Catholic Relief Services veteran Laura Durington hangs a meteorological map in her office to impose a semblance of order on her organization’s unpredictable fundraising cycles. The map illustrates the peak seasons for hurricanes, cyclones, wildfires, and other severe weather events — times when Durington and her annual-fund team are likely to be called into action to raise money for disaster response.

But even the most accurate weather forecast could not have predicted what international relief organizations are facing this week. As field teams manage aid efforts in two unexpected crises — the 7.2-magnitude earthquake in Haiti and the displacement of hundreds of thousands in Afghanistan following the Taliban takeover — the fundraisers charged with bringing in emergency support are navigating unusual circumstances.

Some groups hesitate to even launch fundraising efforts for Afghanistan, fearful that raising an organization’s profile might make its workers on the ground a target for Taliban reprisals. “Our primary focus right now is just ensuring that our team members are safe,” said Adrienne Karecki, chief development and marketing officer at Mercy Corps, which has been working in Afghanistan since 1986.

In the Haiti relief effort, money is being raised against a backdrop of the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse last month and resulting political chaos. There’s also a potential hangover from the humanitarian aid work that followed Haiti’s massive 2010 earthquake and that later came under sharp criticism for allegedly wasting donated money.

If the fundraising climate wasn’t already complex, these twin disasters struck days apart and are vying for the attention of donors who already have been tapped to give to relief efforts related to the Covid-19 pandemic, wildfires, floods, and other refugee crises. “There are an enormous number of competing demands, and these come on top of an enormous number of competing demands from last year,” said Patricia McIlreavy, president of the Center for Disaster Philanthropy.

‘They Respond No Matter What’

So far, organizations report a strong response that suggests donors aren’t too weary or cash poor to step up yet again. CARE USA sent two appeals within 48 hours of each other to all its donors — one for Afghanistan support on Friday and the second for Haiti on Sunday. Angie Moore, chief individual fundraising officer, said the appeals have performed well, along with social-media ads and other revenue-generating channels. Supporters of international relief efforts are a small but hardy subset of donors who expect to be called upon in an emergency, Moore said.

“They respond no matter what,” she said. “I don’t think we experience donor fatigue like some other sectors of charitable giving.”

The American Jewish World Service didn’t hesitate to send a Haiti appeal to its 76,000 donors because it, too, has a long history of work in the country. A new approach to digital appeals has also eased its concerns about donor fatigue. On the advice of a consultant, the group increased its digital communications in the past year, with every person on its list receiving nearly a third more email from the organization. The result? Giving grew by 15 percent.

“It felt counterintuitive for us,” said Stuart Schear, vice president for communications. “We used to worry about exhausting our list. But when we went out more, people responded more.”

Ties to Afghanistan

Potential donors reading about both crises in the news may be conflicted about how to act. “It’s very possible that people are torn about which to respond to,” Schear said.

Americans have developed ties to Afghanistan and a strong interest in the well-being of its people because of the decades-long U.S. involvement, said Lauren Gray, senior director of global corporate partnerships at the International Rescue Committee. “There’s a connection to Afghanistan that is different from what we might see in a natural disaster” in a less familiar country, she said.

Groups raising money for Afghanistan relief also are benefiting from wall-to-wall news coverage of the U.S. withdrawal and Taliban takeover, which in turn increases internal pressure on corporations to give. Employees “are asking what their companies are doing,” Gray said. “That tends to push the private sector to act faster.”

CARE USA reports that news coverage also is boosting giving from mass-marketing efforts. “Afghanistan is outpacing Haiti simply because of the media,” Moore said.

While the Afghanistan situation can seem hopeless, donors appear to be seizing the opportunity to support Afghans whose work as aides, drivers, and translators for American troops, diplomats, and other government employees earned them visas to come to the States. In the two days following the first reports that Taliban troops had entered the capital of Kabul, the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service raised nearly $180,000 for an “Afghan allies” effort — roughly three times the previous total.

Andrew Steele, vice president for development, said that while Americans may be divided about the U.S. role in the country, helping those Afghans transition here is “a bipartisan effort.” Contributing to the organization’s fundraising success was a partnership with immigrant rights and veterans groups that promoted the drive via their social-media channels. The group also saw support from a few elected officials, including Minnesota U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar, whom it had helped in the 1990s when she was a refugee from Somalia.

‘A Soft Spot for Haiti’

Many groups working in Haiti have a history there that donors know. Catholic Relief Services has been in the predominantly Catholic country for more than 60 years and has more than 200 partner organizations locally. Donors expect the group to step in when there’s need for aid, according to annual-fund director Durington. American Catholic donors, she said, “all have a bit of a soft spot for Haiti.”

The group raised about $300,000 in 48 hours after it launched its fundraising effort via social media and other digital efforts, with most of those contributions arriving before the first email appeal went out.

Illustrating how gifts are being spent is doubly important in Haiti given its political volatility and the mixed legacy of the 2010 earthquake relief effort. That disaster, which killed some 250,000 and affected 3 million, prompted at least $1.4 billion in giving from Americans, and it was estimated that one in every two households contributed — a remarkable outpouring of support. Yet within a few years, there were widespread reports that money had been mismanaged both by the government and by relief groups. An NPR and ProPublica investigation raised significant questions about how the American Red Cross had spent the $500 million it had raised.

Although the Red Cross disputes the account and has issued a report about its 10 years of post-earthquake work in Haiti, the agency recently announced that it is not raising money to address this month’s crisis in the country. Still, some haven’t forgotten. Actress Mia Farrow stirred protest on Twitter when she called the Red Cross one of the “best aid organizations working in Haiti” and encouraged donations.

Mercy Corps workers and fundraisers are mindful of possible lingering bitterness from the 2010 relief effort, both in Haiti and among donors. “There is that hangover,” said Karecki, the group’s development chief. To counter that, she said it is critical that Mercy Corps report with real stories and videos about its work with local groups, first-hand accounts from team members, and frequent examples of where money is going and to what end.

So far, the organization has raised $225,000, which Karecki characterizes as a “very strong response.” She said a communications team on the ground in Haiti deserves a lot of credit for providing those critical field reports, stories, and videos. She added: “We’re leading with honesty, we’re leading with authenticity, and we’re seeing the result of that.”