, justice-involved adults and juveniles, previously incarcerated persons managing reentry, and youth at risk of truancy or juvenile delinquency. Additionally, a primary goal of EDRT is to ensure that participating service providers have access to high quality, trauma-specific educational trainings so that as many providers as possible are trained in one or more trauma-specific modalities.
So Cal Route 91 Heals
The So Cal Route 91 Heals Program offers long-term mental health and emotional wellness support to those affected by the Route 91 mass shooting in Las Vegas on October 1, 2017. Fifty-eight people were killed, and at least 622 people were injured in the attack. The three-year program offers the following no-cost services for survivors to join or have access to:
Support groups (ongoing)
Emotional wellness training and coaching
Evidence-based peer support model
Trauma Resource Center
Yearly memorial events
Travel stipends to attend memorial events
Mental health services
Opioid Crisis Response
Over the past four years and in partnership with Ventura County Behavioral Health, this program offered no-cost training and overdose rescue kits to those who qualify. We conducted focused outreach for those who want to learn more or may be at risk for opioid overdose. In the next fiscal year, our partnership will expand to include an evidence-based, prevention education program serving middle- and high-schoolers in Ventura County.
Rare Disease Caregiver Program
This program is funded by an Alexion Charitable Foundation Rare Belonging® grant and addresses the unmet and/or disconnected mental health and emotional wellbeing needs of those in the rare disease caregiver community, regardless of where they are in the continuum of their caregiving journey. The focus is to: create curriculum training for mental health providers to deliver aligned and informed individual and peer support based on existing data; and engage with, listen to, capture and map the rare disease caregiver mental health and emotional well-being journey.
Where we work
Awards
Tadini Bacigalupi National Award 2023
NOVA
External reviews
Videos
Our results
How does this organization measure their results? It's a hard question but an important one.
Evaluation documents
Download evaluation reportsValue of services donated since 2005 (in Millions)
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Adults
Related Program
Military and Veteran Mental Health Services and Consulting
Type of Metric
Input - describing resources we use
Direction of Success
Increasing
hours donated by Give an Hour’s network of licensed providers.
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Adults
Related Program
Military and Veteran Mental Health Services and Consulting
Type of Metric
Input - describing resources we use
Direction of Success
Increasing
Number of volunteer health care providers
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Related Program
Military and Veteran Mental Health Services and Consulting
Type of Metric
Other - describing something else
Direction of Success
Holding steady
Our Sustainable Development Goals
Learn more about Sustainable Development Goals.
Goals & Strategy
Reports and documents
Download strategic planLearn 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?
After 15 years of successfully learning how to treat trauma and help military, veterans and their loved ones, Give an Hour continues to see an increasing need for mental health support and literacy. By offering hope and help through our three pillar approach, Give an Hour helps military members, veterans and loved ones address their mental health.
The three pillars of our work are: Mental Health Literacy, Access to Mental Health Care, and Community Culture Change
This year, Give an Hour will be focusing its work on two of the three pillars- offering access to no cost mental health counseling services through in person, phone and video services and providing mental health literacy resources and education.
Prior to the global wide Coronavirus pandemic, Give an Hour providers offered the majority of their services via in person sessions. From July 2019 to June 2020, Give an Hour provided access to more than 28,077 hours of services for at least 5,158 veterans, military and their loved ones. We expect to see an additional 30,000 hours to 5,500 clients in Fiscal Year 2021.
Give an Hour is using this moment as the impetus for the changes that military mental health care has always pushed for - expanded access to HIPAA compliant virtual services. Since March 2020 Give an Hour staff have worked to shift programming; encouraging and educating providers on using telemental health services; increasing providers by 6% and available telehealth providers by 236% in less than 6 months.
Give an Hour expects to see an increase in donated telehealth care services rendered over the next 6 months.
Give an Hour created a literacy curriculum as well as education on how to access services through the Give an Hour network. In six months, Give an Hour staff coordinated and presented over 20 presentations.
In addition to providing access to care; Give an Hour will continue to build on our wealth of prevention and literacy resources available for those who have served and their loved ones. Give an Hour created a series of easily digestible information to utilize virtually and in military facilities across the nation.
To date, Give an Hour has produced 12 one-page informational wellness resources, with the intention to create at least 4 more in Fiscal Year 2021.
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
Give an Hour has a 15 year history. We know that our model works.
Give an Hour addresses mental health challenges in society- challenges that, when left unaltered, often result in emotional pain and suffering. By offering hope and help, Give an Hour helps communities learn to address these challenges together.
Our aim is to improve the mental health and emotional wellbeing of all persons. Our work is supported by the following three pillars: providing access to mental health care for those in need, promoting mental health literacy and prevention, and changing the negative culture of mental health.
Access to Care: Give an Hour harnesses the skill, expertise and generosity of 4,500 volunteer mental health professionals across the country. Give an Hour providers respond to both acute and chronic conditions by providing help and hope to those in the veteran and military communities, those affected by natural disasters such as the COVID-19 pandemic and California wildfires, and man-made disasters, such as mass shootings.
Mental Health Literacy: Prevention and early identification of emotional suffering are essential to good mental health. Give an Hour has developed its Emotional Life Skills (ELS) psychoeducational training for community and corporate groups nationwide. ELS delivers the skills and tools that will empower community members to better care for themselves and those they love.
