You already post on the big job boards. You may already work military job fairs. But there is a sourcing channel most midsize employers never touch. It is the network of Veteran Service Organizations, or VSOs.

These are groups like the VFW, the American Legion, DAV, AMVETS, and IAVA. They have local posts in nearly every town. They have national networks. And they talk to veterans every single day. That is a warm pipeline most companies walk right past.

This is not a job board play. It is a relationship play. You build a partnership with a VSO, and they connect you to members looking for work. Done right, it gives you access to candidates who already trust the source that sent them your way. This guide shows you how to find the right VSOs, how to approach them, what a real partnership looks like, and how to turn it into hires.

What Is a Veteran Service Organization?

A Veteran Service Organization is a group that supports veterans and their families. Most are nonprofits. Many are chartered by Congress. They help with benefits claims, healthcare, education, and yes, employment.

The biggest ones you have heard of. The VFW (Veterans of Foreign Wars). The American Legion. Disabled American Veterans (DAV). AMVETS. Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA). There are hundreds more, large and small.

The VA keeps an official list of recognized VSOs. You can browse the VA's Veterans Service Organization information page and search the full roster through the VA's open data directory of VSOs. That directory is your starting map.

Here is what matters for you as an employer. These groups have trust. A veteran will listen to their VSO post commander before they listen to a cold recruiter email. When a VSO points a member toward your job, that referral carries weight a job board never will.

Why Are VSOs a Different Kind of Hiring Channel?

Job boards and job fairs are broadcast channels. You put your opening out there. You hope the right person sees it. VSOs work the other way. They are a referral channel built on relationships.

Think about how the best hires usually come in. A trusted person says "you should talk to this company." That warm intro beats a cold application every time. A VSO partnership turns that warm intro into a repeatable system.

There is another reason this works. VSO members span every era and every skill level. You get junior enlisted veterans fresh out of service. You get senior NCOs with 20 years of leadership. You get officers who ran large teams. That range is hard to reach through any single job board.

This channel also fills gaps the others leave. Job fairs are one-day events. Job boards are a flood of resumes you have to sort. A VSO relationship is steady. The same partner can send you candidates month after month. To see how this fits with your other channels, read our guide on where to post jobs to reach veteran candidates and our breakdown of sourcing veterans at military job fairs.

Which VSOs Should You Partner With?

You do not need to chase all of them. Start by matching the VSO to your need. Pick by location, by member type, and by whether they run employment programs.

Start local if you hire local. Most large VSOs have local posts or chapters. A VFW post or American Legion post near your site is a direct line to veterans in your area. Walk in. Talk to the post commander. That is your fastest path to a warm referral.

Go national if you hire at scale or hire remote. The national offices of these groups run employment programs. The VFW Transition and Employment Services program connects members with jobs. The American Legion's veterans careers program runs a job board and career events. These national arms can connect you with members across the country.

Match the member type to your roles. Some VSOs skew toward older retirees. Some have strong younger membership. IAVA, for example, focuses on post-9/11 veterans. If you need recent veterans with current tech or cyber skills, that matters. Ask each group who their members are before you commit.

How Do You Approach a VSO Post or National Office?

This is where most employers get it wrong. They treat a VSO like a job board. They show up, drop a job link, and leave. That does not work. VSOs are built on service and respect. You have to lead with that.

For a local post, go in person if you can. Call ahead and ask for the post commander or the service officer. Tell them plainly what you do and who you hire. Ask how you can support their members. The order matters. Support first, jobs second.

For a national office, find the employment or partnerships contact. Most big VSOs have one. The DOL Veterans' Employment and Training Service is also a useful map of the wider employer landscape. You can review employer resources through the Department of Labor VETS program. Reference it when you reach out so the VSO sees you know the space.

Be specific about your roles. "We are hiring" is weak. "We have five openings for logistics coordinators in Ohio, and we want veterans with supply or transportation backgrounds" is strong. The clearer you are, the easier it is for the VSO to match members to your jobs. For help making your openings veteran-friendly, see our guide on how to write a job description that attracts veterans.

What Does a Real VSO Partnership Look Like?

