MSN | By: Ben Wittstein
The United States Armed Forces is made up of 1.3 million active service members and 800,000 reserve personnel as of September 2017. With the help of Charity Navigator, Stacker put together a list of 86 top-rated charities that support the military, veterans, and their families. Each charity is assigned a financial score, an accountability score and a transparency score; our list is ordered by financial score from lowest to highest, with any ties broken by the expenses ratio, representing the percent of a charity's total expenses spent on the programs and services it delivers.
Read on to get a sense of some of the best charities that you might consider donating to in support of the U.S. Armed Forces.
#20. Children of Fallen Patriots Foundation
Focus: Military Family Support
Overall score: 95.38
Financial score: 93.48
Accounting and transparency score: 100.00
Program expense ratio: 79.7%
Mission: "Children of Fallen Patriots Foundation's mission is to provide college scholarships and educational counseling to military children who have lost a parent in the line of duty. We are dedicated to serving the families of service members from all branches of the armed forces who have died as a result of combat casualties, military training accidents, service related illnesses, suicide, as well as other duty-related deaths as ruled by the Department of Veterans Affairs. The vision of Children of Fallen Patriots Foundation is to ensure that every child of a fallen patriot receives all necessary college funding. Since 2002, Children of Fallen Patriots has grown in its mission and vision to extend peace of mind through college scholarships to Gold Star families in all 50 states, in all branches of the military."