The rambunctious Wounded Warrior Project embraces multichannel strategies to fund its mission to transition America’s youngest disabled vets back into civilian life.

By Margaret Battistelli Gardner

“We have an incredibly strong group out of Virginia Beach, [Va.] called The Meridian Group who were donors first, and they share our values and our sense of mission. And they’ve been our public relations partner for about four years now,” he adds.

That partnership, plus the fact that the war and the people fighting it have been very top-of-mind issues since WWP was founded, has kept the organization in the media and attracted some high-profile coverage, including frequent mention by commentators Bill O’Reilly, Lou Dobbs and Tony Snow. WWP knows how to keep its mission, and the veterans it serves, in the limelight — whether it’s lobbying for legislation such as the Wounded Warrior Bill (passed in 2005) that allows for immediate payments to service members that have suffered life-altering injuries, or organizing a bike ride or other event.