Our History

Blue Star Families helps transform America’s understanding of military families, aiming to create a stronger foundation for the the All-Volunteer Force. Through groundbreaking research, modeling what right looks like, and mobilizing powerful coalitions of support, we are on a mission to change the way America supports its military.

When a diverse group of military spouses created Blue Star Families in 2009, military families were rarely a footnote in policy conversations. In 2024, two-thirds of Americans say military families play a crucial role in the mission readiness of the U.S. military. That’s great news. We engage more than 1.5 million military family members every year through our free programs, and our superpower is strengthening military families by connecting them with their neighbors to create vibrant communities of mutual support.

Innovating Through Lived Experience

Creating a New Identity: The Blue Star Family

Grounding Solutions in Data

Mobilizing Cross-Sector Collaboratives

Managing Explosive Growth

Strengthening the Nation

Transformational Trust

Thousands have invested in our mission, but several gifts fundamentally enabled us to achieve it. Along the way, we’ve partnered with unusual donors who have their own aspirational visions for a better world. For many, Blue Star Families was an unknown entity or we were pitching a completely untested idea. They took the risk anyway. They trusted us to innovate, donated their time and expertise to co-create with us, and encouraged us to reach higher, move faster, and push farther than we ever would have without them. Without these gifts, our history would end here.

The Blue Shield of California Foundation was our very first donor. Their 2009 gift led to a revolution in how we as a nation support military families. Blue Shield funded our first survey and the first White Oak Retreat, even as we were in our formation year. The retreat brought government, nonprofit, and private sector leaders together for the first time to find solutions to the concerns facing the military-connected community. Since then, more than 100,000 people have weighed in on the annual Military Family Lifestyle Survey and the 140+ member White Oak Collaborative has become a crucial part of our national security infrastructure.

Blue Shield of California Foundation

The CJM Foundation provided our first major gift in 2009 and remains our longest-standing, sustained funder. The Foundation’s support enabled Blue Star Families to support the 25,000 families using our programs through our first year. Ambassador Connie Milstein, a former CJM Foundation trustee, is a Founding Blue Star Families Board Member. Her early participation validated our work and helped us cultivate a robust network of high-profile advisors who would go on to become Blue Star Families champions. Beloved programs like Blue Star Museums, The White Oak Collaborative, and others were fostered by Connie. Ambassador Milstein’s encouragement and introductions reinforced the importance of building unique collaborations to support military families, which remains a core to our mission today.

CJM Foundation

Since 2011, Jonathan and Jennifer Soros have provided seed funding for some of our most aspirational ideas: those that inspire all Americans to remember and honor the historic role of the U.S. military and their families. From more than 26 million volunteer hours pledged to raise awareness about military service through Operation Honor Card to retired military officers now with terminal degrees now teaching 28+ courses at our nation’s most prestigious colleges through The Chamberlain Project, to honoring the role the military played in the Civil Rights Movement, Jennifer and Jonathan's funding has allowed Blue Star Families to play a crucial role in telling a story that goes beyond “thank you for your service.”

Jennifer and
Jonathan Allan Soros Fund

Craig Newmark is our greatest all-time benefactor and greatest coach, always challenging us to do more, faster. Thanks to craigslist Craig, by 2030, Blue Star Families will offer in-person programming in at least 26 Chapters and 48 Outposts. His support allows us to relentlessly advocate for data-backed policy changes, create a national volunteer corps, and inspire everyday Americans and organizations nationwide to Do Their Part for military families and the common defense. Craig began as an advisor in 2012, served on our Board from 2015 to 2019, and has been innovating and co-creating with us ever since. Craig has always seen our potential, backing many of the programmatic ideas our research told us would work. He provided seed funding for communications campaigns speaking directly to the American people, our DEPLOY Fellowship program, our digital platform, and Blue Star Welcome Week, and helped us innovate Blue Star Outposts. From his initial $25,000 gift in 2011, Craig has consistently doubled down, culminating in this year’s historic and transformational gift.

craig newmark philanthropies

USAA is our research champion. Since USAA’s research support began in 2012, they have been a named sponsor on 20 of our most prominent research projects. Findings from our 74 published reports (made possible by more than 154,000 research participants!) have changed the national dialogue about the role military families play in national security, influenced policy, and inspired individuals and organizations to Do Their Part to support military families and the common defense. USAA has also been an instrumental White Oak supporter, was a major contributor to the COVID-19 Military Support Initiative, helped launch our Campaign for Inclusion, funded our early Caregiver programming, and is an original signatory of the 4+1 Commitment.

