About Bob Bob serves as President and CEO of GuideStar and serves on the boards of Vision TV, Grameen Foundation USA, and the AAFRC Trust for Philanthropy. More...
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Posted By Bob Ottenhoff on January 18th, 2011, in these categories: Disaster Relief | GuideStarThere have been lots of interesting reports on Haiti these past few days as we mark the one year anniversary of the devastating earthquake that killed over 200,000 people and left over a million people homeless.
 Source: Global Development Blog-Views from the Center Pledges and contributions from the public have so far totaled about $1.5 billion and government agencies have pledged close to $3 billion. That seems like a lot, but other disasters have generated even larger contributions. Whatever the amount, there’s a lot of frustration today about the pace of progress. Is it justified? I offer four points to think about:
1. There is a difference between crisis relief and rebuilding. When a disaster occurs, there is an immediate problem: rushing medical attention, food, water, and shelter to the victims. Donors respond unusually well to vivid television reports of these emergencies and donations tend to spike. But once the crisis has been addressed, the tedious cleaning up and rebuilding begins. It is a hard slog and it is not televised. Complaints that donations are not being spent fast enough are mixing expectations about the emergency relief versus the complicated rebuilding efforts. It’s hard for donors to distinguish between the two activities because nonprofits raise money based on the emergency at hand.
2. Donors do not always think in the longer term. The Disaster Emergency Committee reports that before the earthquake hit:
- More than 70% of people in Haiti were living on less than $US2 per day
- 86% of people in Port au Prince were living in slum conditions – mostly tightly-packed, poorly-built, concrete buildings.
- 80% of education in Haiti was provided in often poor-quality private schools, the state system generally provided better education but provided far too few places.
- Half of people in Port-au-Prince had no access to latrines and only one-third has access to tap water.
In other words, the crisis in Haiti began long before the earthquake. But this wasn’t televised either and it’s hard to raise money for long-term efforts.
3. Capabilities matter. Increasingly donors are demanding more than just good intentions. They want results. Disaster aid organizations are going to need to prove that they know what they are doing and have the organization, logistical capabilities, and personnel to get things done, done well, and done quickly. By the way, for you believers in judging nonprofits by overhead ratios: these might be considered the elements of overhead, but it is often the difference between mere aspiration and actual accomplishment.
4. International aid organizations need to work together better. According to the Disaster Accountability Project, 196 organizations solicited donations for work in Haiti. Sometimes they seem to be tripping over one another. The multiplicity of organizations is made more difficult because of the weak and disorganized Haitian government. Here are a few organizations to keep an eye on:
Posted By Bob Ottenhoff on February 22nd, 2010, in these categories: Disaster ReliefIt has been over a month since the earthquake in Haiti. Now that the story is pretty much off the TV screens, most Americans are paying less attention to this crisis, and contributions have declined dramatically. I spoke to many reporters in the first weeks after the disaster and tried to get them—with only limited success—to include in their reports the fact that Haiti was in crisis before the earthquake and will need our help and contributions for many years to come. I hope you and your friends will be thinking about that as you plan your own individual giving.
In my personal life, one of my volunteer activities is serving on the board of the Grameen Foundation USA. One of the organizations we support is Fonkoze, the Haitian branch of the Grameen Bank. There were many acts of personal heroism and extraordinary effort after the earthquake. Here is an excerpt from an amazing story reported by Peggy Simpson that tells one of them, this one involving Fonkoze. Read the full blog here >
At a time when Haitian commercial banks remain closed, Fonkoze, the Haitian branch of the Grameen Bank of Bangladesh, mobilized over the weekend to get funds to its members in rural towns as well as Port-au-Prince.
Between 2 a.m. and 2 p.m. last Saturday [January 23, 2010], Fonkoze brought in $2 million in cash from their U.S. bank and distributed it by helicopters to regional offices in the most remote parts of the country. That got money flowing again. The cash came from Haitians working abroad who had sent funds—remittances—to their relatives.
Also known as Haiti’s Alternative Bank for the Organized Poor, Fonkoze found a way to get money to its members through the 34 of its 41 branch offices still open after the earthquake. It had a lot of help in high places: the U.S. secretary of state, top Treasury and Defense Department officials, the Federal Reserve, the Agency for International Development, the United Nations, the Inter-American Development Bank and more.
The actual operation read like a cloak-and-dagger saga.
