With Flynn Family at Helm, Conservative Nonprofit Leads Revamped Advocacy Mission

PALM BEACH, Fla.—Under a cloudy sky, Mary Flynn O’Neill and her staff unloaded a shipping truck full of event supplies and several framed art pieces and carried them into the grand ballroom at the Mar-a-Lago club on the afternoon of Dec. 15. They had just over a day to go before their organization’s biggest annual fundraising event.

For O’Neill’s staff, Mar-a-Lago is a familiar venue. Their organization, America’s Future, has held multiple previous events at the club, which is owned by President Donald Trump. Their leadership maintains key friendly ties with the president.

The group’s latest Mar-a-Lago event is its Second Annual Champions For America Celebration Gala on Dec. 16.

The gala caps off a year of work, in which America’s Future has filed dozens of amicus briefs in pending Supreme Court and Circuit Court cases. In the past year, the nonprofit organization has also worked to expand anti-child trafficking efforts, promote the ideas of free market capitalism, and advocate for Judeo-Christian values in civil society.

The Champions Gala also comes just a few months before America’s Future is set to celebrate the 80th anniversary of its founding in 1946.

“We are the nation’s leader in faith, family, and freedom; constitutional rights advocacy; educating the American people. And that’s what we have continued to do,” O’Neill told The Epoch Times, as her team moved event supplies into the ballroom.

Since 2021, O’Neill has served as the executive director of America’s Future. She took on the directorship shortly after her brother, retired Army Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, became the chairman of the organization.

While America’s Future has been in place since the 1940s, O’Neill described the organization as having become largely dormant by the 1990s. Since stepping in, she and her brother have been working to revamp the nonprofit’s mission.

“It needed a jolt. It needed a, you know, a shot of patriotism or innovation,” O’Neill said.

For the sophomore iteration of their Champions Gala, America’s Future has assembled a list of headline presenters that includes prize fighters Mike Tyson and Tito Ortiz; actors Jim Caviezel and Isaiah Washington; and Army Lt. Col. William Swenson, a Medal of Honor recipient.

This year, the organization’s six Champion award recipients include 101-year-old World War II submarine veteran William J. “Bill” Dillon, Navy SEAL and wounded combat veteran Jason “Jay” Redman, and criminal justice reform advocate Angela Stanton-King.

Lindsay McCall Long, a retired law enforcement officer who survived multiple gunshot wounds, is also among the list of awardees, as is Wyatt Hendrickson, an Air Force officer and 2025 NCAA heavyweight wrestling champion who is currently training for the 2028 Olympic Games.

Completing the list of champion awardees is former professional boxer Charles “Duke” Tanner, who was convicted in 2004 on drug charges and who received a presidential pardon earlier this year.

Speaking with The Epoch Times in a separate interview in Washington last week, Flynn said the honorees America’s Future seeks to recognize at its Champions Galas are “all people who have decided that Team America is the team to be on, and they are fighting in their own ways to promote American values.”

The retired Army general served as national security adviser for about a month during the first Trump administration, before resigning amid scrutiny over the nature of his conversations with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak. Flynn faced allegations of lying to federal investigators and initially agreed to plead guilty before requesting to withdraw the guilty plea in 2019. Trump pardoned Flynn in the final weeks of his first term.

A Rebooted Mission

Formed at the dawn of the Cold War era, America’s Future formed with a focus on countering the spread of communism within the United States. Early on, their primary means of advocacy was printing and distributing pamphlets and other short-form literature, and some radio appearances.

The period of dormancy that O’Neill described at America’s Future came about around the same time the Cold War era ended. As she spoke with The Epoch Times, O’Neill credited the late conservative political activist Phyllis Schlafly with preserving America’s Future in the decades that followed.

After Flynn and O’Neill took the helm at America’s Future in 2021, they soon decided that submitting amicus briefs in active federal court cases was one of the most effective ways they could direct their organization’s funding. Known as “friend of the court” briefs, these amicus filings allow third parties to weigh in on cases before the courts.

Since 2021, America’s Future has filed nearly 150 amicus briefs.

Attorney Bill Olson, who works as an outside counsel for America’s Future and who has prepared many of these amicus briefs, noted seven times in the past year that the organization has been the sole party filing an amicus brief siding with the Trump administration in an issue before the court. Those seven include supporting Trump in efforts to reduce the federal workforce, dismiss transgender individuals from serving in the military, and challenge the authority of federal judges who have blocked deportations for illegal immigrants.

“When President Trump is asserting a proper power, then we’re there,” Olson told The Epoch Times.

Since 2021, America’s Future has also expanded its mission to include efforts to counter child trafficking and exploitation. The organization formed Project Defend and Protect Children, which includes an ongoing series of “Get in the Fight” events to train advocates to spot the warning signs of child exploitation.

Since forming Project Defend and Protect Children, America’s Future has partnered with Tara Rodas, a former Department of Health and Human Services employee. In 2021, Rodas began raising concerns that the department’s efforts to care for unaccompanied migrant children coming across the U.S.-Mexico border was actually exposing those children to heightened exploitation risks.

“Parents need to know how to protect their kids, and the world needs to know this is happening, and that’s why I decided to join with America’s Future,” Rodas told The Epoch Times in a recent interview.

The Plans Ahead

As America’s Future closes out 2025, Flynn and O’Neill are planning for a busy year ahead to mark the organization’s 80-year-mark.

O’Neill told The Epoch Times she has three projects in the works. One area of focus will be to expand the “Get in the Fight” anti-child trafficking seminars around the country.

Another effort will focus on outreach with young voters. O’Neill said America’s Future is particularly concerned about connecting with and winning over women between the ages of 18 and 25, particularly after that demographic heavily favored self-described democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani in the recent New York City mayoral election.

In 2026, America’s Future is also planning to kick off what they’re calling “Project One Nation Under God,” which O’Neill said will focus on “keeping God in our country and activating the role of the church.”

The leadership at America’s Future has maintained a friendly relationship with Trump over the years. The organization launched its anti-child trafficking project with an event at the president’s Palm Beach club in December 2022.

O’Neill said the organization is planning another Mar-a-Lago event in April to celebrate its 80th year in operation.

“My brother will do anything to help [Trump] do what he needs to do to protect this country,” she said.