In honor of Armed Forces Day and Memorial Day, Philanthropy Roundtable sat down with Kara Hirschfeld, U.S. Army Reserves veteran and digital marketing manager at Philanthropy Roundtable, and Rich Rodriguez, U.S. Navy Reserves service member and director of IT at Philanthropy Roundtable, to talk about their military service and the vital role philanthropy plays in supporting the military and veteran communities.
Kara Hirschfeld deployed to Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom under the 82nd Airborne Division from 2009-2010. She served in RC East, Parwan Province and Bamyan with the New Zealand Kiwis. Her specialization was Military Intelligence, HUMINT.
Rich Rodriguez deployed to Central America to support counter illicit drug operations [in 2014] and the Middle East in support of Operation Enduring Freedom from 2016-2017, supporting multiple commands in the Southwest Asia area of operations. He currently serves as a Master-at-Arms with a specialty in ground combat.
The following interview has been edited for clarity and length.
Q: Could you share the reasons why you joined the military and your thoughts on overall differences regarding the sentiment of those who joined with you compared to the sentiment toward the military now?
Hirschfeld: Unlike many on the West Coast on September 11, 2001, I was up very early and watched the second plane hit the World Trade Center tower. I remember going to school that day and my math teacher told us her brother was going to deploy. At that point, I knew I wanted to serve our country.
A couple of years later, I started my first year at the University of Arizona and ran into a military recruiter on campus. The recruiter discussed the sense of patriotism he carried daily, what it meant to serve, how the military could prepare me for the real world and the benefits of helping with college. I was sold on everything. I raised my right hand for the oath of enlistment in a time of war, and little did I know at that time, it would forever change my life for the better.
I went in when America still rallied around President George W. Bush, picking up a bullhorn and standing on Ground Zero yelling, “I can hear you! The rest of the world hears you.” Military service members were dying in battle. War footage was on the news daily, and the hunt for Osama bin Laden was at its peak. Today, the honor of serving is not as clear. I hear from veterans and current military members serving today, “People don’t care about us.” Unfortunately, “serving our country” with patriotic pride seems to be a thing of the past. It almost seems as if “it’s not cool” to serve, and that’s evident in current recruitment numbers. I hope this can be turned around because it’s an honor to serve this country. The fulfillment, experiences and the lessons learned can never be taught in a classroom.
Rodriguez: My father, his father, his family, have all served this country in peacetime and in its conflicts since WWII. After 9-11, my father deployed to the Middle East in support of our country, its values and dedication to service. I had similar aspirations to serve and ended up enlisting in the United States Navy. I look back on the first time I wore my uniform, graduated boot camp, first deployment, as some of the proudest moments in my life.
It feels like the tides have shifted, and serving for duty and selflessness are no longer reasons for joining the service, but rather, benefits and financial reasons. We are now facing recruitment issues, and in some of our most critical communities, which in my opinion is due to the fact that we have service members at home that are not doing well physically or emotionally, or worse, tragically ending their own lives. I think the sentiment is if we can’t take care of our service members, why would I want to be a part of that? It’s unfortunate, as military service is a beautiful thing. But the lack of support and resources for our brave service members and their families is slowly peeling away at the new generations’ desire to serve.
Q: Since your military separation, how have you stayed connected to the military community and other veterans?
Hirschfeld: Within the first month of my deployment in Afghanistan, my friend was killed by an improvised explosive device. His sister created a nonprofit called Catch A Lift Fund, which serves post 9-11 veterans all over our country through fitness and mentorship. I volunteer for this organization and have helped them with development and media appearances to get the word out about their mission.
Rodriguez: My second deployment was in the Middle East for Operation Enduring Freedom, which is ironic as my father deployed in support of the same operation 15 years earlier [in 2001]. After getting back from that deployment, our unit had someone take their own life, which was incredibly tough for all of us. One of the things that my father and I got really involved in when we both respectively returned home was our local American Legion, Post 139.
In thinking about local community support for veterans, I had seen programs on the government side to help veterans’ post-deployment not be super effective. Our local Legions have recently partnered with George Mason University to give free family and legal services to service members and veterans, something that can be difficult to properly receive on the military side of things.
