Eating Our Own Tail: The Hidden Flaw in Veteran Community Funding
When it comes to supporting veterans, families, and surviving spouses, the first instinct of our community is to circle the wagons and take care of our own. It’s admirable. It’s necessary. And it often works—at least for a while. But there’s a problem lurking beneath the surface, one that many of us in the veteran advocacy world hesitate to name: we are funding ourselves into failure.
In many ways, veteran community funding is like a snake eating its own tail. We fundraise within the veteran community to fund programs for the veteran community. The same small pool of veterans, families, and survivors is asked again and again to give their time, energy, and money to keep the very services alive that they themselves depend on. It’s a cycle that feels supportive on the outside but is ultimately unsustainable.
The Cycle of Self-Funding
Think about the last fundraiser you saw for a veteran nonprofit: maybe it was a GoFundMe to cover emergency expenses for a veteran family, or a gala where tickets cost more than most surviving spouses’ monthly utility bills. Who was in the audience? Who donated? Nine times out of ten, it was other veterans, spouses, or families who already know the struggle firsthand.
The reality is this: the veteran community is not a bottomless well of resources. Asking the same population to continually self-fund its own support creates fatigue, resentment, and burnout. Worse, it risks shutting out those who need help the most—because the ones being asked to give are often the very same people in need.
Why This Model Fails
A community that only funds itself will eventually collapse for three reasons:
Shrinking donor pool. Veterans make up less than 5% of the U.S. population. Families and survivors add a bit more, but it’s still a small fraction compared to the needs. You can’t build sustainable funding by drawing from such a limited base.
Unequal burden. Survivors and disabled veterans—those most in need of assistance—are often the ones pressured to “support the cause” through memberships, donations, or ticket sales they can’t afford.
Lack of outside awareness. If the only people investing in veteran causes are veterans themselves, then the civilian majority never develops the ownership or understanding that these issues require. It reinforces the dangerous myth that “veterans take care of their own.”
Breaking the Cycle
The answer is not to stop supporting one another—we must always take care of our community. But we need to stop pretending we can do this alone. Real change requires broadening the base of support.
Educate the civilian population. Veterans make up a small slice of society, but their service impacts everyone. When civilians understand that veteran issues are national issues, not just “military family problems,” they’re more likely to engage and donate.
Push for institutional responsibility. Federal and state governments must be held accountable for funding programs that honor the promises made to those who served. Nonprofits should not be forced to fill gaps created by systemic neglect.
Build partnerships outside the community. Corporations, philanthropies, and civic organizations need to see veteran support as part of their social responsibility—not charity reserved for patriotic holidays.
Diversify funding models. Relying solely on donations and galas is a dead end. Social enterprises, fee-for-service programs, and collaborative grant funding can create new streams of revenue.
The Hard Truth
If we keep eating our own tail, the veteran community will eventually consume itself. Programs will shutter, services will vanish, and those who served will be left with nothing but the empty reassurance that “we tried.”
It doesn’t have to end that way. By expanding our reach beyond the veteran community, demanding accountability from our institutions, and engaging the civilian majority in meaningful ways, we can build a model of support that isn’t just a cycle—but a foundation strong enough to carry generations forward.
Because the veteran community deserves more than survival. We deserve sustainability.
