Fre­quently Asked Questions

1. What is AMVETS?
AMVETS is one of the nation’s fore­most vet­er­ans ser­vice orga­ni­za­tions (VSOs). It stands as a strong and influ­en­tial advo­cate for America’s vet­er­ans on impor­tant issues such as employ­ment and train­ing, manda­tory fund­ing for government-provided health care and other ben­e­fits to which they are enti­tled. AMVETS is a 501© 19 organization.

2. What sets AMVETS apart from other VSOs?
Unlike the other orga­ni­za­tions, mem­ber­ship in AMVETS is open to any­one who is cur­rently serv­ing, or has hon­or­ably served, in the U.S. Armed Forces from World War II to present, to include those in the National Guard and Reserves.

3. How many vet­er­ans are mem­bers of AMVETS?
Approximately 180,000. The orga­ni­za­tion also boasts of 39 state depart­ments and more than 1,150 posts nationally.

4. When was AMVETS formed?
In Decem­ber 1944. At that time, it was known as the Amer­i­can Vet­er­ans of World War II. Pres­i­dent Tru­man signed the organization’s con­gres­sional char­ter in 1947. Since then, the char­ter has been amended sev­eral times to broaden mem­ber­ship eli­gi­bil­ity and to change the AMVETS name to sim­ply Amer­i­can Vet­er­ans to reflect this universality.

5. Who is AMVETS’ National Com­man­der?
Com­man­der Cleve Geer, click for bio

6. Where is AMVETS located?
AMVETS National Head­quar­ters is based in Lan­ham, Maryland.

7. What is AMVETS mis­sion?
AMVETS is ded­i­cated to sup­port­ing vet­er­ans and active mil­i­tary, pro­vid­ing com­mu­nity ser­vices and pre­serv­ing freedom.

8. What kinds of ser­vices does AMVETS pro­vide?
AMVETS national ser­vice offi­cers, accred­ited by the Depart­ment of Vet­er­ans Affairs (VA), pro­vide free claims assis­tance to vet­er­ans, their depen­dents and survivors. AMVETS mem­bers also donate count­less hours to brighten the lives of hos­pi­tal­ized vet­er­ans and pro­mote quality-of-life pro­grams such as Spe­cial Olympics or Scouting.

9. Does AMVETS pro­vide finan­cial sup­port to ini­tia­tives out­side
the orga­ni­za­tion?
Yes. Over the years, the orga­ni­za­tion has helped to fund the con­struc­tion and/or the ren­o­va­tion of such national monuments as the USS Ari­zona Memo­r­ial and the Statue of Liberty.

10. Does AMVETS offer edu­ca­tional schol­ar­ships?
Yes. Each year AMVETS awards schol­ar­ships total­ing $40,000 to high school seniors, ROTC stu­dents and vet­er­ans pur­su­ing higher education.

11. What issues are impor­tant to AMVETS?
Of par­tic­u­lar inter­est are issues related to veteran’s health care and other enti­tle­ments, POW/MIA account­abil­ity, national defense and flag protection.

12. Where does AMVETS stand on manda­tory fund­ing for VA?
Unlike other fed­eral pro­grams such as Medicare and food stamps, VA must annu­ally request an appro­pri­a­tion. As a result, fund­ing short­falls over the years have left vet­er­ans to won­der whether the promises made to them under Title 38 of the U.S. Code would be kept. AMVETS wants to elim­i­nate that uncer­tainty and make fund­ing of vet­er­ans health care manda­tory. With our co-authors of The Independent Bud­get, we’re also work­ing to pro­tect each veterans ben­e­fits in other areas as well.

13. What is the best way for me to con­tact AMVETS?
AMVETS offers many ways for you to reach us. Con­tact info for most AMVETS offi­cers and staff can be found here.

