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Home of the Brave: Site Coordinator Communications Toolkit

We are here to help make your Home of the Brave event a total success! Scroll through the tabs below to find useful communications tools and assets to share details about your coming event.

Home of the Brave Key Messages

About Soldiers’ Angels

Soldiers’ Angels Home of the Brave is an annual campaign operated by Soldiers’ Angels, a GuideStar Platinum-rated national 501(c)(3) nonprofit that provides aid, comfort, and resources to the military, veterans, and their families.

What is Soldiers’ Angels Home of the Brave?

Established in 2012 as an annual corporate social responsibility campaign, Home of the Brave was gifted to Soldiers’ Angels in 2020. The campaign engages corporations and their employees in honoring and showing appreciation for veterans at VA medical facilities nationwide in celebration of Veterans Day. Volunteers organize special events, visit patients, and donate much-needed items during the days leading up to or immediately following November 11.

Campaign Impact

In 2023, in just over a week, Soldiers’ Angels Home of the Brave served 82 VA medical facility sites in 35 states plus Washington DC and Puerto Rico, 613 volunteers spent more than 3,846 hours to honor 18,253 veterans.

Over the last 12 years, that impact has been even greater: 7,510 company volunteers have contributed 52,653 volunteer hours honoring 282,714 veterans, totaling over $2,179,626 in donations to VA.

Volunteer Outreach

Volunteers are at the heart of the Soldiers’ Angels Home of the Brave campaign, and we want to help you recruit your colleagues to become involved with your event! The below materials are designed to help you promote your company’s involvement in Soldiers’ Angels Home of the Brave, as well as to recruit colleagues to serve as volunteers.

  • Volunteer Recruitment Memo – An internal memo template to encourage your co-workers to get involved in Home of the Brave as a volunteer. Items highlighted in red are for you to fill in with content specific to your company and situation before sharing.
  • Volunteer Recruitment Posts – Brief messages to share with your colleagues about how to get involved with Home of the Brave. Items highlighted in red are for you to fill in with content specific to your company and situation before sharing.

Social Media

Connect

Be sure to connect with us and encourage your volunteers to do the same!

Share to Recruit

Whether it’s a company Facebook group or an intranet chat app, social media serves as an incredible platform to engage and connect with your target demographic for volunteer recruitment – your talented coworkers! Use the sample posts below to get the conversation started.

Share Your Experience

Throughout the duration of the Home of the Brave Campaign, we encourage all volunteers to update their social
media community about their participation by sharing their own photos, testimonials, and experience! Don’t forget to use our campaign hashtag — #SAHomeOfTheBrave — when posting!

Here are step-by-step instructions on how you can help spread the word on social media about your participation in the Soldiers’ Angels Home of the Brave campaign and encourage others to share their gratitude through other Soldiers’ Angels volunteer opportunities.

Step 1: Take a photo of yourself or your group sharing your gratitude with a veteran during your Veterans Day
celebration. You could be sharing a meal or a cup of coffee, talking one-on-one with a veteran patient, or providing a service inside or outside of a VA medical center in support of their celebration.

Step 2: (Optional) Click here or Click here to add your photo and/or message to the Home of the Brave picture
templates. This can be done through a program like Canva.

Step 3: Include a message in the post copy about why you’ve chosen to participate in the #SAHomeOfTheBrave
campaign and how anyone can share their gratitude for our veterans by visiting ww.soldiersangels.org/volunteer.

Step 4: Post it to social media — Facebook, Instagram, X, LinkedIn — tagging Soldiers’ Angels and using the hashtag #SAHomeOfTheBrave. We will be sharing some of our favorites!

Photo Guide

We’re thrilled to have you and your organization participating in this year’s Home of the Brave Campaign and want to set you up to best capture the experience and significance of your time volunteering!

This event photo guide will ensure you are taking quality pictures that effectively showcase the incredible impact all of the volunteers have made while sharing their gratitude.

We encourage you to designate a volunteer to be in charge of taking event photos and videos — this will ensure that you remember to collect visual content and will help to later showcase your event experience.

Following the event, be sure to send us any photos or videos you take! We’d love to share the impact each organization has made through this program on our social media pages and promotional materials.

To share your photos, click on the link in the Site Coordinator Portal “Home of the Brave: Photo Portal.” You can also submit your photos, stories, and quotes via email to [email protected].

  • DO: Take a variety of pictures from various angles and distances, capturing as many candid photos
    of volunteers interacting with veterans as possible
  • DO: Use Portrait Mode when focusing in on a subject if you are using an iPhone
  • DO: Make sure that each photo has a clear subject, relevant to the event
  • DO: Double-check that your camera/phone is focused on the picture’s subject and the photo is not blurry
  • DO: Utilize the rule of thirds when possible
  • DO: Take video! (Both b-roll footage of the event and short participant “interview” videos!)
  • DON’T: Have bright light behind your subject
  • DON’T: Take photos that aren’t clearly representing the event
  • DON’T: Take a lot of vertical photos if you’re using a phone camera (try taking horizontal photos
    when possible)
  • DON’T: Forget to capture Soldiers’ Angels program and company branding when possible (include
    photos with event t-shirts, logos showing, etc.)
  • DON’T: Share photos/videos of participants that have not signed a photo release form
  • DON’T: Only take a few photos — the more photos, the better! Having a variety of options to choose
    from will decrease the pressure to make every photo excellent quality and will better capture
    the entirety of the event

Need some help determining what pictures you need to take on your event day? We’ve got you covered!
Don’t forget to submit your photos (and videos!) to us following the Home of the Brave Campaign so that
we can share your experience with our community.

*Italicized photos are not necessary, but are nice to have

  • Horizontal group photo of all volunteers
  • Candid photos of volunteers interacting with the veterans
  • Horizontal group photo of volunteers and participating veterans together (if allowed)
  • Photo of signage and event set up
  • Photo of all donated items grouped together
  • Video Opportunity: Ask an employee(s) to share how volunteering in the Home of the Brave Campaign has impacted them [<30 second videos]
  • Video Opportunity: Take b-roll throughout the event

“As we express our gratitude, we must never
forget that the highest appreciation is not to
utter words, but to live by them.”

– John F. Kennedy

Campaign Style Guidelines

Campaign Logo

Click here to view and download the Official Soldiers’ Angels Home of the Brave Campaign Logo

Boiler Plate

About Soldiers’ Angels Home of the Brave

Soldiers’ Angels Home of the Brave is an annual campaign operated by Soldiers’ Angels, a national 501(c)(3) nonprofit that provides aid, comfort, and resources to the Military, Veterans, and their families. Established in 2012 as an annual corporate social responsibility campaign, Home of the Brave was gifted to Soldiers’ Angels in 2020. The campaign engages corporations and their employees in honoring and showing appreciation for veterans at VA medical facilities nationwide in celebration of Veterans Day. Volunteers organize special events, visit patients, and donate much-needed items during the days leading up to or immediately following November 11. (Tax ID# 20-0583415). Learn more at SoldiersAngels.org/HomeoftheBrave.

Connect with Soldiers’ Angels!