The recent
devastation
caused by
Hurricane
Katrina in
Louisiana
has been
heart-renching.
In addition
to the
horrific
loss of
life, home
and basic
life
necessities,
victims have
endured a
less than
spectacular
rescue
operation.
FEMA
(Federal
Emergency
Management
Agency) has
come under
fire for
mismanagement
of the
relief
efforts.
Congress had
initially
approved
$10.5
billion
dollars in
relief
funding and
has
subsequently
approved $52
billion in
additional
funds. The
bulk of
these funds
will go to
FEMA.
With the
number of
unpredictable
and large
scale
disasters we
have faced
in recent
years, many
fundraisers
may be
discouraged.
Not only is
there are
large scale
loss of life
and
extraordinary
pain for
thousands,
but there
can also be
a negative
impact on
our
organization's
annual
fundraising
efforts.
Being an
optimist
myself, I
prefer to
believe that
everything
happens for
a reason and
that as
fundraisers,
we can learn
something
from this.
Rather than
sticking to
our tried
and true
methods of
fundraising,
perhaps we
can learn
from some of
the creative
methods of
fundraising
that have
evolved
through this
disaster.
For
example:
The American
Red Cross
partnered
with Yahoo
to quickly
create an
online
donation
system to
handle
donation
processing.
At the time
of this
writing,
over $53
million had
been raised
through
this.
Companies
such as
Kawasaki
kick started
an employee
donation
campaign by
contributing
$200,000.
The annual
Muscular
Dystrophy
Telethon
contributed
$1 million
of its funds
and also
dedicated
the first
four and
last four
hours of its
telethon to
appeals for
relief
support.
Celebrities
got into the
act as
well:
George
Clooney
donated $1
million to
the United
Way; John
Travolta
delivered
supplies
with his
private
plane,
Michael
Jackson
donated a
song and
Jamie Fox
organized an
auction
raising
$600,000.
Let’s take
this
negative
incident and
use it to
spur
ourselves
into more
creative
ways of
thinking in
our
fundraising.
Let’s have
something
positive
come out of
this
terrible
event.
Most of all,
at this
time, our
thoughts and
prayers go
out to the
victims and
their
families.