Disaster Relief

American charities say they haven’t raised nearly what they need to help Pakistan’s flood victims.

Aid workers report that they are being forced to decide which assistance programs are most urgent, scale back plans to serve more people, and close clinics ahead of schedule because they lack sufficient cash.

The outpouring of charitable giving in the wake of the earthquake in Haiti reinforced the fact that people who give for emergency relief differ from everyday donors, a new study says.

Thirty-eight percent of Americans gave to help Haiti, including 52 percent of donors who regularly give to nonprofits, says the Heart of the Donor: Insights into Donor Motivation and Behavior for the 21^st Century.

Lessons learned and relationships strengthened are a common theme among area nonprofit organizations when summarizing the five years since Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast on Aug. 28, 2005.

"Katrina changed lives. It had to," said Anne Patten, executive director of the Northeast Louisiana Chapter of the Red Cross. "No amount of planning could have ever prepared for Katrina."

Neutrogena, the #1 dermatologist-recommended skin care brand, announced today that, with the help of teens across America, the Wave for Change campaign achieved its goal of raising $200,000 for communities in need.  The donation will be divided among three causes in the US and globally, as determined by teens on Neutrogena's Facebook Page.

A recent survey of donors by marketing firms Russ Reid and Grey Matter Re & Consulting resulted in numerous insights about how donors think and give. The survey asked about many aspects of the respondents' giving patterns, including donating in response to the appeal for funds in the wake of the Haiti earthquake earlier this year. For those of us who have been thinking hard about disaster giving recently, these data are helpful in answering the question of who might give in these situations, to what, and by what channels. Here are the points from the study about giving

Its a common refrain from grassroots Pakistani-Canadian and Muslim organizations in Canada frantically raising funds to help flood victims halfway around the world: Trust us, we are delivering the aid ourselves. Distrust of the Pakistani government and its reputation for corruption have donors insisting on giving aid to organizations with an independent presence on the ground, those scrambling to raise funds say. Some groups raising money to aid flood victims make a point of emphasizing that their own staff and volunteers actually make use of the donations themselves to provide food, medical assistance or other help on the ground

As millions of people displaced by flooding in Pakistan seek shelter, food, clean water, medical care, and other basic necessities, GuideStar USA, Inc. -- the leading source of nonprofit information -- urges donors to consider making unrestricted gifts to the disaster-relief charities now in Pakistan, or to give to the organizations' general disaster-relief funds rather than earmarking donations for Pakistan. "People want to help," said Bob Ottenhoff, president and CEO of GuideStar. "They want to help the people they see on television and read about in the newspapers, and they want to help now. We applaud their generosity and

Faced with growing news about the lack of donations for the millions affected by the Pakistani flood, the Metro Vancouver Sikh community has stepped up with plans for a daylong fundraiser Saturday. "After hearing from the UN secretary-general (on the horrors he witnessed in Pakistan) and finding out that not too many people have been donating, we found it necessary to do something," said Sukhminder Virk, spokesman for the Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara in Surrey. The Sikh temple is inviting donors to drop off their pledges between 9 a.m. And 9 p.m. On Saturday (EDS: AUG. 21). Virk is

In a new fundraising tactic, the Florida Marlins are pitching a behind-the-scenes tour of their new ballpark to help raise money for new housing in earthquake-ravaged Haiti. The baseball franchise and Food for the Poor, an international nonprofit agency, have teamed up for a month-long fundraising campaign called Homes for Haiti. On Monday, they announced a new incentive in the campaign. The first 10 donors -- individuals or companies -- who give $1,000 or more will receive a tour for two of the Marlins' stadium currently under construction. The donors also will be treated to a cocktail party at

When the Haiti earthquake hit back in January, the outcry and response were swift and plentiful. In this new era of the iPhone and other mobile devices, the biggest buzz in the fundraising sector was generated from the mobile-giving explosion following the disaster. But the biggest takeaway for fundraisers — all of them, not just disaster-relief organizations — is that donors have certain, higher expectations these days, and your organization must meet them.