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Blue Star Families Inc at a glanceMostly funded, not a grantmaker: see who funds it →

· Public charity

Blue Star Families Inc

Blue star families is committed to connecting one another through the unique challenges of military service and asking the larger civilian population to help as well, strengthening military families regardless of rank, branch of service or physical location, and leading military family members towards opportunities to build strength in…

$250k
Granted FY2024still arriving
15
Grants FY2024still arriving
11
States reached
$25k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its fieldRead
01What it funds
01100% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2023 to 2024.

Human Services$150kCommunity Improvement$30kPublic Benefit$30kArts & Culture$15kHealth$15kEmployment$15kFood & Nutrition$15k
02FY2024 · 15 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

$15,000
Median grant
11
States reached
$51M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
NAVAL SERVICES FAMILYLINE$25,000
THE RICK HERREMA FOUNDATION INC$25,000
VETS COMMUNITY CONNECTIONS$20,000
MILITARY SUPPORT ALLIANCE$15,000
HAMPTON ROADS WORKFORCE FOUNDATION$15,000
OMAHA PERFORMING ARTS SOCIETY$15,000
VALLEY CITIES COUNSELING AND CONSULTATION$15,000
PAY-LESS SUPERMARKETS$15,000
ARMED SERVICES YMCA EL PASO$15,000
ROLLA CHAMBER FOUNDATION$15,000
UNITED THROUGH READING - VENDOR$15,000
ARMED SERVICES YMCA FORT BRAGG$15,000
AMERICA'S WARRIOR PARTNERSHIP$15,000
COMBINED ARMS$15,000
ALBANY CHAMBER FOUNDATION INC$15,000
02The need
03

Does the money reach high-need areas?

Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.

show:

Its human-services grants (FY24–24, $45k) land where the poverty rate runs at 18%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 100% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 10%ARMED SERVICES YMCA EL PASO: $15k → 21%AMERICA'S WARRIOR PARTNERSHIP: $15k → 18%ARMED SERVICES YMCA FORT BRAGG: $15k → 16%0%20%40%50%more need →
grant to an above-average-need area below average· circle size = grant amount
How this is measured
Matched: human-services grants are those whose grantee’s IRS cause code is Human Services. Placed by people below the poverty line in the grantee’s ZIP, averaged from the tracts in that ZIP.

Which US states its grants reach

WA
NJ
CA
NE
MO
VA
NC
DC
GA
TX
How this is measured
US grants placed by each grantee’s ZIP, which can differ from where services are delivered. Need from public data (U.S. Census/ACS, CDC PLACES, Eviction Lab, USDA), shown as context about the area, never attributed to the funder’s giving.
03Its field

Closest unfunded matches

The nonprofits that most resemble its grantees but are not funded by it, scored along the direction from the rest of the field toward the portfolio. A resemblance in what they say they do, not a recommendation.

1
Military Family Building Coalition
—
2
Network for Exceptional Military Families
—
3
Military Wellness Initiative
Public Benefit
4
Military Officers Association of America

Preserve and protect earned benefits for our uniformed services, veterans, their families, and surviving spouses through advocacy, leadership, education and service. provide first-class service to our members. we are the leading voice on…

Public Benefit
5
Soldiers of America
Human Services
6
Life Skills for Soldiers

The mission of Life Skills for Soldiers is to improve service-members' lives through life skills education. Our vision is to create a platform and leverage the train-the-trainer methodology to make it easy for all military leaders to teach…

Human Services
7
Vetality Corp

Services for veterans

—
8
American Soldier

To give assistance to discharged military veterans and their families.

Human Services
9
Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors Inc

The tragedy assistance program for survivors (taps) is america's national nonprofit organization that has cared for the loved ones of our nation's fallen heroes since 1994. taps ensures these living legacies of service and sacrifice do not…

Health
10
National Veterans Hiring Association

The support of our sponsors allows veterans to empower veterans, military spouses, and transitioning service members to find meaningful employment opportunities each year. Committed to meaningful opportunity employment advisory councils…

Public Benefit
11
A Bridge Between Us

Bridging the gap between military and civilian life through outdoor adventures.

Public Benefit
12
Special Ops Survivors

Special ops survivors advances the mission "to embrace and empower surviving spouses of fallen special operations heroes to build healthy post-loss futures as they transition and rebuild their new lives." the foundation provides programs…

Human Services
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is America's Warrior Partnership Inc; the most unlike its peers is Vets Community Connections. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
04the grantee network

11 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2025.

Each grant beside the grantee’s revenue from every source, year by year.

How this is measured

Counted here: distinct organizations funded across 2017 to 2025, not grant rows in a single year, so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 11 of the 14 grantees resolved in that span have returns of their own we could reconcile.

Each grantee is resolved to its own IRS returns. Association, dated; never a causal claim.

