From Wartime Mission to Scalable Impact: How Anne Marie Dougherty is Redefining Nonprofit Leadership
Anne Marie Dougherty
“A quarter million people a year feel more anxiety leaving the military than they did going to war. That’s a systems failure we can fix.”
When Anne Marie Dougherty took the helm of the Bob Woodruff Foundation, she did not have an MBA or years of corporate executive experience. What she had was a clear sense of purpose, a deep personal connection to the military community, and the willingness to treat nonprofit leadership with the same strategic rigor found in the business world. Over the past 14 years, she has turned a small, cause-driven organization into a national institution with nearly $40 million in annual revenue and a measurable, lasting impact on the lives of veterans and their families.
This episode of Badass Women in Business goes far beyond the surface. Anne Marie shares hard-won insights on leading through uncertainty, applying business principles to mission-driven work, and preparing for the changing needs of the military community in a complex and fast-moving world.
Below is a deeper look at the major themes, lessons, and takeaways from our conversation.
A Mission Rooted in Lived Experience
Anne Marie is a military child, a military spouse, and now the mother of two boys. Her connection to service is not academic or theoretical. It is personal. She grew up immersed in military culture and later married into a multigenerational Marine family.
That foundation of lived experience has shaped how she leads, how she builds partnerships, and how she designs programs. When she says that the stress of military transition can rival or exceed the stress of combat, she is not speculating. She is reflecting what she has seen and heard from thousands of veterans over the years.
More importantly, she has turned that understanding into action. Through her leadership, the Foundation has grown into a connector, a convener, and a long-term problem solver for families facing massive transitions and ongoing challenges.
Building a Foundation That Operates Like a Business
The Bob Woodruff Foundation began with a very specific and deeply human story. In 2006, ABC News journalist Bob Woodruff was seriously injured by a roadside bomb in Iraq while reporting from the front lines. His family, moved by the support they received and the disparity they saw in care for other wounded veterans, decided to use the media attention to create something lasting.
Anne Marie came in early, when the organization was still in its formative years. What began as a temporary, mission-driven commitment on her part evolved into a long-term opportunity to build something larger than anyone originally imagined.
From the start, she treated the Foundation not just as a vehicle for charity but as a business. She asked hard questions about scale, efficiency, value proposition, and organizational infrastructure. She did not focus solely on emotional appeals or storytelling. Instead, she built systems that allowed the Foundation to make strategic investments and track measurable results.
As she puts it, every dollar they grant had to be raised first. Every investment came with data, intention, and oversight. That shift—from reactive giving to proactive strategy—was one of the key inflection points in the Foundation’s growth.
Strategic Partnerships: Speaking the Language of Business
One of the most consistent themes in Anne Marie’s story is her deliberate approach to partnership. She does not see corporate support as a favor or donation. She sees it as a transaction rooted in mutual benefit and shared goals.
In meetings with executives from institutions like Goldman Sachs or UBS, she and her team make sure to present themselves with the same level of professionalism, polish, and preparation as any other business partner. Their pitch is not based on guilt or pity. It is based on value alignment, employee engagement opportunities, and clear social return on investment.
Anne Marie pays close attention to how her partners work, what they are trying to accomplish, and what their internal metrics are. Then she shapes the Foundation’s partnership strategy accordingly. She makes it easy for companies to say yes, not by compromising the mission, but by meeting them where they are and speaking their language.
That approach has helped the Foundation establish long-term relationships with major corporations, including the NFL, Capital One, Navy Federal, Bread Financial, and more. These partnerships are not short-term campaigns or check-writing exercises. They are strategic alliances with shared purpose.
From $4.3M to Nearly $40M: The Shift That Unlocked Scale
One of the most striking achievements in Anne Marie’s tenure is the growth of the Foundation from a $4.3 million organization to nearly $40 million in annual revenue. That scale did not come from a single event or breakthrough. It came from a shift in mindset and strategy.
