Endowment Fund
Income from Endowment Fund investments are passed on to the Veterans Affairs and Rehabilitation and Child Welfare programs of The American Legion national organization, and channeled through them to state and local programs.
Donation Form
The founders of The American Legion Endowment Fund Corporation envisioned a refuge that would stand as a fitting memorial to those who died to keep our country free. They wanted it to be truly immortal, outliving any one individual and even the Legion itself. Thanks to the hard work and generosity of Americans like you, their vision has become a reality.
With your help, we continue to pay our respects to the men and women who made the ultimate sacrifice, by helping their comrades, by caring for and educating their children, and by maintaining the ideals for which they fought and died.
Click here to download the form, to be sent with your tax-deductible donation.
The American Legion Endowment Fund Corporation Corporation
c/o The American Legion National Headquarters
P.O. Box 1055
Indianapolis, IN 46206
You must have the Adobe Acrobat Reader to view, fill out, and print the membership application.
You may also wish to make arrangements to remember the Endowment Fund in your Will.
A History of Service
In 1925, World War I had been over for six years... but for veterans and their widows and children, the years had been a continuing struggle to adjust to the war's aftermath. The members of The American Legion, aware of the grave responsibility entrusted to them by those who had served, knew the time had come to take action.
More than 900,000 Legionnaires, Auxiliary members, and other American citizens joined the campaign, raising nearly $5 million and establishing The American Legion Endowment Fund Corporation.
Since those early days, over $22 million have been distributed to disabled veterans and orphans of those who made the ultimate sacrifice.
Famous Americans such as Presidents Herbert Hoover and Calvin Coolidge, William Randolph Hearst, and Gen. John J. Pershing have distinguished the Fund by serving on its Honorary Committee, but the Fund's real power comes from people like you.
American Legion Endowment Fund Corporation
Officers
William M. Detweiler (LA)
Vice President
Hon. Vincent M. Gaughan (IL)
Treasurer
David P. Rook (IN)
Secretary
Terry L. Woodburn (IL)
Staff Liaison Officer
Jason R. Kees (IL)
Joe L. Matthews (TX)
Norman C. Schlemmer (IN)
Daniel A. Ludwig (MN)
Anthony G. “Tony" Jordon (ME)
John D. Monahan (CT)
Hon. James P. Dean (MS)
David McEvers (MI)
Members
Clarence M. Bacon (MD)
Neal S. Sundeen (AZ)
How the Endowment Fund Works
Without your gifts, donations, and memorial bequests, the Endowment Fund would not exist. Your contributions go into a trust that is administered by the Endowment Fund Corporation. The Corporation, whose members are selected by the National Executive Committee of The American Legion, takes great care to see that these gifts are wisely invested.
Income from fund investments is then passed on to the Veterans Affairs and Rehabilitation and Child Welfare programs of The American Legion National Organization, and channeled through them to state and local programs.
Where Your Gift Goes
To see your Endowment Fund gift in action, just look around your community. Your contributions may help fellow veterans in the hospital or at home... give assistance in a claim before the VA... or monitor medical care. You'll also help us look for missing children... research causes, treatments and cures for diseases like leukemia, epilepsy and juvenile diabetes... give thousands of young people the opportunity for growth and friendship in the Boy Scouts... and so much more.
These are only a few of the programs the Endowment Fund helps support. Our reach is wide, but there are so many more to help, and the need continues to grow.
How the Endowment Fund Assists Veterans Affairs and Rehabilitation
The American Legion Endowment Fund Corporation also provides funds to assist the Veterans Affairs and Rehabilitation Division with the following programs:
1. Provides funds for two annual Department Service Officer's Schools. Training is provided to these individuals to bring them up to date on the latest changes in Department of Veteran Affairs and the United States Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims regulations, procedures and laws, respectively.
2. Provides funds for The American Legion and National Veterans Legal Services Program (NVLP) Internship Program, which provides training to Legion staff assigned to the Board of Veterans Appeals (BVA) and to Department Service Officers on temporary assignment to the BVA.
3. Partially finances a Memorandum of Agreement with the National Veterans Legal Services Program (NVLSP) for training of Legion Service Officers and legal representation before Federal Courts on veterans/claimants appeals considered to be of a precedential-setting nature. Finances NVLSP's consultation and advisory opinions to The American Legion on legislation pending before Congress involving Veteran Affairs Compensation and Pension programs and the benefits delivery system.