0
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
1
Early backer (in before they grew)
11/11
Grantees still filing
3/11
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

VETS COMMUNITY CONNECTIONS: $40,000 · OtherVETS COMMUNITY CONNECTIONSPAY-LESS SUPERMARKETS: $15,000 · OtherPAY-LESS SUPERMARKETSALBANY CHAMBER FOUNDATION INC: $15,000 · OtherALBANY CHAMBER FOUNDATION INCHAMPTON ROADS WORKFORCE COUNCIL: $15,000 · OtherHAMPTON ROADS WORKFORCE COUNCILNAVAL SERVICES FAMILYLINE: $25,000 · Public BenefitNAVAL SERVICES FAMILYLINECombined Arms: $15,000 · Public BenefitCombined ArmsROLLA CHAMBER FOUNDATION INC: $15,000 · Public BenefitROLLA CHAMBER FOUNDATION INCUNITED THROUGH READING: $15,000 · Public BenefitUNITED THROUGH READINGARMED SERVICES YMCA OF THE USA: $30,000 · Human ServicesARMED SERVICES YMC…AMERICA'S WARRIOR PARTNERSHIP INC: $15,000 · Human ServicesAMERICA'S WARRIOR …THE RICK HERREMA FOUNDATION INC: $25,000 · HealthTHE RICK HERREMA…VALLEY CITIES COUNSELING AND CONSULTATION: $15,000 · HealthVALLEY CITIES CO…Military Support Alliance of NJ Inc: $15,000 · Community ImprovementOMAHA PERFORMING ARTS SOCIETY: $15,000 · Arts & Culture
Other$85,000Public Benefit$70,000Human Services$45,000Health$40,000Community Improvement$15,000Arts & Culture$15,000

Each grantee by its size and the funder’s share of it; top left is load-bearing

25%50%75%100%$1.0M$10Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetVETS COMMUNITY CONNECTIONS: $40,000 over 2y, 14% of budgetARMED SERVICES YMCA OF THE USA: $30,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetTHE RICK HERREMA FOUNDATION INC: $25,000 over 1y, 1.2% of budgetAMERICA'S WARRIOR PARTNERSHIP INC: $15,000 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetMilitary Support Alliance of NJ Inc: $15,000 over 1y, 12% of budgetCombined Arms: $15,000 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetOMAHA PERFORMING ARTS SOCIETY: $15,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetVALLEY CITIES COUNSELING AND CONSULTATION: $15,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetROLLA CHAMBER FOUNDATION INC: $15,000 over 1y, 22% of budgetUNITED THROUGH READING: $15,000 over 1y, 0.4% of budget
Grantee by grantee: a decade per organization, before and after funding

A decade per grantee: revenue shaded, grants as bars, all rows on one timeline.

Co-funders

Grantmakers whose grantees overlap with this funder’s far more than size alone predicts. Closer means stronger alignment; arcs show where they also fund each other. Here they form a tightly interlocked group: most of these funders back each other's grantees too.

Bob Woodruff Family F…Wounded Warrior Proje…The Blackbaud Giving …The Bank of America C…National Philanthropi…American Online Givin…Donor Advised Charita…Fidelity Investments …Amazonsmile Foundation
Bob Woodruff Family Foundation IncNY15.6× affinity5 shared granteesties to 8 of 8Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Bob Woodruff Family Foundation Inc · Wounded Warrior Project Inc · The Blackbaud Giving Fund · The Bank of America Charitable Foundation Inc · National Philanthropic Trust · American Online Giving Foundation Inc · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund · Amazonsmile Foundation

How this is measured
Affinity is a Gamma-Poisson posterior co-funding rate, re-centered on the typical rate, so thin evidence shrinks toward no signal. Overlap is association, not proof of shared intent.

How much its grantees rely on government

Each dot is one organization Blue Star Families Inc funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Blue Star Families Inc. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 10%2%6%14%25%funder's share of their income ↑0%8%15%22%30%share of the org’s income from government →
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    1get no government money at all
    2report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
    0rely on government for over half their income
    ⤢ axis zoomed · 0–30%
    typical government reliance, FY20–25
    How this is measured
    Government income is each org’s traced federal awards (USASpending grants and contracts) plus state payments (open checkbooks) as a share of its total revenue (IRS Form 990); the self-reported government-grant line (990 line 1e) is carried for cross-check: a grantee that reports government grants we could not trace to a source is left off the chart rather than shown as receiving none. An association, not a claim that a grant caused the public funding. Coverage is precision-first, a floor rather than a census; state records exist for 9 states, so a grantee outside them shows no state figure (dimmed) rather than a false zero. Federal award amounts are obligations, which can span years, so a single-year share is indicative. 990 filings lag 12 to 24 months.

    On method. Every financial figure here is read from IRS e-file XML, the funder’s own 990/990-PF, and from the multi-year returns of the 14 grantees we resolved, each linked to its source. Grantee outcomes are each organization’s own program-service reporting (Form 990, Part III), read as association with funding, never as caused by it. Low-confidence name matches are suppressed rather than guessed. How we build these →

    How this is measured
    Each figure carries one of six labels. Filed is what the funder reported on its return. Official is another government record about an organization, such as a federal award or a charity register, joined by name where no shared identifier exists. Resolved is an identity we worked out where the filing named a recipient without an EIN, kept only above a measured confidence threshold. Computed is arithmetic over those, like themes, portfolio clusters and co-funder strength. Context is a statistic about a place rather than about an organization, which is what the need overlay is: it describes the area a grantee’s address sits in, not where its work lands. Inferred is drawn by a model from text, like the partnerships read out of public news and organization websites. Each is labeled where it appears.

    Generated from the IRS Form 990 e-file return for fiscal year 2024, released 2024. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

    Source object · view filing

    Play a game based on Blue Star Families’ filings →

    More from the funding graph

    The unnamed billions
    grants reported with no recipient in the public record
    The regranting layer
    51% of grant dollars land in the regranting layer
    The DAF merry-go-round
    $9.7B circulates between donor-advised funds
    The endowment market
    who holds foundation money, and what just moved
    The camps
    funders cluster by geography, not ideology
    By state
    where grant money is based, and what stays home