Disaster philanthropy – three basics lessons.
More than a decade and half ago, when I was in grad school, at the Maxwell School of Syracuse University, I took a class with Catherine Bertini, the former Executive Director of the World Food Program. One of the things that stayed with me, from that class is the first and perhaps the most basic of lessons in disaster philanthropy: Cash is king. ?The take away for us, today as we see and hear about many disasters is to always prioritize sending money if you can. If you want to help, during a disaster, anywhere – whether in Los Angeles or in Gaza or other parts of the world, the best thing you can send, is cash. I will elaborate on why, shortly.
Cash is key because of its flexibility of use. We may want to send clothes, food or other items. But unless the recipients actually want these items, they can end up being a burden to them, rather than a gift. Think of the time they need to sort through, aggregate, distribute these items. Not to mention the cost of storage and transportation. Especially, in a large scale disaster, many items you send may actually end up in the dumps, rather than reaching the people you want to help!
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The second lesson is to send money to the same people, over and over again– after verifying that they are genuine and you trust them – rather than scatter it like seeds on the ground, with multiple people at different times. Unless you have a lot of money to give around. Even in that case, it helps to give to the same set of people consistently, over a period of time.
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The third and perhaps the one that is most crucial is to make sure that the people you are giving money to, are genuine. Give to organizations or people you know, or to those who your trusted friends/ colleagues recommend. Trust, but verify is the mantra.
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Of course, none of this is to discount or minimize the great scholarly and other work that is going on, at many centers and institutions. However, sometimes, we need a commonsense reminder of what to do, during times when some of us have resources to give.
#philanthropy #cash #disastergiving #fundraising #crisis #emergencies
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Climate Crisis Resiliency | Sustainability | Humanitarian Impact
1 个月Important takeaways and true today as well. I hope you’re doing well, even as disasters continue.
Full-Time Accounting Lecturer; Side hustles include CFO Consulting and Financial Training
2 个月Thank you Sabith Khan, Ph.D. We are trying to figure out how to support those affected by these events. This gives us a good roadmap to follow.
Professor of Economics at California Lutheran University
2 个月Thank you Sabith for sharing these great lessons. I wish our policy makers had the fortune of being in professor Bertini’s class. It is rather unfortunate that we do not trust people with cash and have this unproven idea that people and families in need do not know what is best for them and they have to tell them how they should address their basic needs.
Scholar, writer and creator of interesting projects.
2 个月Imran Saqib Khalid Basit Naeem Emera Bridger Wilson Allison Landwehr Catherine Bertini