News from Our Partners: Army Emergency Relief
AER Kicks Off 2020 Fundraising Campaign
On March 1, Army Emergency Relief offices on military installations around the world begin the Army’s Annual AER Fundraising Campaign. This year’s campaign comes with some exciting new changes! We recently implemented a new software that makes donating online much easier.
Army Emergency Relief’s new donations software and website provides an improved customer experience, and more options for donors. The AER donations website (https://give.armyemergencyrelief.org) now supports both PayPal and Automated Clearing House (ACH), in addition to accepting all major Credit and Debit cards. Now you can support AER in whatever way best works for you. Additionally, if you have a Donor Advised Fund, your tax-deductible contributions can support AER. Learn more at: https://myimpactwithaer.org
This year’s retired Soldier campaign will start us down the path to an online-focused effort. Currently, AER mails a donation letter to all retired Soldiers. However, we recognize that mail isn’t how most people prefer to be contacted! Starting this year, we’re focused on determining if donors want to communicate with AER by email, something that our new software makes possible. Does this mean you’ll be subjected to an avalanche of solicitations from AER? No! We’re still focused on running the Annual Fundraising Campaign from March 1 through May 15.
One of the features we’re most excited about is the capability to accurately track the number of active-duty Soldiers donating from specific installations and units. This will allow our campaign team to build excitement into our annual fundraising efforts using participation-focused competitions. One of the ways we track support of AER is through the percent of active-duty Soldiers who donate to AER. Our campaign for active-duty Soldiers focuses on 100% informing them about the AER Benefits and Programs that they, or their Battle Buddies, can leverage when they face financial hardships.
AER offers a wide-range of assistance to retired Soldiers and their Families – currently AER covers needs in over 30 categories; check out the full list here (https://www.armyemergencyrelief.org/assistance). However, if your need is not listed, ask your AER Officer to submit your case to AER Headquarters for an exception to policy, we fully consider all requests. Last year, AER received donations from 19,600 retired Soldiers. AER provided $13 million in financial assistance to retired Soldiers and almost $5 million in scholarships for 1,700 of their spouses and children.
Page last updated on March 18, 2020