Community Foundations and nonprofits in areas that are prone to hurricanes, wildfires, and mudslides are often well-practiced in responding to natural disasters.
Other areas seem relatively insulated from such events. The Berks County Community Foundation, which serves Reading, Pa., and the surrounding area, has been among the more fortunate on that score. As the foundation’s president, Kevin Murphy, told me sometimes the Schuylkill River floods, and there are occasional tornadoes, “but mostly they just rip up a cornfield.”
Unfortunately, Murphy feels compelled to prepare for a different kind of crisis: a mass shooting. After a violent attack, “community leaders have kind of gotten used to the drill of referring donors to the local community foundation” in the region where the shootings happen, Murphy says.
Ever since the 2001 terrorist attacks, regional grant makers have been aware that they might be called into action in response to a violent attack, says Murphy. Back then, the New York Community Trust and United Way of New York City led the philanthropic effort. The organizations ran the September 11 Fund, which directed more than half a billion dollars to serve victims’ immediate needs and to support long-term rebuilding efforts.
But it wasn’t until two of the most recent attacks, mass shootings in El Paso and Dayton, Ohio, that many regional grant makers like Murphy started seriously asking their peers how to prepare.
Clint Mabie has some advice for them: Get ready for the long haul. Mabie, president of the Community Foundation for Southern Arizona, supervised the Tucson area’s philanthropic response to the 2011 shooting that killed six and injured then-Rep. Gabby Giffords. The foundation, Mabie says, served as an incubator for several funds that are still in operation. Each time there is shooting in another part of the country, Mabie says, victims in Arizona relive the trauma and need assistance.
“After a tragedy happens, it’s a lifelong issue for those involved,” he told me. “There has to be some long-term money because this doesn’t just go way.”
Alex Daniels covers foundations, donor-advised funds, fundraising research, and tax issues for the Chronicle. He recently wrote about the distribution of $1 billion in grants to four research institutions and the Carnegie Corporation’s urging fellow grant makers to support voting rights. Email Alex or follow him on Twitter.