Q: May is National Military Appreciation Month, where we also honor service members on Armed Forces Day and Memorial Day. This month can be a hard time for service members, veterans and their families. What are some ways people can recognize those who are serving or have served? What are some ways people can offer support?
Hirschfeld: The best way that people can support our service members is to have honest conversations about the military and current events affecting them. Making a social media post once a year on Veterans Day to check the box is not enough. Nor is saying Happy Memorial Day when there is nothing happy about it.
The most alarming news I’ve seen recently is the record number of “cries for help” on the Veterans Crisis Line in March. It was the highest volume ever, even more than during COVID or after the Afghanistan withdrawal. Many say, “The war is over,” but there are decades of veterans that are suffering from multiple deployments, PTSD and other trauma stemming from service. We need to have a conversation on how to address their ongoing needs.
Rodriguez: It’s all about having hard conversations with service members, and volunteerism in your own local community. People might not actually realize service members need support, whether that’s a person to talk to or mental or physical health support. We live in 2023 where everyone has some kind of social media presence, which presents a great opportunity for organizations that can tap into their communities and can make veterans aware of events or opportunities that are going on.
I think a lot of people don’t realize the day-to-day sacrifices that military members and their families have made to keep our status as the best and most prosperous country in the world. Volunteering, or even saying thank you for your service, whether it’s on a social media post or if you see someone walking in uniform, really does go a long way.
Q: As veterans, in your experience, what are some of the most common needs of those returning to civilian life after serving?
Hirschfeld: Outside organizations are crucial to bridging the gap between active duty and civilian life. Programs that assist with fitness and mentorship, resume-building workshops and apprenticeships can tremendously help. So many skills learned in the military are equivalent to civilian jobs, sometimes our veterans just need assistance making those connections.
Rodriguez: I think there’s a specific point where you separate from active duty to civilian life that’s incredibly important that our current reintegration system is lacking. When you leave active duty, you take part in multiple reintegration efforts that are available and required through the military for its departing service members. I’ve gone through these programs and found them incredibly unhelpful. I think it’s a very, very critical, maybe three-month period that we’re just missing the mark on entirely, especially when it comes to job stability, family support and mental health when leaving the military.
I do think this creates a fantastic opportunity to have local organizations assist with some of these transition items—to really have that dialogue and have someone on the civilian side in local communities help service members through that transition.
Q: How important are veteran-centered charities, and how do they make up for when the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) or military falls short in addressing these needs?
Hirschfeld: There are some tremendous veteran-centered charities that address mental health, which is one of the top issues veterans are facing. I lived in Arizona during the VA waitlist scandal, where veterans died waiting for care. It became ground zero for Veterans Affairs health care reform. Reform has been made over the years, but we can still do much more for our veterans in the system and through outside charities.
Rodriguez: I hate to keep harping on health but it’s just such a big deal to me. When I was deployed, I had a shipmate who fractured his lower back. He went to the doctor that was on our Forward Operating Base (FOB) who essentially told him to “suck it up” and gave him some Tylenol. He still has back problems, but the VA claims it wasn’t service connected so he cannot be compensated for it. It’s a part of a larger problem, which leads me to believe I think there’s a big need for VA reform to get our veterans the care they actually need. There’s a lot of organizations that are trying to spread awareness and bridge this gap. Concerned Veterans for America (CVA) is trying to tackle some of these issues head-on from a policy perspective.
As a country, one of our biggest priorities should be making sure our service members are cared for mentally and physically. I think organizations that can supplement the care that the VA would provide are incredibly helpful and have been proven more effective than government solutions. At the bases I have been stationed at, they sometimes wouldn’t let us see people externally until we got a referral, which can take months and sometimes gets denied. Giving people the opportunity to seek out that care in the way that they think is best for them I think will go a long way.
Q: Are there any opportunities that you see where philanthropy and nonprofits can step up to help tackle some of the challenges and needs we’ve discussed? Is there a service or support that we are failing to provide that might be an opportunity for civil society to innovate and better provide than the government?
Hirschfeld: We need philanthropy and nonprofits to fill that gap where the federal government fails to help veterans. Too many veterans slip through the cracks and need help. The transition to the civilian world can be challenging for most. Creating that sense of community and camaraderie experienced in active duty, but in post-active duty, can save veteran lives. This can be through mentorship, fitness, therapy, sports teams, etc. Community is everything.
