To charitable donors, tragedies are not equal
By Jacqueline L. Salmon
Washington Post
WASHINGTON — Disaster strikes — a hurricane, a flood, a tsunami, a terrorist attack. People die. Buildings are destroyed. Communities are devastated. What do you do? If you're like millions of Americans, you reach for your wallet. And you give, and give, and give.
More than $2 billion in private donations for victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. More than $1.5 billion for those affected by the devastating tsunami that swept through Southeast Asia at the end of last year. And last week, donations to the victims of hurricanes Katrina and Rita hit $2.2 billion.
But what is it that triggers that "must-give" button in our heads? And why do some disasters push that button when others don't? The string of hurricanes that hit Florida last year brought in only $79 million. Last month's earthquake in Pakistan, which killed more than 70,000 people — many times the number who perished in Hurricane Katrina — has brought in a mere $45 million in donations from Americans.
International and domestic relief groups that deal with disasters say they sense that certain circumstances can trigger an outpouring of donations. Although they emphasize that they are constantly surprised by what galvanizes Americans, here's what they generally find:
Oxfam America, for example, a relief group that works in 26 countries, received $250 million in donations for tsunami victims — more than enough for that effort, said Nathaniel Raymond, spokesman for the organization.
But it is struggling to raise funds to help the millions of victims of the civil strife in the Darfur region of Sudan, where some 2 million people have been forced from their homes and into camps, and for the civil war in northern Uganda that has killed tens of thousands and driven more than 1.6 million people off their farms.
A sense of urgency mobilizes donors.
"People's lives are clearly at stake, and it creates a strong impulse to give," said Bill Strathmann, chief executive of Network for Good, a charitable Web site that allows people to donate to and volunteer with more than 1 million charities.
But plodding disasters, such as the decades-long devastation from AIDS or the methodical lethality of a famine, often don't trigger such an outpouring.
"With famines, that's so slow and gradual," said Patrick Rooney, director of research for the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University, which has studied patterns of charitable giving over the past 50 years. "It's horrific, but it happens very slowly."
The United Nations says hunger has killed 6 million people worldwide this year — almost 25 times as many as died in the tsunami.
But relief groups labor to raise money for efforts to resolve problems like that — such as for the victims of the widespread famine and drought in the West African nation of Niger, where 2.5 million people face food shortages after their crops were ravaged by drought and locusts.
There are exceptions to this rule — particularly when celebrities get involved. The famine in Ethiopia in 1984-85 triggered a record outpouring of donations, but only after Live Aid, the worldwide rock concert held in July 1985.
Similarly, while the Red Cross has received $1.3 billion for hurricanes Katrina and Rita, it has received only $93,000 for Hurricane Wilma, which struck southern Florida late last month. Granted, Katrina caused vastly more damage and disrupted more lives than Wilma. But relief agencies say that more Americans might have ponied up for Wilma if they hadn't already been through the emotional roller coaster of witnessing Katrina.
Charitable groups are urging donors to keep up the flow of dollars during this fall and winter's "giving season."
And, to spur them on, Congress recently passed a bill increasing tax deductions for charitable donors. Until the end of the year, and to any charity, individuals can write off charitable deductions equal to their adjusted gross income, compared with the usual limit of 50 percent of their adjustable gross income.
The provision probably will help only wealthy donors, but the bill's backers hope everyone gets the message — that it isn't just hurricane victims who need help.
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