U.S. Armed Forces Honor Nancy Berglass for Leading Nonprofit Work Supporting Troops, Veterans

LOS ANGELES ― The California Community Foundation (CCF) on Wednesday announced that Nancy Berglass, director of the Iraq Afghanistan Deployment Impact Fund of CCF (IADIF), was awarded the Zachary and Elizabeth Fisher Distinguished Civilian Humanitarian Award for spearheading a national effort to address the deployment-related needs of today’s troops, veterans and their families.

This prestigious award, established by the Secretaries of the Army, the Navy and the Air Force in 1996, honors a private sector individual or organization that has demonstrated exceptional patriotism and humanitarian concern for members of the U.S. Armed Forces or their families.

“I, along with my CCF colleagues, am deeply honored to receive this distinguished award,” said Berglass. “IADIF has attempted to use smart and strategic philanthropy to build historic bridges between the military and the nonprofit sector, thus creating a new model of service to address deployment-related needs of our troops, veterans and their families. We look forward to continuing this important work with governmental and philanthropic stakeholders to improve the system of care for those who need it most.”

IADIF is the nation’s philanthropic leader in the field of military and veteran support and the largest supporter of this population outside of the government. Berglass’ work in directing IADIF led to more than $235 million in grants to 53 nonprofits nationwide. Since 2006, when IADIF was established at CCF, grantees have directly served more than 2 million service members and their families and impacted more than 50 pieces of legislation. CCF recently released a seminal report about IADIF’s work that calls for a national plan to reintegrate combat veterans with civilian society and comprehensive case management services for troops, veterans and their families. Click here to view the report, “Supporting Our Troops, Veterans and Their Families: Lessons Learned and Future Opportunities for Philanthropy.”

“Nancy’s steadfast leadership and commitment to address the needs of our service members
through IADIF far exceeded our expectations when this work began more than three years ago,” said Antonia Hernández, president and CEO at the foundation. “Her efforts and the work of IADIF grantees helped to raise public awareness about this crucial issue and fundamentally reshaped the entire landscape of services for a new generation of troops, veterans and their families.”

As L.A.’s foundation, the California Community Foundation has been around since 1915 and has more than $1 billion in assets. We manage more than 1,600 funds whose donors chose us because we help them create the change they envision through our personal service and expertise.