Rodriguez: It’s specifically around that three- to six-month window of your transition from military service. You can bring local community ambassadors into the picture to help with that transition, rather than have this process be driven by government programs that ultimately end up doing nothing. Nonprofits, local businesses and foundations have the agility to assist in having checkpoints with service members that are leaving the military on issues like physical or mental health care, supplementing costs of health care that the VA won’t cover or something as simple as a small grant for a work certification.
Q: What do you think is most important for donors to consider when evaluating and giving to veteran-centered charities?
Hirschfeld: Donors should look at two data points with the first being how many veterans are being served, and the second is the total administration costs vs. the funds actually helping veterans. Unfortunately, over the years, there have been too many fraudulent veteran charity schemes aimed at helping disabled and wounded veterans. It’s imperative to do your homework and ensure the organization is legitimate and the money is directly helping veterans.
Rodriguez: I would look at their financial disclosures to find out where the money is actually going, and what the split is for operational costs versus their programmatic work. Due diligence around organizations is incredibly important in making sure that the funds are going toward the cause you want to support.
Topic: George W. Bush
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Philanthropic Responses to the Closing of the American Mind
How Charitable Giving Is Helping Expand Freedom of Expression on College Campuses
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The fundamental purpose of higher education is to provide Americans of all backgrounds the opportunity for advanced learning, foster the pursuit of knowledge and provide training in specific fields of study or practice. But in recent years, ideologically charged threats to freedom of thought and academic inquiry have expanded on college and university campuses across the country under the guise of “diversity” initiatives or policies. Many campuses have become hot beds for a “cancel culture” driven by political ideology that has intimidated students and professors, leaving them afraid to express their views, popular or otherwise.
This truly is the closing of the American mind, then throwing away the key, a mortal threat to the very soul of scholarly inquiry as well as educational and professional advancement, which are building blocks of individual and economic flourishing.
Fortunately, private philanthropy is well-positioned to help the leaders and organizations who have stepped up to assess and remedy this grave crisis. Nonprofits are mobilizing students, faculty and alumni by providing resources on multiple fronts—from litigation to advocacy to media efforts—to raise awareness about this attack on free speech and association and promote the value of intellectual diversity at educational institutions.
By challenging what has become a dangerous status quo, organizations like the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), the Academic Freedom Alliance, and Alumni Free Speech Alliance are working hard to maintain an open exchange of ideas and critical thinking in our colleges and universities. While others, like the Institute for Humane Studies, are creating alternative models that help demonstrate innovative approaches to higher education. The work of these organizations varies, but each is dedicated to combating an epidemic that is chilling speech and hindering students and faculty from engaging with diverse ideas through respectful debate and discussion.
A Crisis of Free Speech and Expression on College Campuses
To underscore the seriousness of this problem, one can cite numerous examples from university and college campuses around the country.
FIRE is dedicated to defending and sustaining all Americans’ individual rights to free speech and free thought, with a special emphasis on our nation’s campuses. According to FIRE senior fellow Robert Shibley, college administrators have become “so amenable to unlawful or unconscionable demands that they set themselves up for the many calls to punish or silence students we’ve seen.”
Last year, FIRE partnered with College Pulse to conduct the largest survey ever of college students’ experiences with free speech. Nearly 45,000 students participated from more than 200 colleges, and only one-in-four students (22%) reported they felt “very comfortable” discussing “a controversial political topic” with other students on campus. The survey also found that about three-in-five students (59%) said they would be uncomfortable disagreeing with a professor publicly on a controversial topic, while one-in-five (22%) said they often engage in self-censorship.
Another recent survey conducted from 2019-2021 by the nonpartisan nonprofit Heterodox Academy, which is dedicated to improving “the quality of research and education in universities by increasing open inquiry, viewpoint diversity and constructive disagreement,” found that nearly nine out of 10 students believe “colleges should encourage students and professors to be open to learning from people whose beliefs differ from their own,” while almost the same high percentage of students believe that “colleges should welcome students and professors with a lot of different points of view.”
