Programs and results
What we aim to solve
Our military, which deploys around the world to protect our nation, is an all-volunteer force. Those who choose to serve on our behalf willingly make the deep sacrifices that military service requires. Military family life challenges include:
1. Dealing with the isolation that comes from frequent moves, often to remote locations far from family and friends
2. Accommodating those moves while caring for the family and keeping the household running
3. Managing child care, schooling, and continuity of education issues
4. Enduring economic insecurity with heightened employment and financial challenges
5. Overcoming the staggering rate of military spouse unemployment – 21% compared to national average of 4%
6. Coping with the worry and loneliness of long separations from the service member during deployments
7. Handling the scarcity of quality family time and the limitations of activities due to cost
8. Caring for a wounded service member with a disabling physical or mental injury or illness
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
Blue Star Books
Blue Star Families, with the help of partners, has given hundreds of thousands of books away to more than 560,000 military kids across the world. Blue Star Books also features book clubs for military and civilian families.
Annual Military Family Lifestyle Survey
Blue Star Families’ annual Military Family Lifestyle Survey (aMFLS) provides a comprehensive understanding of the experiences and challenges encountered by military families. It remains the largest and most comprehensive survey of active duty, veterans, and their families.
This seminal survey provides a yearly “snapshot” of the state of military families, offering crucial insight and data to help inform national leaders, local communities, and philanthropic actors. Most critically, the publication and widespread use of this survey create opportunities to support the health and sustainability of our all-volunteer Force by increasing dialogue and understanding between the military community and broader American society.
Blue Star Families conducted its 9th annual Military Family Lifestyle Survey in April-May, 2018 with over 10,100 respondents including military spouses, active duty service members, veterans, and their immediate family members participating in the survey.
Blue Star Museums
In collaboration with the DoD, the National Endowment for the Arts, and museums across America, free admission for the nation’s active-duty military personnel, including the National Guard and Reserves, and their families.
Blue Star Parks
Provides active-duty, veteran, and Gold Star families free access to more than 2,000 federal recreation areas, including national parks, wildlife refuges, and forests with the America the Beautiful par
Blue Star Caregivers
Honors, recognizes, and supports military, Veteran, and family caregivers by hosting social events, online support groups, and providing opportunities for communities to engage with our caregivers.
Blue Star Careers
Connects military spouses to meaningful career resources, employment, certifications, and more through our virtual community, Spouseforce.
Blue Star Summer
Created for families to establish connections to their local communities, pursue new adventures, and broaden their horizons through educational and fun activities during summer break.
Blue Star Volunteer
Since 2009, we have relied on the efforts of dedicated volunteers to achieve our mission of empowering our military families to thrive through strong communities of support.
Blue Star Welcome Week
Welcome Week provides fun and creative opportunities for military families to meet and engage with members of their new community, helping ease their transition and create a greater sense of belonging to feel at home.
Where we work
Awards
Vetty Award for Leadership 2019
Academy of US Veterans
External reviews

Photos
Our results
How does this organization measure their results? It's a hard question but an important one.
Evaluation documents
Download evaluation reportsTotal number of volunteer hours contributed to the organization
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Adults
Type of Metric
Input - describing resources we use
Direction of Success
Increasing
Books Gifted To Military Children
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Children and youth
Related Program
Blue Star Books
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Holding steady
Membership growth
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Adults
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Military Spouse Income Impact from Obtaining a Job Through Our Resources
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Adults
Related Program
Blue Star Careers
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Exclusive Member Events Per Year
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Adults
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Number of Participants taking the annual Military Family Lifestyle Survey
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Adults
Related Program
Annual Military Family Lifestyle Survey
Type of Metric
Context - describing the issue we work on
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
The annual Military FamilyLifestyle Survey serves as the go to document of military family life for both the government and service organizations across the country.
Number of Military Family Visits to Blue Star Museums Per Year
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Adults
Related Program
Blue Star Museums
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Holding steady
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 Blue Star Families, our mission is to help military families address the challenges of the military lifestyle with innovative strategies. Since our founding, our Chapter-based model has given Blue Star Families grassroots level access to organize military families to tell their story and create community to both identify and solve problems. This Chapter model has proven very successful in helping military families get connected and supported right where they live. Blue Star Families brings together public, private, philanthropic, and military communities to better serve local military families. We identify opportunities and provide resources that speak directly to their real and current needs. Throughout the nation, we currently have over 30 volunteer-driven Neighborhood Chapters and 11 fully-staffed Chapters.
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
Blue Star Families will focus on creating a sense of belonging to the local community through Increasing a sense of belonging to the local civilian community and improving or changing military family policies. Blue Star Families also aims to improve member engagement by increasing volunteerism, diversifying program options, improving Blue Star Families’ role as the thought leader in the local community, improving overall member engagement. Blue Star Families plans to develop and maintain sustainable local chapters by growing local and national membership, diversifying membership, developing additional local and national partnerships, improving brand recognition, building credible infrastructure, delivering Blue Star Family core programs, and supporting Chapter sustainability.
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
Blue Star Families remains committed to ensuring the programming and services offered to members continue to support the mission of reducing the challenges of the military lifestyle. Through online programming surveys and the results of the annual Military Family Life Survey, Blue Star Families is able to identify areas of need and strategies and programs to support military families overcome isolation, increase community connection, and gain meaningful employment.
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
While rebranding our volunteer-led chapters, we conducted a community landscape analysis to determine locations where we could leverage industry presence and military service members. We started 2020 by sustaining 11 locally-staffed chapter locations: Washington, D.C.; St. Louis, Missouri; Jacksonville, Florida; Salt Lake City, Utah; Nashville/Clarksville, Tennessee; Chicago, Illinois; Baltimore, Maryland; San Diego, California; New York City, NY; Tampa, FL; Dayton, OH.
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 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
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Which of the following feedback practices does your organization routinely carry out?
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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, It is difficult to get honest feedback from the people we serve
Financials
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Learn more
about GuideStar Pro.
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.
Blue Star Families
Board of directorsas of 01/19/2023
Sheila Casey
Gwendolyn Bingham
Retired US Army Lieutenant General
Term: 2020 -
Charles Eggleston
Three Seven Consulting
Nada Stirratt
Jennifer O'Connor
Northrop Grumman Corporation
Todd Finger
McDermott, Will & Emery
Whit Cobb
PAE Systems
Sheila Casey
The Hill
Chris Bogdan
Booz Allen Hamilton
Bryan Tucker
CSX
Brianna Keilar
CNN
Larry Spencer
Armed Forces Benefit Association
John Vonglis
GAMCO Investors, Inc.
Gwendolyn Bingham
Retired US Army Lieutenant General
Valdice Nicholas
Senior Vice President, Creative Director at Summit Media
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
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
No data
Gender identity
Sexual orientation
No data
Disability
No data
Equity strategies
Last updated: 03/08/2021GuideStar 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 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 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.