14. Where do I get copies of busi­ness doc­u­ments such as tax exempt infor­ma­tion and fil­ings for the National Head­quar­ters? 
From our Down­load Forms Page or from the ref­er­ence CD which is sent out annu­ally.  You may also con­tact the head­quar­ters finance depart­ment via e-mail to secure this infor­ma­tion if time is of the essence.

15. What is the annual ref­er­ence CD and who gets it?
The ref­er­ence CD is pro­vides key infor­ma­tion per­ti­nent to AMVETS for busi­ness, pro­grams, com­mu­ni­ca­tions, mem­ber­ship, etc. While only a lim­ited sur­plus is printed, when avail­able, mem­bers at large can get a disc by con­tact­ing the National Headquarters. You can also down­load indi­vid­ual files in our Down­load Forms Page.

16. Are their fundrais­ing pro­grams offered by National Head­quar­ters?
Yes, these pro­grams, through indi­vid­ual and cor­po­rate sup­port, gen­er­ate income for the AMVETS mis­sion.  For fur­ther infor­ma­tion, please con­tact Stew­art Hickey via the National Headquarters.

17. Does AMVETS col­lect mon­e­tary dona­tions from phone calls?
AMVETS has con­tracted with XENTEL., a paid pro­fes­sional fundraiser, to solicit funds on their behalf with full under­stand­ing that Xen­tel Inc. will employ cit­i­zens  who may oth­er­wise have been unem­ployed, pro­vide train­ing for them, pro­vide them with office accom­mo­da­tions,  pay them wages and ben­e­fits, pro­vide them with com­pe­tent super­vi­sion and com­put­er­ized tele­phonic equip­ment, all on AMVETS’s behalf. They col­lect most dona­tions by check or credit card which are run as Com­mu­nity Ven­tures Corporation. The col­lec­tions are most often sent to PO Boxes in the state to be col­lected and sent to us in one amount. AMVETS under­stands that all costs must be paid in con­nec­tion with this char­i­ta­ble appeal made on their behalf, includ­ing the cost of all print­ing mate­r­ial and postage which are expenses of the appeal also. In this fash­ion, AMVETS like many com­pa­nies and char­i­ties these days has out­sourced these respon­si­bil­i­ties because they don’t have the exper­tise inter­nally, nor do they want the finan­cial lia­bil­ity, but are nonethe­less, sorely in need of funds. That said, much of what is told to con­sumers in the solic­i­ta­tion and follow-up printed mate­r­ial dis­sem­i­nated and many of the other ser­vices pro­vided by Xen­tel directly ben­e­fits our vet­eran mem­bers and vet­er­ans in general.

Per our most cur­rent IRS form 990 filed with the Inter­nal Rev­enue Ser­vice, 81% of all funds col­lected in this process goes to vet­er­ans ser­vice pro­grams pro­vided by AMVETS, while XENTEL aver­ages 7–8% of col­lected rev­enues as their profit mar­gin leav­ing approx­i­mately 10–11% going to AMVETS over­head. This process has been fill­ing a large need in AMVETS’ annual bud­get, keep­ing it in the pri­vate sec­tor with­out it cost­ing the government.

We have rep­re­sen­ta­tives in VA offices in almost every state to help vet­er­ans with the VA claim process and to advo­cate their cases. We have many pro­grams from essen­tial kits and DVD’s for the troops, schol­ar­ships for edu­ca­tion, and more.  Please browse our web-site for more infor­ma­tion about AMVETS pro­grams that assist all Amer­i­can Vet­er­ans and the gen­eral pub­lic  and again, thank you for reach­ing out to us. We appre­ci­ate the oppor­tu­nity to respond to requests such as yours.

You can also leave com­ments for the edi­to­r­ial staff of Amer­i­can Vet­eran Mag­a­zine on the magazine’s blog,http://americanveteranmagazine.blogspot.com, or you can sub­scribe to the offi­cial AMVETS group on Face­book. As online social media evolves, you will see AMVETS pop up in a vari­ety of new places.