In comparing these two reports, it appears college students agree that open inquiry and free expression are valuable. However, many remain somewhat fearful of expressing their own views to their peers and faculty.
Fortunately, organizations like FIRE and Heterodox Academy have resources available for them. FIRE’s Student Network offers a community of peers who care about civil liberties as well as opportunities to learn about students’ rights on campus. This year, Heterodox Academy is launching a new Campus Community Network with 23 chapters across the U.S. and Canada, including MIT, UC Berkeley and McGill University. Each community is action-oriented, led by Heterodox Academy member co-chairs from among faculty, staff or graduate students, and charged with hosting monthly gatherings, organizing events and collaborating with fellow campus leaders.
It’s important to realize that students are not the only ones suffering on campus. FIRE publishes a database that tracks when a professor, researcher, lecturer or other individual with an academic position at a college or university is investigated, penalized or otherwise professionally sanctioned for “engaging in constitutionally protected forms of speech.” They have documented nearly 900 examples—more than 120 in 2022 alone—of people being targeted by either the political left or right since 2000.
Philanthropic leaders and charitable organizations are stepping up to support organizations pushing back against efforts to suppress free speech and expression on college campuses, as well as developing new ways of fostering open and intellectually diverse learning environments in higher education. They include the Barry Foundation, the Stanton Foundation and the Institute for Humane Studies.
Donors and nonprofits are bringing together resources in different yet complementary and effective ways to motivate alumni to engage with their alma maters and their student populations, provide high-tech alternatives to traditional academic forums for formulating scholarship and support litigation that defends professors and students whose rights have been violated and who are facing reputational and career repercussions.
Academic Freedom Alliance: Promoting “Freedom of Thought, of Inquiry, of Discussion”
In early 2021, academics from across the ideological spectrum came together and formed the Academic Freedom Alliance (AFA) to protect college and university faculty members’ right to speak, teach and publish the results of their research without fear of sanction or punishment. According to the nonprofit’s website, AFA’s purpose is to help scholars “fulfill their vocation as truth-seekers.” Its diverse membership includes socialist philosophy professor Cornel West, conservative Princeton law professor Robert P. George, former president of the American Civil Liberties Union Nadine Strossen and prominent liberal free speech attorney Floyd Abrams.
It is one thing to state an ambitious purpose, but AFA members have formulated effective strategies. AFA Director of Operations Howard Muncy points out, its members embrace “the NATO-like principle of an attack on one being treated as an attack on all” – transcending any philosophical differences or disagreements between an academic who is subjected to attack and the colleagues coming to his or her aid. To the AFA, an assault on academic freedom anywhere is an assault on academic freedom everywhere.
When professors or scholars find themselves under siege for exercising their First Amendment rights, the AFA will raise funds to support any necessary litigation on their behalf. And it carries out this defense without endorsing any content. In just two years, the AFA has supported 13 cases. During that same time period, it expanded its membership from 217 founding members to more than 700 practicing academics today, a credit to their strategy of refusing to choose ideological sides.
This is also why the John and Daria Barry Foundation chose to help protect academic freedom by becoming AFA’s first donor.
“To carry out their mission, scholars must be free to pursue the truth,” Daria Barry emphasized. “Our foundation helped to create the Academic Freedom Alliance (AFA) to ensure that professors who are unfairly censored can find a common source of strength by banding together with their peers from across the political spectrum.”
And it’s not only the scholars who benefit, notes Barry. “In today’s climate, the AFA serves to recall universities—and their broader communities—to their first duty to their students: to pursue the truth,” she said.
Alumni Organize to Support Free Speech at Institutions of Higher Education
It takes courage for a faculty member to risk the comfort of his or her position in opposing politically charged attacks on academic freedom – courage which not every professor or scholar who cherishes free inquiry will be willing to exhibit. But alumni are significantly less vulnerable.
With this in mind, graduates of Cornell University, Davidson College, Princeton University, the University of Virginia and Washington and Lee University formed the Alumni Free Speech Alliance (AFSA) in 2021, allying with the Cornell Free Speech Alliance, Davidsonians for Freedom of Thought and Discourse, Princetonians for Free Speech, UVA’s Jefferson Council and Washington and Lee’s Generals Redoubt.
