Firm Helps Structure Initial Gift for Launch of Veterans Support Fund

Robin Sampson, counsel in the firm’s Philadelphia office, aided firm alumnus Philip D. Green and his wife in forming a partnership with Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, the nation’s first and largest nonprofit serving veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, to raise money that will benefit returning soldiers and their families.

Green approached Drinker Biddle with the vision of creating a new veteran support fund. The fund would serve as a centralized platform for Americans to support and donate to a consortium of effective and trusted veterans' organizations.

Robin worked on a pro bono basis to help Green and his wife, Dr. Elizabeth Cobbs, identify the best way to achieve the goal. The result was Green and Cobbs joining with four other individuals to make an initial $1.1 million gift to IAVA, launching the Veterans Support Fund. They hope to raise $30 million for both IAVA support and grants to other veterans’ service organizations, which will initially include Operation Mend, Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors, Operation Homefront and the National Military Family Association.

Robin worked with IAVA’s counsel to document Green’s and Cobb’s gift to the IAVA and their expectations for what IAVA would do with it.

To read a Washington Post article profiling Green’s efforts, click here.

To learn more about IAVA, visit their website by clicking here or read the press release announcing the fund by clicking the PDF button below.