International Development: Why Do Donors Commonly Only Give to Disaster Responses?

Undoubtedly, the current social climate in America has been enough to force individuals into new methods of thinking, working, communicating, loving, disliking, fearing etc. We turn on the news each day to discover more deaths, poverty, discrimination, and scandal however, we rarely get to experience the great things many people, organizations and groups are doing.

As the Development Officer for a nonprofit with a focus in developing countries, I began to look at the aforementioned, and try to understand how this has the potential to affect how the work I do is perceived, supported, or forgotten.

With Ebola becoming an international threat at the end of 2014, we were hoping to have the virus contained swiftly. However, while the world went on to more distracting things, like the presidential debates, and terrorist attacks, Ebola was still running wild with cases resurfacing in West Africa and Liberia. As a result of this discovery, I began to myself three questions:

• why do governmental organizations, corporations, foundations, and individuals, commonly only direct funds to the international community in times of disaster or distress? ex. Earthquake in Haiti and Nepal, Ebola in West Africa.

• how can I express to these very same organizations and individuals the importance of granting the necessary funds to sustain life in the developing world, rather than only respond to times of apparent disaster?

• what are the necessary collaborations required to begin implementing a model where foundations, corporations and individuals are able to see value in continual international humanitarian support outside of (natural) disasters, and how can we gain recognition of this on an international level?

Charity Navigator reports that Giving to International charities declined due to fewer overseas disasters. Specifically, gifts to International charities were down 2% (3.6% inflation-adjusted), to $15.1 billion.

According to the Chronicle of Philanthropy,  America’s 50 most generous donors increased their giving by 33 percent last year—powered in large part by a $1.9-billion gift from Bill and Melinda Gates and a stunning rise in the number of tech entrepreneurs under 40, three of whom gave more than $500-million each.

So according to the statistics there is this abundance of cash up for the grabbing, so what is the problem? My experience in development work has led me to a few conclusions.

• Government grants are a beast, commonly requiring an entire team to research, craft a response, and manage the sizeable financial opportunities they offer. However, most nonprofits in this space start off very small.  Often meeting the basic requirements are not achievable until many years later, if an organization can sustain itself for this long.

• Gaining a foundation grant requires a lengthy dance, a sort of “dating” relationship in order to vet each other, to gain the necessary trust,  integrity and comfort required to take the relationship to the next level.

• Major gifts from individuals require the most work. Keeping donors informed, nurturing the personal relationship and working to increase the donors giving potential annually requires focus, proper communication, hours of research and the ability to listen fully.

Americans gave $358.38 Billion in charitable dollars in 2014, my guess is when the 2015 numbers have been published we will see a dramatic increase in charitable dollars. This can be mainly attributed to the millennial giving strategy of focusing more on impact oriented projects, and the boom of tech experts like Facebook and GoPro delivering sizable contributions to community foundations.

As small nonprofits, we must begin vocalizing to foundations and government agencies like USAID, the effectiveness, cost-savings, and importance of our programs. Gaining stronger support from our individual donor base is key in 2016, and collaborating more to service all of our missions, which in some part involves the alleviation of poverty.  

People give because they want to feel like they are doing good in the world. The key to any successful giving strategy is to find the balance in revenue streams to fit your business model and to treat your individual donors as if they were your boss. Staying transparent, energetic, enthusiastic, passionate, and most importantly in integrity is what will entice any donor to want to continue a relationship with you.