Speed of giving after Katrina surpasses previous disasters
Howard Lake | 14 September 2005 | News
The Chronicle of Philanthropy reports that Americans have donated at least $739 million to help victims of Hurricane Katrina, and that “the pace of [this] giving is unprecedented in American history.”
The gifts have come in faster even than those given following the September 2001 terrorist attacks in America, and the December 2004 south Asian tsunami. In the first ten days after the 2001 attacks, Americans gave $239 million to relevant charitable organisations, and in the first nine days after the tsunami disaster Americans gave $173 million to relevant American nonprofit organisations.
However, this figure currently falls far short of the totals given to both previous disasters.
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Not surprisingly, the majority of the gifts have been made to the American Red Cross, which has received $578 million. The Salvation Army had received the second largest total of $65 million.
The Chronicle adds that many donors chose to give online. Online giving site Network for Good handled $3 million of donations to the relief effort in one day, a record amount for the organisation. So far it has raised $10.5 million, again with the American Red Cross receiving the lion’s share at about 60% of gifts. Online gifts are beginning to peter off, although Network for Good is still receiving around $500,000 a day for the relief effort.
The American Red Cross itself has taken $302 million of its $578 million total online. The nonprofit has also received more than $51 million raised online from its users by Yahoo! and over $10 million by Amazon’s users.
The Chronicle lists other nonprofits that have received significant amounts online:
* Chicago-based America’s Second Harvest, in Chicago, has raised $3.5 million of its $11.9 million total online.
* New York-based The United Methodist Committee on Relief has raised $1.7 million online.
* Virginia-based Operation Blessing has raised over $500,000 online.
* Connecticut-based AmeriCares has raised about half of its total income of $5 million online, stimulated by an email appeal to 70,000 donors.
* Washington-based World Vision has raised $2 million after it emailed 600,000 of its supporters.
* Southern Baptist Convention Disaster Relief have raised $1.8 million online.
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.