The Countdown Fund
Military | A Uniform Families Foundation Fund
The Countdown Fund
Every military family has a countdown. It lives on the refrigerator, on a paper chain in a kid's bedroom, in a spouse's head at 2 a.m. The Countdown Fund supports a military family from the day the orders come to the day the bus pulls in, and throws them the homecoming they deserve.
From deployment day to homecoming. Every day on the calendar, covered.
The Countdown
What the Days Look Like
Day 1
The goodbye at the gate. The house goes quiet. The spouse is now everything: both parents, the mechanic, the accountant, the one who fixes the water heater.
Month 3
The car breaks. The kid gets sick. The paycheck is the same but the costs are not, and the person who used to split it all is on the other side of the world.
Month 6
The kids stop asking when. The spouse stops sleeping through the night. The countdown is the only thing that moves.
Homecoming
The bus, the sign, the run across the parking lot. It should be a celebration, not one more thing the spouse has to plan and pay for alone.
What the Fund Does
Covering the Whole Countdown
Homefront Boxes
A care box to the home every month of the deployment: something for the spouse, something for each kid, and a note from another military family who has counted the days.
Emergency Help
Fast hardship money when something breaks while the service member is gone: the car, the water heater, the budget.
Hardship GrantsConnection Kits
Tablets, headsets, and recorded story time so kids can see and hear the deployed parent, and the deployed parent can read them to sleep from anywhere.
Homecoming Day
The sign, the flag, the photos, the meal. The fund covers the homecoming so the spouse gets to just stand there and wait.
Spouse Circles
Connection to Watching the Door so the spouse counting down is counting with other people.
Watching the DoorEvery Branch
Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard, Space Force, Guard, and Reserve. Active duty deployments and extended training, every branch.
Military CommunityGive
Sponsor a Countdown
Every gift goes to the family at home. Sponsor a box, a kit, or a whole countdown.
For Military Families
How to Enroll
Tell Us the Dates
A spouse or service member contacts us through the Direct Line with the deployment window and the kids' ages.
We Start the Countdown
Boxes begin, the family is matched with a spouse circle, and a homecoming plan is drafted.
We Are There at the Bus
Boxes every month, help when something breaks, and a homecoming the family did not have to pay for.
Why We Built This
Founded by a Marine's Wife
Uniform Families Foundation was founded by a Marine's wife who knows what a countdown calendar does to a kitchen. The President's Military Spouse Commission was created to hear from spouses like her. The Countdown Fund is what one of those spouses built: a promise that no military family counts the days alone.
- Serves military families of every branch during deployments and extended training
- Monthly boxes, emergency help, connection kits, and homecoming day
- Priority for families with young children and first deployments
- Every gift goes to the family at home
Uniform Families Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit and is not affiliated with the U.S. Department of Defense. Assistance is subject to available funds. Donations are tax deductible to the extent allowed by law.
Uniform Families Foundation
Serving the families behind the uniform: Fire, Paramedic and EMS, Law Enforcement, Medical and Frontline, Military, and Uniform Kids.
Uniform Families Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation. EIN: 41-5063345.