According to AFSA Chairman Emeritus Edward Yingling, the group is working to establish individual speech alumni groups at colleges and universities, then helping them grow and thrive. Like the AFA, AFSA does not discriminate based on ideology in defending the rights of faculty and students.
“In the current environment of intolerance of thought, our colleges and universities are becoming monocultures. They’re losing their reason for being,” said Yingling. “So our job is multi-faceted. We shine a spotlight on any objectionable actions against faculty or students. … But that’s just one element of what we do.”
AFSA is building a list of alumni across the country who support its mission, extending support to faculty and students so they do not feel isolated and taking part in events with third party groups, including partnerships between the American Council of Trustees and Alumni (ACTA), Braver Angels and BridgeUSA to encourage depolarization and respectful engagement among students on divisive issues. At present, AFSA boasts 15 member alumni groups actively engaged with their alma maters with an ambitious goal of increasing that number to 40 by the end of the year.
The Stanton Foundation, which primarily educates at-risk children and promotes adoption, provided AFSA with its initial grant. Stanton Foundation Program Director Laurie Slap applauded AFSA’s “thoughtful, coherent approach” to growing its membership and influence as an “umbrella group that is bringing together different organizations,” citing support for AFSA from MIT’s Free Speech Alliance. That organization was founded in 2021 when University of Chicago geophysicist Dorian Abbot was disinvited from delivering MIT’s prestigious John Carlson Lecture. The invitation was rescinded following a student outcry over a Newsweek article Abbot co-wrote arguing that Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives on campus, among other things, violate the “ethical and legal principle of equal treatment.”
Digital Platform Provides “Intellectual Community Building”
Another nonprofit pursuing freedom of thought – albeit in a different manner – is the Institute for Humane Studies, which supports scholars applying classical liberal principles to today’s most pressing challenges. Ryan Stowers, executive director of the Charles Koch Foundation, which has long been one of IHS’s financial supporters, is excited about its plans to make full use of technology in the fight to promote robust scholarly discourse.
“In the last five years the attacks on scholarly freedom have escalated to a level you wouldn’t have expected,” Stowers said. “That’s a reflection of increased intolerance in the exchange of ideas elsewhere in society. But universities are meant to be above this, to be a safe place where the entire array of ideas can be discussed. Instead they’re now under constant threat.”
“Philanthropy has to think through the strategy of how to fight that threat,” said Stowers, “and IHS has one of the most innovative approaches.”
For more than 60 years, IHS has been connecting scholars across the “humane disciplines” of economics, history, law, philosophy and political science through interdisciplinary programs around the ideas and institutions that underlie free, open and prosperous societies. Economist Emily Chamlee-Wright, the organization’s president and CEO, described the new IHS initiative as a digital gathering place that, once fully developed, will break down intellectual silos and help scholars do their best work.
According to Chamlee-Wright, like IHS’s traditional programs, which will continue, the digital gathering place will attract scholars seeking bottom-up solutions to the world’s most pressing challenges in a context of intellectual humility and openness.
Education has long been central to America’s success in numerous fields from medicine and the advanced sciences to the globally competitive field of computer technology plus law and economics. Defending and promoting the freedom to learn, teach or research without ideologically motivated interference, bullying or other threats is critical to any effort focused on restoring or reforming older higher education institutions or providing new pathways to opportunity.
Through philanthropy and its partnership with these dedicated nonprofits, we are witnessing support for independent, critical thinking on campuses and beyond, including innovative technology that empowers scholars and faculty researchers to share ideas openly, and ultimately, to strengthen our free society.
For those concerned about what’s being taught to our next generation of leaders headed into the business world, government agencies, medical community, and yes, the classroom as educators, we must remember that stifling debate, diverse viewpoints and the ability of students, faculty and staff to engage with them does not create a skilled practitioner, a bold innovator or even a savvy voter. Instead, it results in students being woefully unprepared for the “real world” and without the skills needed to succeed when they bid their campuses farewell.
Thomas McArdle was a White House speechwriter for President George W. Bush and is a longtime political journalist. He was speechwriter for Export-Import Bank of the United States Chairman Kimberly Reed during the Trump Administration and was senior writer for Investor’s Business Daily. He writes a column for the Epoch Times and contributes to IssuesInsights.com.