USAA

In 2013, Disney became our first significant, long-term, iconic brand partner. Beloved by military families, Disney helped us scale and strengthen our popular Books on Bases program (now Blue Star Books) at the height of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Through about two dozen Disney-branded events on military installations and more than 350,000 books gifted through thousands of Chapter events, kids and families have enjoyed important quality time together, indulging their imaginations alongside special guests like Mickey and Minnie, while also improving literacy. Disney’s support goes beyond books, too, with spouse employment programming funding, access to occasional special screening events for our members, and exciting new activations with Disney VoluntEARS in 2025!

The Walt Disney Company

In 2014, the Robert R. McCormick Foundation became our first substantial community-based funder. Under Don Cooke, the Foundation’s early, strong, and brave support for and participation in White Oak Retreats enabled their success, provided insight into the unique needs facing military-connected families living outside defense communities, and underscored the importance of including community-based organizations in national policy conversations. McCormick Foundation-funded Fellows allowed Blue Star Families to offer customized programming to National Guard families and gave us our first physical presence in Illinois, where our Chicagoland Chapter now serves about 4,000 Blue Star Families members.

Robert R. McCormick Foundation

Since 2015, Starbucks has provided authentic support of our military families by connecting them to their neighbors — both military and civilian — by hosting nearly 2,000 community events in their stores. Starbucks is Blue Star Families’ premier partner, providing in-person programming for the 67% of our members who do not reside in Chapter locations. Additionally, volunteers host regular Coffee Connect meetups in our Chapter locations, helping military families overcome isolation and build strong friendships. Since May 2019, during Military Appreciation Month, Starbucks promotes a month-long eGift campaign on their app, providing BSF with both brand visibility and customer-generated funding. In addition, they have generously donated more than 20,000 cups of coffee, allowing us to surprise and delight our members. Most recently, Starbucks stepped up as a founding member of the Do Your Part coalition and was the first signatory of the 4+1 Commitment.

Starbucks

The Bristol Myers Squibb Foundation (BMS Foundation), an independent charitable organization, funded a three-year Blue Star Chapter pilot program in 2017, which gave us the evidence we needed to scale our Chapters nationally. Conducted in partnership with the Sorenson Impact Center at the University of Utah (today called the Sorenson Impact Institute), the Connected Communities Impact Study found that Blue Star Families Chapters provide the building blocks for belonging. Few philanthropies contributions towards proving social impact; thanks to the support of the BMS Foundation, we were able to attract new like-minded, metric and impact-based funders to help us scale. Moreover we were able to demonstrate that “belonging" is the most important upstream solution to many of the challenges facing military families, and so better focus programs and interventions. Today, our Chapters cover 20 states, with significant future growth planned. We plan to keep expanding until we have a Chapter in every state and some overseas.

Bristol Myers Squibb Foundation

Since 2018, CSX has helped launch, professionalize, and grow 10 of our original Chapters. As of 2024, CSX-backed Chapters support 75,000 Blue Star Families members. Because of CSX’s generous and sustaining support, we were able to iterate, evaluate, and learn how to better support military-connected families in our Chapters, resulting in our growth from a single Chapter Director model to our current Executive Director + Program Manager model. Through the company’s signature Pride in Service community investment initiative, CSX cross-functional leaders and employees directly engage with their local Blue Star Chapter, fostering stronger relationships at the local level, ultimately aiming to bridge civilian-military divides and deliver the resources military families need, when and where they need it most.