Cultural Change: Give an Hour leads the Campaign to Change Direction, a collective public health effort with the goal to change the culture of mental health so that all those in need receive the care and support they deserve. This work has expanded nationally and internationally.
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
Give an Hour is recognized as a leader among nonprofits, especially veterans service organizations, in providing free vital services to members of the military and veterans. The impact of unaddressed mental health challenges across the global community is not yet fully understood, with all indicators pointing to the challenge only growing. At the same time, success is being achieved through greater understanding of conditions, changing the culture, educating about the signs, and bringing assistance to those in need. We are well positioned to advance these efforts while playing a greater and much needed leadership role around the world. Achieving our goals/objectives will enable Give an Hour to be that global mental health organization.
Veterans and Military. Through our network of 4,500 licensed mental health professionals who volunteer their services Give an Hour has provided over 330,000 hours of free care to veterans, U.S. service members and their families, as well as for victims of manmade and natural disasters such as the Las Vegas Route 91 mass shooting and the COVID-19 pandemic.
COVID-19 Hospital staff. Our Hospital Heroes program offers free mental health treatment to front line hospital workers and their loved ones. The treatment is available to both clinical personnel and non-direct care hospital employees.
Emotional Life Skills training. Give an Hour’s ELS training, which teaches early identification, self-care, and the use of supports systems, has been successfully deployed in many settings such as hospitals, businesses, the Ohio prison system, and for victims of California wildfires and the Las Vegas massacre. ELS training explicitly addresses emotional survival skills during the pandemic.
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
With COVID-19 gripping the world, nearly half of Americans report that the coronavirus crisis has harmed their mental health -- and anxiety, depression and substance use are rampant. Give an Hour has stepped up its free mental health treatment programs, as well as expanded our work to promote emotional wellbeing and self-care during the crisis.
We established the three pillars that support our 15-years of success striving to improve the mental health and emotional wellbeing of all persons.
In addition to addressing increased needs for mental health services in the military and veteran communities due to COVID-19, we stood up new programs to provide free counseling to COVID hospital workers through our Hospital Heroes and First Responders First programs. And, since our clients have been unable to see therapists in person, we doubled the capacity of our volunteer mental health professionals to provide virtual counseling. GAH achieved a major milestone in our treatment programs this fiscal year, exceeding 325,000 hours of free treatment donated since our inception.
We also launched our Emotional Life Skills (ELS) training program, a psychoeducational group model about early identification of emotional suffering, self-care and the use of support systems. Due to COVID, we converted ELS to an online format, and continue to deliver it in diverse venues including hospitals, schools, prisons, and for victims of gun violence and wildfires. We are currently rolling out a version for businesses called ELS at Work, which will be widely available in fiscal year 2021.
Give an Hour has been providing military and veteran communities with no cost treatment services for 15 years. The pandemic added new dimensions to the challenges to those already experiencing deployment, separation and isolation, financial strain, and interpersonal relationships. Our 4,500 providers committed to volunteering a minimum of one hour a week for a year. Give an Hour providers reported donating 24,368 hours of care to 5,158 military, veterans, and loved ones through face to face, telephonic, and telehealth services.
By increasing our capacity to offer telehealth services by increasing the percentage of our network available for video counseling from 4% to 20%. Give an Hour providers reported donating 7,488 hours of video or phone counseling; a 185% increase from the prior fiscal year.
Give an Hour will continue to increase its telehealth services for our military and veteran clients in the new fiscal year.
Give an Hour California: supports those affected by the devastating wildfires, the pandemic, and the Borderline mass shooting in California. These vital programs includes Give an Hour’s Emotional Life Skills Training series and support groups.
Enhancing the District’s Response to Trauma: Give an Hour and the District of Columbia Office of Victim Services and Justice Grants came together to enhance the District’s Response to Trauma (EDRT).
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, We tell the people who gave us feedback how we acted on their feedback, We ask the people who gave us feedback how well they think we responded
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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, We don’t have the right technology to collect and aggregate feedback efficiently, The people we serve tell us they find data collection burdensome, It is difficult to find the ongoing funding to support feedback collection, Staff find it hard to prioritize feedback collection and review due to lack of time
Financials
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Operations
The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.
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.
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.
Give an Hour
Board of directorsas of 09/06/2023
Sean Howard
WPP
Patricia Bowditch
Kolaghassi Capital
Edward Schiff
Law Firm of Sheppard, Mullin, Richter, and Hampton LLP
Antonio E. Puente
University of North Carolina Wilmington
Sean Howard
WPP Government & Public Sector Practice
Patricia Toledo
James Byrne
Lockheed Martin
Pam Swan
Veterans United Home Loans
Robert Scott
Birdon America
Ross Whitmore
Alena Anotowich
Duke University
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 ? No -
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? No
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:
The organization's co-leader identifies as:
Race & ethnicity
Gender identity
Transgender Identity
Sexual orientation
Disability
Equity strategies
Last updated: 09/01/2022GuideStar 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 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 measure and then disaggregate job satisfaction and retention data by race, function, level, and/or team.
- 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.