NMFA Year in Review

Together We’re Stronger Than Ever

In 2024, NMFA celebrated 55 years of unwavering commitment to military families. From our humble beginnings at a kitchen table in the 1960s, NMFA has grown into a leading voice advocating for the well-being of service members and their families. This year has highlighted the strength and unity of our community as we advance our mission to serve and support military families.

Advocacy: Championing Military Families’ Needs

NMFA’s advocacy efforts were instrumental in achieving historic wins for military families this year. Highlights include:

• Historic Pay Increase: Our collaboration with the House Armed Services Quality of Life Panel and participation in multiple Congressional roundtable discussions resulted in a 14.5% pay bump for junior enlisted service members.
• Maternal Mental Health: Pregnancy and the postpartum period can be especially challenging for service women and military spouses, who are often far from the support of family and friends and may even face separation from their partner or spouse. NMFA highlighted these challenges at a Capitol Hill briefing on maternal mental health for Congressional staffers. We also championed legislation included in this year’s NDAA, establishing a pilot program on maternal mental health at select Military Treatment Facilities (MTF).
• WIC Awareness: Hundreds of thousands of military families are eligible for the Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) program. WIC is a resource all Americans already pay into, and more military families could (and should) use. Partnering with the National WIC Association and the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, we increased military families' awareness of and participation in WIC. Did you know NMFA fought to expand WIC to military families living overseas? Living OCONUS can be expensive, but since 2001, the WIC Overseas program helped ensure our youngest military family members have the nutritional food they need for a strong start.
• Coalition Leadership: As active leaders in The Military Coalition (TMC), Hidden Helpers Coalition, the White Oak Collaborative, and TRICARE for Kids, we continue to build awareness for the unique needs of military kids, their families, and advocate for comprehensive solutions and supports they need.

By the Numbers: Empowering Families Nationwide

NMFA’s programs reached thousands of military families, ensuring support at every stage of their journey:

• Operation Purple Camp®: 4,701 military kids applied to attend Operation Purple Camp in 2024, and 860 campers joined us at locations around the country.
• Operation Purple Summer Challenge®: 1,828 participants registered for our virtual, 8-week summer program, with 183 completers earning badges and prizes in recognition for their summer-long effort, growth, and fun!
• Bloom Participants: 68 active Bloomers and 61 alumni reached 25,000 military teens in 2024 alone with original content, stories, and art.
• Spouse Scholarships: 736 recipients out of 10,356 applicants received $808,750 in 2024, bringing the total scholarship amount awarded since 2004 to $9,619,442.
• Military Teen Experience Survey: 1,634 respondents aged 13-24 provided critical insights into the challenges military teens face, helping us better understand their experiences and ensuring we are best able to advocate for their needs.

State of the Military Family Summit: Addressing the Cost of Service

Service shouldn’t cost your family more, but all too often, it does. This year, our annual thought-leadership event focused on the financial challenges military families face, particularly compared to their civilian peers.

Civilian families earn an average of $14,000 more annually than military families do. In fact, families in active duty households have an even larger income gap; averaging $23k less than their civilian counterparts.

Innovative solutions were explored and discussed through panels and keynote speakers, including CBS News journalists Laura Geller and Natalie Brand. They were joined by human-centered design expert, Scott Weiss of Catalest, military family advocates, and military spouses who shared their stories to help inform possible solutions to systemic challenges such as pay disparities.

More Than a Spouse: Celebrating Military Spouses

Our award-winning “More Than a Spouse” campaign celebrates military spouses throughout our community for their entrepreneurship, leadership, community involvement, and commitment to building their careers and living out their dreams. Spouses emphasized the value of networking, scholarships, and remote work while sharing their struggles with deployments and PCS moves. This initiative underscored the resilience and untapped potential of today’s career-minded military spouses. In 2024, NMFA received over 90 inspirational stories from military spouses. With support from Lockheed Martin, NMFA highlighted their achievements through blogs, videos, and social posts, reaching over 520,000 military-connected followers.

Congressional Reception: Honoring Champions of Military Families

NMFA presented the prestigious Support of Military Families Award to Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III and the House Armed Services Committee Quality of Life Panel. At a Congressional Reception in their honor, we joined with advocates, partners, supporters, defense leaders, and elected officials to recognize the unparalleled service to military families’ quality of life.

Advancing Military Family Quality of Life: Speak NOW Campaign

Nobody understands the military family experience better than those living it. Through our Speak NOW campaign, NMFA encouraged military family members from across our community to speak up, share their stories, and make the case for why the quality-of-life changes championed by the House Armed Services Committee Quality of Life Panel should be put into law. The stories we collected helped drive real impact and solidify key outcomes, including:

• Legislative Wins: Ensuring the FY2025 National Defense Authorization Act incorporated key provisions championed by NMFA and the Quality of Life Panel.
• Military Family Action Center: Empowered 99 individuals to send 208 letters to elected officials advocating for the Panel‘s recommendations to be made permanent.

Looking Ahead

As we have for more than five decades, NMFA continues to work with military families to identify and solve the unique challenges of military life.

Together We’re Stronger®