Surviving Disasters

Several people have recently asked me if donations to nonprofit organizations will be affected by this years disasters such as the Tsunami in Asia, and Hurrican Katrina. My simple answer is "Yes".

A recent study conducted by the Association of Fundrasing Professionals showed that 20% of donors who responded to the survey admitted that they had diverted their charitable gift(s) from organizations they traditionally supported to the tsunami relief efforts.

Americans will continue to donate generously, but will give more to catastrophic relief efforts, and will have to decrease their giving to their regular or favorite charities. After the September 11, 2001 attack on America, charities outside of relief efforts felt the strain of reduced giving as people gave to help the those most affected by the attacks.

Katrina is another domestic disaster that individuals and corporations immediately responded to by providing goods and monetary donations. Since this is a national crisis and not one experienced overseas, Americans will dig even deeper to donate their time and money. This will profoundly impact the ability of other than disaster relief non-profits to maintain the same level of revenue as they have in recent years.

As noted above, 20% of individuals stated that they diverted giving to their regular charity in order to provide assistance to the Tsunami efforts in 2005. We can assume that at least 20% of Americans will do the same with the Katrina relief efforts, although I believe it will be a much higher percentage since this disaster took place on American soil. 20% of the $1.2 billion reportedly raised as of September 22, 2005 by the Chronicle of Philanthropy for the Katrina relief effforts means that approximately $240 million has already been redirected away from other non-profit groups because of donor diversion. This will affect the homeless shelters ability to provide hot meals, elder care will be reduced, and museums and art facilities will have close their doors early.

Yes, the impact of Katrina is being felt across the nation and will continue to be felt for years to come throughout the entire country.