As was the case with last winter’s tsunami, several charities almost immediately began raising money online to help victims of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans and other affected areas.
Thanks to heavy news coverage on television and in local and regional newspapers, food charity America’s Second Harvest raised $1.4 million through inbound telemarketing and its Web site (www.secondharvesrt.org) within the first four or five days of the hurricane, said spokeswoman Maura Daly.
The Chicago organization was planning to distribute more than 1 million pounds of food and water to victims in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida.
“We’ve delivered 28 truckloads of food and have 80 in the on-deck circle,” Daly said, noting that America’s Second Harvest had received donated warehouse space and trucking services for the supplies.
She wasn’t sure whether Second Harvest would be running any telemarketing efforts.
While the Web certainly has been the fastest way to raise money, it hasn’t been the only one.
New York-based Church World Service (CWS) was set to send out a mailing at the end of August but stopped it and came up with a special Hurricane Katrina-related insert to add to the envelopes, said spokeswoman Jan Dragin. The mailings didn’t ask for any specific contributions since congregation members can fall into several different income brackets.
In addition, the organization raised Churchworldservice.org and asked for cash donations in lieu of food or material donations.
CWS also sends twice-yearly mailings to 110,000 church congregations in the United States. When a letter is sent to a church pastor “hundreds of people find out about it right away,” Dragin said.
The group stays away from telemarketing.
CWS donations are going to fund such things as its “Tools and Blankets” program, which tries to help people rebuild their lives after disasters.
Another faith-based organization successful with online fundraising is the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) which pulled in $570,000 at deadline, said spokesman Elliot Wright.
Even though UMCOR raises most of its money through collection plates in the country’s 35,000 Methodist churches, Wright said this effort—its second-ever after the tsunami—was its most successful.
UMCOR uses donations in three ways: to help victims within 10 days of a disaster, to assist homeowners rebuild their lives physically and spiritually and to seek whatever assistance is available from other religious or government agencies.
One of UMCOR’s primary activities surrounding Hurricane Katrina has been to distribute “health kits”—packages with soap, toothbrushes and other sanitary items.
“It doesn’t sound like much, but the people down there have absolutely nothing,” said Wright.
