Choosing organizations to donate to after the Haiti earthquake

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Comments

[Saundra]

MMP,

I write often about the problems caused by rating a charity based upon the percent spent on administration costs. It's a fairly meaningless indicator and causes lots of problems in the field. This is why I don't recommend to my readers that they use sites such as the ones you listed.
For more on this see my post http://informationincontext.typepad.com/good_intentions_are_not_e/2009/05/emphasis-placed-on-the-percent-charities-spend-on-administration-can-actually-lead-to-increased-wast.html

[mmp]

Great post. Definitely do some research on who you are giving to. It doesn't have to be complicated: there are already sites out there that rate how much an organization spends on overhead vs. programming, etc. For example, Charity Navigator gives CARE a four-star rating for how they are run. Plus CARE has been on the ground in Haiti since 1955. Major news orgs all recommend CARE as one of the legit relief agencies people should give to.

Disclaimer: I do some work for CARE, but I'm not being paid to promote them.

[Shan]

The Salvation Army has been in Haiti since 1950. Long before it was popular to help this 3rd world country. They have established community centers, schools, daycare and churches in Port-Au-Prince. They are a well organized organization that has disaster training and staff.

[Beth Gazley, Indiana University]

I just found this website and thank you all for the very helpful advice. I teach nonprofit management at a well known school and this is the same advice I give to students and colleagues who want to make disaster relief donations, but my "academic" suggestions have more weight when they are reinforced by such experienced and knowledgeable field professionals. Be of good heart in your work, and bon chance!

[World Food Program USA]

Would you please also include the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) on your list of organizations helping in Haiti? WFP is the largest UN agency coordinating the response to the Haiti earthquake. Its website is http://www.wfp.org and donations for the Haiti relief effort can be made at http://www.wfp.org/donate/haiti. Thank you!

[Maria Carolina Pulido]

PAHO the Pan American Health Organization is part of United Nations is doing a good job I think it is a good option to donate. http://www.paho.org

They are doing a lot of stuff related with public health and disaster relief.

[Brenna Kupferman]

In addition to the organizations mentioned above, ActionAid has been in Haiti for almost 10 years and has been working with the poorest and most vulnerable, including in the area of disaster preparedness.

AA Haiti staff were able to respond immediately to the disaster and are currently providing both short-term and long-term relief.

More information is at http://actionaidusa.org/what/emergencies/support_haitian_relief_efforts/

[Kathryn in California]

I donated to Direct Relief, which has an ongoing "Emergency Pre-Positioning Program" and partnerships with groups listed upthread.

Here is their description of partnerships in Haiti and their Principles of Emergency Response)

"The program stages essential medical materials on site with key partners for immediate use in emergency situations such as this one."

[Patrick]

Partners in Health also work in Hati and merit support.
http://www.pih.org/home.html

[Michael]

Catholic Relief Services www.crs.org has been in Haiti for over 50 years. It's ready with emergency response ($5 million initial pledge) and will be there for the long haul.

[Luna]

Actually, I think you should note that Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (http://doctorswithoutborders.org/) were not only already there and a major player in providing healthcare in the area, but also one of the hospitals which has been damaged badly is theirs. I'm sure they can use donations right now, and they have a good claim.

[Texas in Africa]

1. Donate to organizations with an established presence, quickly. The ability to charter helicopters, buy tarps, and distribute water is eased considerably if the organization has cash in hand.

2. Work with organizations that have local staff in leadership positions and who are empowered to make quick decisions on the ground.

3. Work with organizations that partner with local social institutions, like houses of worship or community organizations. These groups' social networks and language skills mean that they're quickly able to identify specific problems and solutions, make lists of victims, and respond to traumatized populations in culturally-relevant ways.

[J.]

Sorry, Saundra - I can't hold back. Two more bits of advice:

1) If you don't already work for an agency that is responding to the disaster, DON'T GO TO HAITI.

2) If you don't already work for an angency that is responding to the disaster, DON'T START YOUR OWN NEW ORGANIZATION.

[J.]

Agencies with established, existing capability on the ground in Haiti prior to the earthquake (and therefore best able to take a response to scale out of the gate):

- Save the Children
- CARE
- World Vision
- Oxfam
- ADRA
- Plan