The Armed Forces Initiative hosts over 2500 participants a year at Dual Skills Camps focused on providing Adjunct Outdoor Therapy through conservation.
The Armed Forces Initiative is always seeking Corporate Sponsors to help us in our mission to get more Veterans and Active duty Military into the wild public places, hunting and angling. To be one of our corporate sponsors means you and your organization believe, as we do, that access to America's wild places is an essential part of American freedom, and getting members of the military community into these places is one of the best ways to treat the symptoms of PTSD, TBI, and the stresses of transitioning from military to civilian life.
What Can a partnership with the Armed Forces Initiative do for you?
- Introduce your brand to over 2000 new hunters and anglers annually
- Share your products and media with our network of 8,000 supporters
- Highlight your brand through our social media channels and targeted marketing efforts
There are several levels of corporate sponsorship, reflecting the generosity of your donation and the number of veterans and active military members we can help with that funding.
- All donations include a subscription to the AFI newsletter and video/photo updates four times per year on how we are spending your donations.
- Donors may also contact the AFI leadership team at any time for a personal update on the AFI program and a personalized thank you message crafted for the person or organization of your choice
- Select level donors can also have their products featured in our videos from the field on Social media and the AFI YouTube Channel YouTube
If you would like to support Veterans, National Guard, Reservists, Active duty, or Gold Star Families, please reach out to:
Trevor Hubbs at [email protected], DJ Zor at [email protected] or Josh Mills at [email protected]
Oppertunties to Partner:
Co-Branded Gear-
Bring your brand to our supporters while helping us fundraise for our mission at the same time. lets work on co-branded items for sale via your platform we can share with our participants. You gain access to 8,000 new customers and we share the profits.
Examples include:
FHF gear co-branded Bino Harnesses
Duck Camp co-branded T-Shirts
Vortex co-branded Nalgene bottles
Military Holiday Brand Highlights-
Does your marketing team need a unique set of content for holidays like Memorial Day, Veterans day, and the fourth of July. We would love to work together to help create a special crafted video about how your brand supports the military community at our events we can each share with our perspective customer bases to further your brand message. This is especially helpful when combined with a temporary profit-sharing program.
Examples include:
Our 2023 Veterans Day message with Irish Setter Irish Setter
Our Christmas message to Boss Shotshells Boss
Donations of Gear for our Events
We are completely dependent upon the generocity of our volunteers and corporate donations to support our events. Our participants need tents to sleep under, sleeping bags, water filters to drink from, shells to shoot, flies to cast, and a hundred other items to immerse themselves in this new undertaking. If your brand can donate factory seconds or returns, we will put them to use immediately and be happy to promote your brand to the outdoor community.
Example include:
Our promotion of We-No-Nah canoes after our 2022 BWCA event We-No-Nah
Donations of Gear for fundraising
We are always looking to help build up or cash reserve for expenses like insurance, Access fees, and purchasing food for our events. We host a variety of auctions and raffles every year and are always looking for gear we can use to raise liquid funds.
Examples include:
FHF gear allows us to sell their products via our website BUY FHF HERE
Donations of Trips for our Participants
We need places to introduce our participants to public lands, waters, and wildlife. Do you know or are you a guide or outfitter who has space for a trip for our participants this year? We will work with you and your team to make sure the local veterans and active military we put in your blind or on your boat are the exact fit for you and your pursuit.
Reach out to set up an event: [email protected]
Donations of trips for Fundraising
We hold three auctions a year where our community can buy guided trips through our online auction platform. The highest-priced items are always trips that folks can buy and enjoy themselves, knowing the money goes to supporting the AFI mission.
Examples include:
2023 Waterfowl Hunt with G&H in Oklahoma - Auctioned for $8K Blog Post
2024 Colorado bear hunt with Rugged Mountain Outfitters - Auctioned for $6K
Current AFI Corporate partners:
Platinum Plus Level Donors $40K annually 50/50 cash/gear donation:
Benefits:
• Full-page ad in 4 issues of Backcountry Journal
• Share discounts, sales, or codes in each member’s custom membership portal
• Holiday email sent to AFI email list (60K+) on your behalf • Logo on BHA website with link to your homepage -and premium placement on BHA homepage
• Quarterly social media posts
• Booth space and four comped weekend tickets to Rendezvous • First right of refusal to sponsor any AFI campaign
• Promotion of products and or services when used at BHA events and in national/state promotions and sweepstakes
Bass Pro:
Our customers continue to carry out the proud tradition of sportsmen and women giving back. Every time you shop, you can “round up” your purchase and contribute to our Outdoor Fund, a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit charity, supporting thousands of local projects and leading conservation partners across North America.