CSX

In 2020, Booz Allen Hamilton was the major funder of the COVID-19 Military Support Initiative (CMSI), enabling a seamless cross-sector response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Through continuous polling, weekly town halls, and working groups, emerging problems were identified in near real-time, prioritized for action, and addressed by military, local government, nonprofit, and philanthropic partners. Led by Blue Star Families and the Association for Defense Communities, in partnership with organizations who had participated in White Oak Retreats, CMSI led to the permanent establishment of The White Oak Collaborative. It was a watershed moment in Blue Star Families’ history, showcasing our ability to quickly pivot our entire organization to lead a national emergency response. Today, the 140+ member White Oak Collaborative has become critical to our nation’s ability to support military-connected families during a crisis.

Booz Allen Hamilton

Patrick J. McGovern Foundation funding began in 2021 and enabled Blue Star Families to create the largest online (and secure) community for military families — set to have 100,000 members by the end of 2024 — and experiment with ways for AI and data science to expand our reach and impact. Our members need to reach our community and resources virtually, especially since more than half do not live in a Chapter. We also know military and Veteran families are targeted by bad actors for identity theft, misinformation, psychological operations, and extremists, so a safe place for trusted information is critical. With the multi-year, sustained support from The McGovern Foundation, Blue Star Families is now building that fun and easy-to-use space, which also happens to be one of the most robust and secure in-house social sector data science analytics capabilities in the nation. Plus, we are sharing these analytics resources with trusted partner organizations to ensure that our entire community is better meeting the needs of the military-connected families we serve.

The Patrick J. McGovern Foundation

Mackenzie Scott’s $10 million dollar gift in 2022 empowered us to invest in the infrastructure and talent we knew we needed to scale. Mackenzie’s trust was contagious. Our vision for the future of military family support resonated with others, too, and we have exceeded our ambitious growth goals every year since. Her gift also galvanized Blue Star Families’ staff by instilling the belief that we could and should change the way America supports its military and that Blue Star Families is the right organization to lead that change. Without Mackenzie Scott’s gift, we would not have had the resources to jump-start our subsequent success.

Mackenzie Scott

Retaining the Family

“Recruit the service member, retain the family,” is a common military adage, but one the military alone cannot achieve. That’s why Blue Star Families was founded. We listen to what military families want and need in order to thrive…and then we recruit private and community partners and do it. Our evidence-based programs directly support and strengthen military families, equipping them to navigate inevitable military life challenges. Meanwhile, we’re relentless advocates, elevating our research to change policies at all levels.

Strengthening Families and Making Friends

Fighting Economic Insecurity

Navigating Military Life’s Biggest Challenges

Activating a Global Volunteer Network

Harnessing the Power of Belonging

Our co-founders knew that despite having so many things working in their favor, military families were not okay. After years of iterative research, we discovered one of the most important (and unexpected) root causes: Lack of belonging to one’s civilian community. Today, we’re creating inclusive communities in-person and online, so that wherever military life takes a family, they belong.

Chapters and Outposts

The Neighborhood

Campaign for Inclusion

Mobilizing to Solve Big Problems

Collaboration is part of our DNA. While conducting research was the first thing we did as an organization, convening a group of cross-sector leaders to address the challenges our research uncovered was the second. From coordinating an unprecedented response to the COVID-19 pandemic, to building a bulwark against attempts to politicize the military, Blue Star Families has built a trust-based network that is now critical to our military’s resilience.

The White Oak Collaborative

COVID-19 Response and Recovery

Thought Leadership

In Service of Our Democracy

Changing the Way America Supports Its Military

The All-Volunteer Force is the most capable military in history, but that status is at risk without changes to how America supports it. Our research shows that societal shifts are outpacing military families’ ability to adapt, and neither the federal government nor nonprofits alone can resolve these challenges. We have to think bigger. We are taking a two-pronged approach through our Do Your Part initiative and expanding Blue Star Chapters. Do Your Part combines a national call to action with data-backed solutions, activating communities and partnering with iconic brands to provide meaningful support. Our Chapter model connects local communities — individuals, businesses, libraries, and employers — around supporting military families, offering pathways for broader involvement and impact.

Activating Communities

Elevating Best Practices

Inspiring Iconic Brands

Advocating for Military Families

Beyond the Horizon

“As long as we have an active-duty military and an All Volunteer Force, they are going to need the resources and community that Blue Star Families brings to the table.”

- Ross Cohen, Blue Star Families Alum, Deputy Secretary with the Maryland Department of Veterans & Military Families