A Collision of Crises
As if the fundraising climate wasn’t already complex, two unexpected crises that struck days apart are now vying for the attention of donors — the same donors who already have been tapped to give to relief efforts related to the Covid-19 pandemic, wildfires, floods, and other refugee crises.
As field teams manage aid efforts to address 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 taking different approaches. But those who are actively raising funds so far report a strong response that suggests donors aren’t too weary or cash poor to step up yet again.
My colleague Drew Lindsay spoke with some of them for his report today.
“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.
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.
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.”
Potential donors reading about both crises in the news may be conflicted about how to act.
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.
Likewise, 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 Laura 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.
Haleluya Hadero, who follows philanthropy for the Associated Press in partnership with the Chronicle, also spoke to experts about the factors complicating the Haitian aid effort.
Aid to Haiti has been probed for years, and scrutiny intensified in 2015 when an investigation from ProPublica and NPR questioned where $500 million raised by the American Red Cross was spent. At this time, the charity isn’t seeking donations for Haiti relief, but will work with its partners — including the Haitian Red Cross and the Red Crescent — to respond to the earthquake.
“I unfortunately do not expect broad global attention to the earthquake in Haiti,” Maryam Zarnegar Deloffre, an expert in humanitarian aid and professor at George Washington University, told Haleluya. “Or public giving on the same scale as we saw in response to the 2010 earthquake.”
We’ll follow what happens. Watch this space.
If you’re a fundraiser for a humanitarian aid group supporting relief efforts in Haiti or Afghanistan, we want to hear from you. How does the donor response to these crises compare with what you’ve seen in the past? Send me an email or find me on Twitter.
