| Advice about responding to a disaster such as Hurricane Katrina On this website you will find a list of charities that are responding to the needs of people affected by Hurricane Katrina. Nearly all of the charities on this list are part of this website, which means they have met 10 accountability standards. There are many other charities that are responding to this disaster. We have put together several suggestions to help you think about which charities to support. 1. It is important and fairly easy to make sure that a charity is legitimate. But try not to let this concern cause you to support only large and well-known charities. There are many smaller charities that are also responding to this tragedy, often in unique ways that reflect their particular expertise or concern (such as the fate of pets). It is relatively simple to figure out if a smaller
and less well-known charity is legitimate. Our website has a page on How
to check out charities. One of the simplest ways is to go to www.Guidestar.org
and search the charity’s name. Guidestar is a database of tens of
thousands of charities. Charities with budgets over $25,000 must file
a report with the IRS each year. You can find that report at Guidestar.
Among other things, it will tell you how much a charity spent on administration
and fund raising. It is more difficult to get a list of local charities that are eligible for the CFC. To do so you will need to go to the website of the CFC in your area. To find this website, go to: http://www.opm.gov/cfc/search/locator.asp. Indicate your state and you will get a list of CFCs in that state. Click on the CFC that serves your city or region and you will get its web address. On its website you should be able to find its list of all charities eligible for this local CFC. In the DC metro area, the site is www.cfcnca.org. A relatively new way to learn more about the finances of some large charities is www.CharityNavigator.org. But we would urge you to not focus only on a charity’s budget and financial data. Also think about what it does. Is it meeting an important need? Is it meeting needs that others are not focusing on? Does it have a creative strategy for helping people? Some of the most creative strategies come from small groups of individuals who are moved to do something concrete to help. There is no better way to decide if a charity or a group is doing something legitimate than to have a personal connection to the people involved. The only thing to keep in mind is that if you give this way, your gift may not be tax deductible (unless the group is working through an existing charity). 2. Try to think about the causes and solutions to what happened on the Gulf Coast, not just about the immense needs of those affected by it. One of the critical roles many charities play in our society is to advocate a cause, such as more research on Alzheimer’s Disease. At least one charitable organization has been advocating the cause of restoring the wetlands around New Orleans for many years, the Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana. Many people believe that the deterioration of these wetlands led directly to the extraordinary damage caused by this hurricane. This organization is not part of this website but, after looking it up on Guidestar, we have included it in this list of charities responding to the hurricane. There are many other organizations that are working on the environmental consequences of coastal development in this country. These are also organizations that are working on the deep poverty that still exists in this country and that made it impossible for so many people to get out of New Orleans. One such organization on this website is the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities. Another is the NAACP Special Contributions Fund. 3. When you respond to the needs of people hurt by Hurricane Katrina, try not to forget all the other people and causes being helped by charities in many other places, in this country and around the world. Unfortunately, many of these other needs and causes were significantly hurt by the outpouring of support for the victims of 9/11. The needs of other people affected by other tragedies (the tsunami, the war in Iraq, AIDS and other dreaded diseases) don’t disappear when a tragedy like Hurricane Katrina occurs. We all need to dig as deep as we can this year to both respond to the hurricane as well as to help the other causes that we have supported in the past and still need our help today. Indeed, in many ways Hurricane Katrina shows why we need to support a broad range of charitable causes:
On this website you will find charities that are addressing all of these issues and many others. Again, every charity on this website has met the federal charity drive’s 10 accountability standards. We also make it very easy for you to support any of these charities by creating a link to each charity’s donation page on its website. In other words, you can make an online gift directly to each charity. We understand that our focus now is on responding to the hurricane victims.
But please remember to come back later and find other charities and other
causes that also need your help. Thank you.
|
