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<h1>Veterans Service Organizations, Navigating Which is Best for Your Campus</h1>

<div id="MainImg" style="margin-bottom:20px;margin-top:5px;"><img src="https://images.higheredjobs.com/images/articles/article_3828_1.jpg" alt="Group of higher ed professionals in a meeting." class="" style="" /><div class="ArticleCaption">fauxels/Pexels</div></div>

<div id="article-byline">by Amy Roy, Monika Sziron</div>

<div id="article-content"><strong>Friday, February 23, 2024</strong> -
<p>A joke was made during a conference, "You can never have too many resources for your veterans, right!?"</p>

 <p>Obviously, the answer to this is "No" but the true answer is "No, but..."</p>

 <p>You can never have too many resources, no, but there are so many to choose from, so many to vet, and so many to learn about. It can become overwhelming for higher ed professionals looking to work with veterans service organizations (VSOs) to better their campus and students' success. There are VSOs that are student focused, family focused, education focused, recruitment focused, career path focused, and food insecurity focused, to name just a few. Selecting which VSO to work with is an important decision and one that ultimately impacts your department/office, student veterans, and their families.</p>

 <h2 style="font-weight: bold;">How to Select Which VSO Fits Your Campus and Students</h2>
 <h3 style="font-weight: bold;">Complementary Missions and Values</h3> <p>What is the mission of the VSO and does it match what you need? Is the mission of the VSO to serve your campus needs, to serve the military-affiliated student, or both? These are important questions to ask when in meetings with VSOs.</p>

 <p>VSOs all have their own missions and goals. While the goals of many VSOs can be very similar, there are varying ways VSOs serve their stakeholders and clients. It is important to know exactly how the VSO will serve you, your campus, and your students. Before picking a VSO, reflect on what it is that your students and campus need.</p>

 <p>There are many coordinating departments within your campus - admissions, disabled student services (DSS), counseling and academic advising - who, when operating together, can have a comprehensive impact on the academic experience for military-affiliated students. Therefore, understanding what they bring and how their collective work can be enhanced or strengthened by the particular VSO and its services would be valuable for consideration. Asking the students themselves what VSO they would prefer, and which would best serve them would be another thoughtful and effective evaluation for a VSO selection. A task force or committee of veterans could provide feedback regarding the resources and services that are most useful from a VSO.</p>

 <h3 style="font-weight: bold;">National, Regional, or Local Fit</h3> <p>Does the VSO serve nationwide, regionally, locally, or a combination of all three?</p>

 <p>Working with a national VSO may offer greater access to nationwide resources, however there are benefits to working with local VSOs as well.</p>

 <p>Local VSOs may be better suited to provide a closer personal connection and greater chance for involvement. Having a strong network speaks to the nature of how many veterans have been trained with an "us" or team mentality, and local affiliations may offer a greater opportunity to help foster peer relationships. While on a grander scale, national affiliations can bring more and varied services, greater resources, and larger networks, thereby lessening the need to look to multiple areas for diversified needs; a one stop shop, if you will.</p>

 <h3 style="font-weight: bold;">Legitimacy</h3> <p>Regardless of which manner of VSO you choose, you'll want to be sure it is an organization in good standing.</p>

 <p>There should always be transparency in the organization's reporting. A reliable first step you can take to vet a VSO is by using <a rel="noopener" href="https://www.charitynavigator.org/" target="_blank">Charity Navigator</a> and <a rel="noopener" href="https://www.guidestar.org/" target="_blank">GuideStar</a>. Both provide a transparency or overall ranking as well as reports on impact, gross receipts, and assets.</p>

 <p>Whether you use these assessment tools or not, other reliable resources to use to gauge the integrity and operational hygiene of organizations are to research the information provided by the organizations themselves. Take a look at their online presence starting with their website. Is their mission clearly stated? What programs do they offer and what have been the outcomes? How long have they been in existence? Testimonials can be a great indicator of the success of their work. Additionally, annual reports provide a broad overview of all areas of operation. For an even deeper dive, an organization's IRS Form 990 can provide an in-depth account of the financial standing including how much money is spent on programs and how that stacks up to operational expenses, how much public support is received, if good practices and policies are in place, and much more.</p>

 <p>If the VSO is already affiliated with your campus, check in with your veteran students about their experiences with the organization and whether they feel it is beneficial and how.</p>

 <h3 style="font-weight: bold;">Cost</h3> <p>How much will working with this VSO cost? What is the return on investment (ROI)? Is the ROI financial capital, cultural capital, social capital, or all three?</p>

 <p>While there are some VSOs that are free of charge, there are also a number that are costly and may not be within the current budget of your institution.</p>

 <p>Transitioning military students to college should be an institutional obligation, but balancing that to be affordable and cost effective has to matter. With many VSOs to choose from, evaluating the right services at the right cost should be attainable to add up to a formula that can both appropriately serve the veteran students, as well as meet the budgetary needs of the institution. Be sure to know and understand your budget boundaries when speaking with VSOs.</p>

<div class="article-footer"><small><p> <b>Disclaimer:</b> HigherEdMilitary encourages free discourse and expression of issues while striving for accurate presentation to our audience. A guest opinion serves as an avenue to address and explore important topics, for authors to impart their expertise to our higher education audience and to challenge readers to consider points of view that could be outside of their comfort zone. The viewpoints, beliefs, or opinions expressed in the above piece are those of the author(s) and don't imply endorsement by HigherEdMilitary.</p></small></div>
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<p>This article is republished from <a href="https://www.HigherEdMilitary.com">HigherEdMilitary</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://www.higheredmilitary.com/news/articleDisplay.cfm?ID=3828">original article</a>.</p>
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