Early in her leadership, the Foundation relied heavily on a single star-studded gala. Anne Marie recognized the potential but also saw the limits of one-night fundraising. Her question was simple: If we can raise millions in one night, what could we do with the rest of the year?
She began to build an engine for consistent, diversified funding. That meant new revenue models, a focus on high-value corporate relationships, and a deeper commitment to showing outcomes. She started treating the Foundation like a mutual fund—bringing in dollars, applying rigorous vetting, and distributing capital to programs that could deliver real, evidence-based results.
That mindset has changed not only how the Foundation operates, but how others view the role of nonprofit institutions in the national conversation.
Data, Measurement, and High-Impact Programs
The Bob Woodruff Foundation does not fund programs based on narrative alone. They use a data-driven framework to identify the gaps between what veterans need and what their communities can actually provide.
This “delta” model looks not just at overall need, but at unmet need. It allows the Foundation to target investments where they will make the most difference. In practice, that has led to focused work in areas like mental health, housing, childcare, financial literacy, and employment, always through the lens of military-specific barriers.
One example is their long-standing investment in Strongstar, a PTSD treatment and clinician training initiative based at the University of Texas. Anne Marie and her team identified a financial barrier to clinician training. Therapists were losing income while being trained and supervised in evidence-based therapies. The Foundation responded by offering stipends that directly addressed that barrier. The result: hundreds more trained clinicians and a growing pool of providers who can deliver high-quality care to veterans.
This kind of practical, systems-level thinking is central to the Foundation’s approach. They are not just funding programs. They are removing barriers, improving access, and scaling what works.
Mental Health and the Future of Veteran Support
Anne Marie is clear about what keeps her up at night and what motivates her to think five to ten years ahead. Mental health is at the top of that list.
She points out that veterans are not the only ones struggling. Military spouses, caregivers, and children are also facing increased pressure, with fewer resources and less support. The Foundation is expanding its focus to meet those needs, particularly for military kids who move frequently, lose continuity in therapy, and face unique challenges in building stable relationships.
In a time of economic uncertainty, shrinking government investment in support services, and new geopolitical threats, Anne Marie sees a critical need for sustained, community-based solutions. The Foundation’s Got Your 6 Network—now over 400 organizations strong—provides the infrastructure to respond to these needs in real time, at the local level.
Her goal is not just to react to crises but to build resilience ahead of time.
Lessons in Leadership, Team Building, and Longevity
Anne Marie is quick to credit her team. As the Foundation matured, she knew she could no longer lead by grit and willpower alone. She needed experts, systems, and long-term leadership stability.
That required a shift in her own thinking. She moved from being the hands-on builder to being the person who could attract, hire, and empower a strong team. She has worked hard to create a family-friendly workplace that reflects the values the Foundation promotes externally. That cultural alignment has been a source of strength and retention.
She also invests in board development with the same level of intention. Her board includes retired military leaders, financial executives, and media professionals. She sees it as her own executive MBA—a constant learning environment where she studies decision-making, communication, and strategic alignment at the highest levels.
What stands out is her discipline around preparation. Whether entering a boardroom, a donor meeting, or a major media opportunity, she does her homework. She learns names, reads bios, studies companies, and looks for common ground. She believes that readiness is a form of respect and that strong preparation builds confidence and trust.
Takeaways
Anne Marie Dougherty has spent nearly two decades building not just a successful nonprofit, but a model for what modern, mission-driven leadership can look like. She has done it without formal credentials, without shortcuts, and without relying on sympathy to drive results.
Her work is grounded in systems thinking, fueled by data, and strengthened by long-term partnerships. It is also personal. She knows the stakes because she has lived them.
For women in leadership, her story offers a clear reminder that credibility comes from action, not titles. For those in the nonprofit world, it shows what is possible when we stop playing small and start operating with the same standards of excellence found in the business world. And for anyone navigating transitions, uncertainty, or pressure, Anne Marie’s story is proof that long-term impact starts with knowing who you are and building from there.
