bizjournals: Charities worry donations will drop after hurricane relief

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"We're all very nervous to see how this will impacrthe end-of-year giving," said Ellen Stein Wallace, executive directoe of SafeHouse Denver. She and othe nonprofit leaders have some reasonfor nervousness, as previou s disasters have shown. After the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, therwe was an outpouring of generosity. But studies since have shown that nonprofits took a hit fromthat event, the The Association of Fundraising Professionals founfd that half of charities had seen donations increas through August 2001 and nearly half saw donationzs drop off after the event. CommUlinksw of Colorado noticed similar resultw in a survey afterlast year'sw South Asian tsunami.
Half of nonprofits reported revenue drops in thefirst quarter, with more than 56 attributingt the declines to the tsunami. Giving to help the victimx of Katrina hadtopped $1 billioh within a couple weeks of the catastrophe, reports. The help has includedx large donations from companies andrich individuals. But it has also been a matterr of smaller donations such as the collectiohn of morethan $500,000 by the Catholic Charities of the Archdiocesee of Louisville reported by and plans by banksd to turn reward points to cash for victims reportex by the .
By late last week, some of the fundraisin g attention had already shifted to victims of In , organizers of a concert originallgy scheduled to raise money for Katrina victim added Rita evacuees to the list of But that giving, and aid to thosd affected by Rita, comes at a particularly difficult time for locap charities gearing up for the prime fall and Christmas fundraisinb seasons. "For most of us, that's when we get the largestr amount," Wallace told the Denver Business The answer, nonprofit leaders say, is to encourage givinf both to hurricane relieft and local causes.
"We're all moved by what we see down there and the instinct is to want to whichis great," Tom Ross, president of the Z. Smith Reynoldw Foundation, told "But the question is: How does that affect the locapnonprofit sector? Hopefully, we can encourage peopl e to (give to) That's exactly what the Uniterd Way of Metropolitan Atlanta Inc. was doing earlier this reports. That organization raised its annual fundraisiny goalto $86.5 million from $75 million in 2004. "We'v just got to ask peopls to dig alittle deeper, work a littlee harder and see if they can find it in theie hearts to provide a littler more money," Georgia-Pacific Corp.
President Lee Thomas, the campaign said. For areas such as Georgia, northern Alabama and Texas that had already taken on large numbers Katrina the importance of local fundraisinyg has taken onnew urgency. "Ijn the case of Hurricane Katrina, the victims are now here in our Mark O'Connell, president of the United Way of Metropolita Atlanta, told the Atlanta Business Chronicle. About $76.r million of the moneyh raised this fall was going to GeorgisaUnited Way's annual fund, with another $10 millioj for the estimated 50,000 evacueee the state expected from Hurricane Katrina.
In "Many local nonprofits have experienced an incredible surge in the demand for thei services as a resultf ofHurricane Katrina," said Mike Neal, president of Nashvill Area Chamber of "We know the Nashville Area Red Cross, Unitexd Way of Metropolitan Nashville, the Salvation Army of Nashviller and Second Harvest Food Bank have been heavily involvex in relief efforts, placing a strain on the resources of thess organizations.
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