Anne Hastings, the CEO of Fonkoze Financial Services, was point person on shaping the unorthodox solution. It involved many conference calls to Washington, New York and Miami, as well as intricate strategies with managers on the ground in Haiti who would get the money to the women.
By last Friday, the plan was ready. Remittances from U.S.-based Haitians deposited in Fonkoze’s accounts at City National Bank of New Jersey were sent to JP Morgan Chase in Miami, converted into cash—and packed in office supply boxes. An armored vehicle transferred the boxes to Homestead Air Force Base.
A C-17 plane, diverted from Langley Air Force Base, landed at Homestead at 3 a.m. Saturday, took on the camouflaged cargo of cash, and flew to Haiti, where the major airport at Port-au-Prince has been under U.S. military control since the earthquake.
There, Hastings and two other Fonkoze executives inspected the cash cargo—and called the Pentagon to say so far, so good. Under a military escort, the Fonkoze vehicle loaded with the boxes of cash awaited the two helicopters that could fly the money to 10 designated drop-off locations.
Fonkoze’s Jean-Guy Noel rode with the helicopters as they began deliveries before dawn. Seven hours later, all the cash had been delivered and the helicopters were back in Port-au-Prince. By early afternoon, the cash had been distributed to the 34 Fonkoze branches. Almost immediately, the Fonkoze managers began giving Fonkoze members cash from their relatives, a financial lifeline at a time when the formal banking system is in shambles and remittances sent through it from overseas Haitians remain locked up.
… In 2007, 79 percent of Haitians lived on less than $2 a day and 55 percent lived on half that.
Fonkoze’s micro-lending program has four different levels. The first step is for the poorest of the poor and may involve home repairs and health care, as well as building the confidence of the women as they plan to start a micro-enterprise. Next the women may qualify for small loans—perhaps only $25—with a short repayment period, while they enroll in literacy classes. In Haiti, more than 50 percent of people are illiterate.
The third level is the core: a "solidarity" group in which friends take out loans together, then morph into credit centers of 30 to 40 women. These women can start out borrowing $75 but if they prosper, they can borrow up to $1,300 for six months.
The fourth level focuses on business development. Some women in this group borrow up to $25,000 and are being nurtured to become part of the formal economy, creating jobs in rural areas where there are few employment opportunities.
Posted By Bob Ottenhoff on January 13th, 2010, in these categories: Disaster Relief | Giving WiselyLast night a powerful earthquake shook Haiti and devastated much of that impoverished island nation’s capital, Port-au-Prince. It goes without saying that our thoughts and prayers are with everyone who has been affected by this disaster.
As always, donors in this country have been quick to offer their help. Here’s how you can give wisely to relief efforts in Haiti:
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Be pro-active, not re-active.
It’s not necessary or wise to respond to every call or request. Instead, follow the steps below to give wisely.
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Determine what kind of relief you want to support.
What are your values and priorities? What matters to you? "Disaster relief" has many faces—emergency housing, provision of potable water, medical assistance, feeding the hungry, sending in search and rescue teams. Decide which one(s) you want to give to.
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Do a little research.
Use a reputable source, such as GuideStar, or one of our partners, such as Network for Good or JustGive, to identify charities doing the work you want to support. All of the charities listed on these sites are legitimate organizations recognized by the IRS, and you can contribute directly from the sites.
If you already have an organization in mind and are familiar with its Web site, you can do your research there. Be careful, however, if you haven’t been to the site before or don’t know the organization well. Con artists often post bogus Web sites and run scam donation campaigns immediately after a disaster. If you aren’t already familiar with a relief organization’s site, protect yourself by linking to it from a trusted site such as GuideStar, Network for Good, or JustGive. Avoid new Web sites and links provided in e-mails.
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Ask questions.
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Does the charity have experience working in disaster relief and in particular Haiti?
Time is of the essence—lives are at risk, so you want to give to organizations that have the ability to get relief where it needs to go quickly and efficiently.
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How does the charity describe its mission and programs? Its accomplishments?
Do the programs support the mission? Does the charity use concrete measurements to evaluate its accomplishments?
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How do people who have firsthand experience with the charity evaluate its services?
Check GuideStar or our partner GreatNonprofits for reviews.
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Consider making another gift in a few weeks or months.
"Disaster relief" is a long-term process, as we’ve seen in the aftermath of the December 26, 2004, tsunamis and Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
My colleagues and I hope that these tips will help donors give wisely as well as generously.
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