A real partnership is a two-way street. The VSO sends you candidates. You give the post and its members real value back. Skip the value part, and the relationship dies fast.

Here is what you can offer that costs little and means a lot:

• Sponsor an event: Pay for a career night, a resume workshop, or a post dinner. It builds goodwill fast.
• Run a workshop: Send your recruiter to teach members about your industry and how to apply.
• Offer a direct contact: Give members a named person at your company, not a black-hole inbox.
• Donate or volunteer: Support the post's mission. Show up at their events, not just yours.

In return, the VSO becomes a steady source of warm referrals. They know your roles. They know your culture. They send you members who fit. Over time, that beats any single job posting.

Keep it human. Assign one person at your company to own the relationship. VSOs notice when a company sends a different stranger every time. They reward consistency. The same recruiter showing up for a year builds more trust than ten one-off emails.

You can also make it formal. Some employers set up a simple written agreement with a national VSO office. It lays out what each side gives. The VSO shares openings with members and flags strong fits. The employer sponsors events and gives a direct hiring contact. A light agreement keeps both sides clear on the deal. It also gives you a record when leadership asks what your veteran sourcing actually produces.

Track the results too. Note how many candidates each VSO sends and how many you hire. After two or three quarters, you will see which partners pull their weight. Put more time into the ones that deliver. Drop the ones that do not. That simple tracking turns a feel-good effort into a real hiring channel you can defend with numbers.

How Do You Turn a VSO Relationship Into Hires?

A warm referral still has to convert. The handoff from VSO to your hiring process is where deals are won or lost. Make that handoff smooth.

First, give the VSO a clean way to send you people. A named recruiter and a direct email beat a generic application portal. When a member is referred, that member should not vanish into the same pile as cold applicants. Flag VSO referrals and move them faster.

Second, read their resumes the right way. A veteran's resume may use military terms your screener does not know. Do not pass on a strong candidate because the words look unfamiliar. Train your team to translate. Our recruiter's checklist for screening veteran applicants walks through exactly how.

Third, close the loop. Tell the VSO when their referral gets hired. Thank them. Share the win. That feedback makes the next referral better and keeps the pipeline warm. A VSO that sees its members getting hired will send you more.

To build all of this into a repeatable system, pair this channel with a full strategy. Our veteran recruiting strategy playbook shows how VSOs fit alongside your other sourcing channels. And if you are still weighing the case, our breakdown of the ROI of hiring veterans makes the business argument plain.

How Do VSOs Fit With Your Other Veteran Sourcing Channels?

VSOs are one channel, not the whole plan. The best veteran hiring programs use several channels at once. Each one reaches a different slice of the talent pool.

Job fairs give you a burst of face-to-face contact in one day. Job boards give you reach and volume. Transition programs reach service members before they even leave the military. VSOs give you the steady warm referrals the others cannot. Our guide on transition programs as a sourcing channel covers that earlier stage.

Used together, these channels feed one pipeline. A candidate you meet at a job fair might also be a VFW member. A transition program intern might join a VSO after separating. The channels overlap, and that overlap is good. It keeps your name in front of the same veterans in more than one place.

There is one more channel worth knowing. A growing, ready-built pool of veteran candidates already exists. BMR adds over 1,000 new veteran profiles every month, and more than 60,000 resumes have been built on the platform. That is a steady, fresh supply of veteran talent you can tap without building every VSO relationship from scratch.

Start Building Your VSO Channel

VSOs are one of the most underused veteran hiring channels for midsize employers. They take more effort than a job post. But the payoff is a steady stream of warm, trusted referrals that broadcast channels cannot match.

The play is simple to start. Find a local post or a national employment program. Lead with support, not job links. Offer real value. Assign one person to own the relationship. Then make the handoff to your hiring process clean and fast.

Do that, and you build a pipeline that pays off for years. The VSO learns your roles. Members get hired. Trust grows. The referrals keep coming.

If you want a faster path to veteran talent, BMR can help. We connect employers to a growing pool of over 1,000 new veteran profiles each month, with more than 60,000 resumes built on the platform. Partner with us to reach veteran candidates ready for your roles.