Platinum partner $25K annually 50/50 cash/gear donation:
Benefits:
- Full-page ad in 4 issues of Backcountry Journal Holiday email sent to AFI email list (60K+) on your behalf
- Logo on BHA website with link to your homepage - and premium placement on BHA homepage Bi-annual social media posts
- Booth space and four comped weekend tickets to Rendezvous
- Promotion of products and or services when used at BHA events and in national/state promotions and sweepstakes
Wenonah Canoes
https://wenonah.com/Default.aspx
For 50 years, we've handcrafted the world's most innovative canoes.Each is purpose-built to take your experience further, no matter the destination.
Vortex Optics
The Customer is King. We care about you, both before and long after the sale. If you ever have a problem with one of our products, we make that our problem—no questions asked. Just take a look at our unconditional, unlimited VIP Warranty and you will see what we mean.
To ensure you get the finest optics, accessories, and apparel, we're obsessed with understanding both your needs and what drives you. That means not only demanding the best from ourselves, but listening to you as we develop new products and services. From the hunt of a lifetime, to protecting your life and the lives of others, we take your faith in us very seriously.
It's pretty simple: We say what we mean and mean what we say. When you see the VIP Warranty on your Vortex product, it's a promise to take care of you for life because you have our pledge to uncommon excellence and dedication in every aspect of our business. Keeping our promises to you is not only good business; it's the right thing to do.
Veterans United
https://www.veteransunited.com
We Help Veterans Become Home Owners!
You defended the American Dream. Now live it. See what your military service has earned you.
Gold level Sponsors:
Benefits:
- Half-page ad in 4 issues of Backcountry Journal
- Logo on BHA website with link to your homepage
- Social media posts
- Promotion of products and or services when used at BHA events and in national/state promotions and sweepstakes
FHF Gear
At FHF Gear, we’ve paired the functionality of the hunting and fishing industry with the utility and durability of tactical gear to produce unique and high-quality outdoor gear. Using a minimalistic and modular design, our products allow the user to add or eliminate accessories as needed, creating a fully customizable kit for your needs.
For over a decade, FHF Gear has been proudly made in America and backed by a warranty that exhibits not only our confidence in our product but our belief in customer service.
Mystery Ranch
In this world, there are people who live a strenuous life—long, hard days outside in punishing conditions—and there are companies that make their gear. From the battlefield to the backcountry, from the edge of a raging wildfire to the top of a 15,000-foot peak, MYSTERY RANCH supplies these stalwart souls with backpacks to match their boldness.
Conceived in the Rocky Mountains and used all over the world, MYSTERY RANCH packs have always had a single purpose: to minimize the burden on your back. Which in turn maximizes your strength, speed, and overall performance—as a soldier, firefighter, hunter, skier, climber, or whatever bold and strenuous activity you call your own.
OnX Hunt
https://www.onxmaps.com/hunt/app
The call of the wild is in all of us. It provokes exploration. It propels us to ridgelines, coastlines, high crags, deep crannies — those spaces and moments when our heart forges ahead because we can’t turn back. Because we have to know. Because we must experience it for ourselves.
Whether you find yourself listening for bugles on a lonely hillside, choosing the longer trek at the fork in the trail, ripping through the desert at sunset in your SxS, or picking your ski line from the summit before the powder plunge — onX helps bring that adventure to life. Whether it’s your first step into the uncharted, or your annual backcountry trip, we unlock confidence in the unknown.
Waltons
Everything But the Meat
Silver Sponsors:
Benefits:
- Quarter-page ad in 4 issues of Backcountry Journal
- Logo on BHA website with a link to your homepage
- Social media posts
- Promotion of products and or services when used at BHA events and in national/state promotions and sweepstakes
GuideSource Outdoors
https://www.guidesourceoutdoors.com
Guidesource Outdoors was conceived during archery elk season in 2021. After the hunt of our lives we learned even the best outfitters regularly encounter challenges in securing high quality help. What started during a 3 day, 30 hour road trip home snowballed and brought us to the conclusion that we could help based on the application of our experiences and skills acquired over the course of our professional careers. This enabled us to merge something we were passionate about with something we were good at to change how guides and outfitters do business fundamentally.
Salmo Java Roasters
Conceived by a combat medic on a tactical site in South West Asia, born on a trout stream in upstate New York then raised in the outdoors of the USA. We are the small batch gourmet coffee roaster for outdoors people.
