Mission Statement

Operation Homefront provides emergency assistance and morale to our troops, to the families they leave behind and to wounded warriors when they return home. A nonprofit 501(c)(3), Operation Homefront leads more than 4,500 volunteers in 30 chapters nationwide and has provided critical assistance to more than 45,000 military families in need. Operation Homefront also operates CinCHouse, the online community of nearly 400,000 military wives and women in uniform. Through this community, we reach the newest and youngest military families, instantly alerting them about our programs and other information to help them succeed in military life.

How We Help

Operation Homefront provides aid to families struggling not only with emergencies, but also with the problems of everyday life. Existing programs include:

• Emergency Aid — Provides food, baby care items, vehicle donation and repair.
• Computer Program — Allows children and spouses to stay in touch with their loved ones.
• Financial Assistance Program — Addresses crises such as illness, homelessness and death.
• Furniture Program — Donates household and baby furniture; working-order appliances.
• Moving — Provides physical labor for families when a service member is deployed.
• Social Outreach — Offers Adopt-a-family opportunities, Thanksgiving/holiday baskets, back-to-school supplies.
• Community — Rebuilds the challenged social network of the military community by bringing it online to CinCHouse where it is convenient to everyone, no matter the time or location.

Some of our most outstanding accomplishments are:

• We received the prestigious Charity Navigator’s 4-Star rating for conscientious stewardship.
• We donated more than $5 million to military families in crisis.
• We provided goods and services valued at more than $6.5 million to assist military families.
• We delivered more than 20,000 care packages to soldiers abroad.
• We delivered more than 2,500 packages to military families at home.
• We helped more than 3,000 families receive vehicle donations or repairs.
• We delivered more than 20,000 backpacks to military children headed back to school.
• We operate only on 8 percent overhead; 92 cents of every dollar raised directly supports those in need.

A proud participant in the America Supports You program, Operation Homefront is one of only a handful of charities to have signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Department of Defense.

History

The history of Operation Homefront starts with the launch of CinCHouse. In 1999, Meredith Leyva was an executive for a large Washington, D.C., public relations firm. When she learned the Navy had plans to deploy her husband and relocate their family, Meredith sought solace by creating a Web site to chat and post information with fellow military spouses and female service members about military lifestyle issues. Without advertising or promotion, that site brought in 40,000 unique visitors per month within four months of existence.

Today, CinCHouse (an acronym for Commander-IN-Chief of the House, a military spouse) is the country’s largest online community of military wives and women in uniform. In the fall of 2001, Meredith and her husband were stationed at Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton in San Diego, where they watched the first massive waves of deployments to Afghanistan. While the fighting forces were prepared, it was clear to Meredith that the family support system was not really ready when it was most needed.

CinCHouse partnered with San Diego media, veterans and other volunteers to create Operation Homefront. The goal was to find an outlet for citizens to show their support for the troops by helping the families they leave behind. The military wives on CinCHouse became the key source for volunteers for Operation Homefront, but CinCHouse played another critical role: getting the word out to military families in need. By the end of its first year, Operation Homefront was serving 10 percent of the military population in Southern California with a dedicated team of staff and volunteers.

On the East Coast, Amy Palmer launched the Armed Forces Foundation, a nonprofit with a similar mission and success rate in four major military communities. Amy merged her organization and three chapters into Operation Homefront and became executive vice president of operations, assuming responsibility for all charitable activities nationally and with local chapters.

Soon civilians in other military communities across the nation joined in to launch Operation Homefront chapters. Today, Operation Homefront has 30 chapters serving 37 states nationwide. Today, CinCHouse operates as a part of the nonprofit Operation Homefront family.

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