From Washington to Canberra to Ottawa—How 2025 Became the Year Veterans Took the Global Stage
In 2025, National Invest In Veterans Week® crossed a historic threshold, becoming more than a commemorative event—it became a global strategic framework. For the first time, the movement achieved a triangulated presence across the United States, Canada, and Australia, setting a new international standard for veteran investment and empowerment.
In the United States, the week was formally recognized in the Congressional Record, with lawmakers acknowledging the role of veterans in national economic development. In Australia, the Returned & Services League (RSL) incorporated NIVW-aligned reforms into its official 2025 Election Asks, calling for systemic changes in defense funding, veteran healthcare, and institutional oversight—marking the first appearance of NIVW principles in legislative policy demands abroad. In Canada, national media and regional business coalitions echoed the movement’s values, laying the groundwork for a North Atlantic Veteran Investment Framework.
Academia followed suit. In January 2025, Harvard Catalyst, the translational science hub at Harvard Medical School, endorsed National Invest In Veterans Week® as a model for integrated veteran transition policy, praising its synthesis of healthcare, entrepreneurship, and workforce development. This represented the first formal integration of the initiative into an academic institutional model.
Meanwhile, the private capital landscape evolved. In March, ITA Growth Partners was launched as the first institutional family office dedicated exclusively to investing in veteran-owned enterprises, formalizing the role of veterans not just as entrepreneurs but as durable economic contributors. It was a turning point—the first emergence of veteran-centered institutional capital.
At the core of these advancements lies a deeper shift. 2025 marked the first full-scale philosophical reframing of veterans as a systemic capital class—not as recipients of aid, but as originators of value. As policymakers, investors, and educators aligned behind this principle, the world began to see military service not just as honorable sacrifice, but as strategic national investment capable of generating long-term societal return.
In every sector and across three continents, 2025 was the year veterans stopped being celebrated only in ceremony—and started being positioned at the center of global systems.
In a world increasingly defined by geopolitical uncertainty and economic transition, a new class of leaders is quietly rewriting the rules of post-service life. Not in parades or memorials—but in legislation, venture portfolios, and academic models. These leaders are veterans, and the movement rallying around them—National Invest In Veterans Week® (NIVW)—has, in 2025, become something truly unprecedented: a global framework.
This March, something rare and strategically historic occurred: three nations—the United States, Canada, and Australia—converged on a shared thesis. That military service, far from being simply a sacrifice to be remembered, is a capital asset to be reinvested.
The Triangulation Heard Round the World
What began in Washington, D.C. as a U.S. initiative to reframe the conversation around veterans took a definitive turn outward this year.
On March 8, 2024, U.S. Representative Matt Rosendale (MT-02) formally entered National Invest In Veterans Week into the Congressional Record, affirming its policy relevance and economic promise. “Military service is an investment,” he quoted, “Let’s yield the return.”
Meanwhile, halfway across the world in Australia, the powerful Returned & Services League (RSL) included NIVW-aligned reforms in its 2025 Election Asks—a document submitted to all major political parties. Among the calls:
Full implementation of the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide,
A nationwide Independent Defence and Veteran Services Commission,
And expanded defense funding to 3% of GDP.
Not as charity, the RSL stressed—but as structural investment in national resilience.
And in Canada, coverage by Northern Ontario Business urged companies to back the veteran-led economy. Civic leaders called for the creation of a North Atlantic Veteran Investment Framework modeled on the U.S. experience. The momentum wasn’t just symbolic. It was strategic.
From the Ivory Tower to the Investment Office
2025 was also the year academia and capital caught up with the movement.
In January, Harvard Catalyst, a division of Harvard Medical School, highlighted National Invest In Veterans Week as a model for civic and economic reintegration, noting its cross-sector logic. Where other programs isolate healthcare from employment or housing, NIVW proposed a cohesive veteran lifecycle model—workforce development, entrepreneurship, and wellness under a single philosophy.
That same week, Virginia-based defense firm ITA International launched ITA Growth Partners, a dedicated family office focused on investing in veteran-owned businesses. It was the first sign that capital institutions were moving beyond grants and small business loans—toward long-term asset management with veterans at the core.
“Veterans don’t just belong in the economy,” said Dr. Ernestine Fu, venture capitalist and founder of MilVet Angels. “They’re a class of catalytic capital. They built the economy.”
The Shift: From Beneficiaries to Originators
This was the philosophical breakthrough of 2025—the moment the veteran was reframed from beneficiary to economic originator.
The slogan of the movement—“Military service is an investment. Let’s yield the return.”—is no longer metaphor. It’s a capital thesis. Veterans are no longer framed as charity recipients, but as value generators, with networks, discipline, and leadership that rival any MBA program.
And unlike past iterations, this year’s observance wasn’t just a call to honor veterans. It was a blueprint for government, capital markets, and academia to work in synchrony.
What Comes Next
With three nations now engaged, and institutional capital entering the field, the 2025 iteration of National Invest In Veterans Week has reset the global standard for veteran integration.
It’s no longer just a week on the calendar.
It’s a system.
A philosophy.
A framework.
And for veterans in boardrooms, classrooms, and parliamentary chambers around the world, it is finally a seat at the center of the table—not as a favor, but as a fact.
Learn more at www.investinveteransweek.com