A Letter from President & CEO Richard M. Walden

October 15, 2015

Dear Friend,

The cost of the upcoming 2016 elections will surpass $8 billion at all levels. These funds come from private donors who might otherwise provide necessary funds to strengthen communities here at home and throughout the world. Donors who support political campaigns too often shift funds away from charities during election cycles, significantly impacting what those groups are able to accomplish. We hope this year you’ll help lessen this impact and remember to support your favorite nonprofit.

Operation USA is not a government aid contractor like many other major relief groups. Rather, we rely on individuals, foundations and corporate partners to provide the funds, supplies and services needed to complete important relief and recovery work in the wake of major disasters. Without this support, we could not sustain our life-changing health and education programs aimed at helping children and families worldwide recover and thrive.

During the past year, we responded to typhoons, earthquakes, and the Ebola epidemic in addition to maintaining long-term recovery projects, shipping hospital equipment and supplies to partners around the globe and initiating domestic programs to support our nation’s most vulnerable. In Haiti, our school continues to feed more than 600 students each day who might not otherwise have access to food. In the Philippines, we opened a school that gives more than 250 students a place to learn, grow and develop important life skills. On the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, we kept residents warm through the winter by delivering heaters and supplying the youth center with propane gas. Your donations made all this possible.

As we look ahead to the future, we’re coordinating even more programs to support health, education and youth development initiatives in vulnerable communities. Currently, we’re working with partners in Nepal to rebuild a school in a remote village where hundreds of students were impacted by two major earthquakes. In the United States, at-risk youths on Native American reservations and in impoverished southern communities will be given the opportunity to participate in leadership skill-building programs we’re developing and/or supporting. Every day, Operation USA strives to meet the needs of those who are too often overlooked or forgotten.

This work, I believe, merits your financial support in a time of unprecedented need. Around the world we see massive refugee crises, a worsening climate creating “super storms” and unexpected and unplanned-for disasters which seem to happen with increasing frequency. Humanitarian aid groups like Operation USA play a crucial role in combating the effects of these disasters, and we can’t do it without your help.

I hope you will consider generously supporting Operation USA as a wise investment in restoring and enhancing lives.

Sincerely,

President & CEO