Gastro Gnome
https://www.gastrognomemeals.com
At Gastro Gnome, we start by sourcing the best ingredients for our authentic comfort food recipes. Then, we make them travel ready, so they taste just as good when you rehydrate them at your campsite as they did when we first prepared them in our kitchen in Bozeman, Montana.
Seek Outside
We at Seek Outside are passionate about the outdoors, wild places and the experiences they provide. We exist to improve the all season backcountry experience by producing rugged, dependable, lightweight, high performance products, and to promote good stewardship and conservation of these wild places.
Big Agnes
We started Big Agnes 20 years ago with a back-of-the-napkin dream - build better gear for sleeping in the backcountry. The plan seemed simple; provide a comfortable night of sleep and people will come back for more. As the saying goes, ‘any good expedition can be planned on a napkin’.Fair enough, but we’d like to tweak it and add BUT expect the unexpected.
None of us could have predicted the effects as we endured a global pandemic. But as the snow melted, summer emerged and we left our homes we were all pulled by the common thread that unites our community - the urge to be outside. Finding inspiration in micro-adventures closer to home, backyard family campouts, and solo time in the backcountry became our new normal. Simple hikes became exciting. Campfire light provided hope. Distanced banter around camp warmed our spirits. This return to activity helped fill the void but wasn’t a replacement for the bonds we create when we are getting after it ‘normally’ with friends and family. We were reminded that being outdoors is what matters most and that having the right gear is critical.
Sitka Gear
At SITKA we recognize the importance of the critical work being done by our conservation partners. Through donations and the Sitka Ecosystem Grants, we are proud to provide financial support to help ensure their conservation goals can be met each year. Without their steadfast efforts to keep sheep on the mountain, elk bugling in our forests and waterfowl flooding winter skies, wildlife would be in serious trouble, and the ecosystems that sustain them would, without question, be further impacted.
This is where you come in. As hunters and harvesters we are part of nature not separate from. The ecosystems that inspire us and the wildlife we pursue need all the help they can get.
First Lite
First Lite strives to make the industry's best apparel for the hunter who demands nothing less. We design SIMPLE and FUNCTIONAL products built to work for the tree stand on the back forty or a nine-day expedition in the Brooks Range. We understand that the passion and success of our customers and employees depends on the conservation of the world's wildlife and the protection of our collective access to the wild places they inhabit.
Operation Phoenix Outdoors
https://www.operationphoenixoutdoors.com
Our mission is to give back to our nation's heroes by using the outdoors as therapy to create mental health breaks. We do this by bringing military, veterans, first responders and their families on hunting and fishing trips to facilitate fellowship, friendships and healing.
Individual Level Donations
Donate Now! - Just make sure you select Armed Forces Initiative in the drop down at processing.
(Ask about contributing to our Endowment)
Rifleman Package - $50
This will cover the cost of taking one veteran or active service member into the field for an event. It will pay for food, water, and loaner gear necessary to teach the participant to hunt or fish.
Fire team package - $250
This will cover the cost of taking five veterans or active service members into the field for an event. With this donation, the AFI can purchase tents, sleeping bags, and other necessary gear to put our members in the field during the coldest months.
Squad Package - $550
This covers the cost of taking eight veterans or active service members out into the field to learn to hunt or fish. With this donation, the AFI can help cover the cost of planning and implementing the program in more states and more active-duty installations.
Platoon package – $1500
This package can cover a full camp kit for one of our clubs or installations, we can buy a cook tent, camp stove, coolers, and other gear needed for our volunteer leaders to help get more veterans in their community out on our public lands and waters.
Company package - $2500
This donation can provide travel assistance for participants to hunt and fish in areas of the country that are considered bucket list destinations, like The Brooks Range, Tongass national Forrest, Bob Marshall Wilderness, Boundary Waters canoe area, and Everglades.
Battalion Package - $10,000
This donation fully funds one of our AFI regions (Northeast, South East, South West, Midwest, Mountain West, etc) for a year of operations. Please specify the region you wish to support via Email to [email protected].
Airborne Ranger Package - $50,000
This is our highest-level donation. Making a donation of this size pays for AFI camps for a full year across the United States. This will take 1500 + veterans out into the public wild places we all love and help bring this valuable demographic into the conservation conversation, creating a stronger corps of conservation advocates.
- All donations include a subscription to the AFI newsletter and video/photo updates of how we are spending your donations 4 times per year.
- Donors may also contact Trevor Hubbs at any time for a personal update on the AFI program and a personalized thank you message crafted for the person or organization of their choice.
