from Jim Moore of CommUlinks of Colorado
(Published in Brainstorm! November 2005)

Today donors are besieged with an unprecedented number of fundraising appeals to help with hurricane disaster relief. The victims of Katrina and Rita deserve our full support. I encourage everyone to pitch in to help those in need. One of the best resources available to guide your generosity is www.howcanihelpnow.com.

In the wake of these immense natural disasters, however, diversion of donor dollars from "conventional" nonprofit missions to disaster relief may be substantial and the results catastrophic. This will leave whole new group of victims in the hurricanes' wake-those who will not be served due to budget cuts at under-funded nonprofit organizations.

This is a call to action. I urge all donors to be as generous as possible-more generous than ever before. Don't just help hurricane victims rebuild their lives. Maintain your level of giving for the vital missions you've supported in the past. The critical missions that garnered your support before Katrina are still there. They still need you.

In the months following the tsunami disaster, many nonprofits, especially small to medium sized organizations, experienced fundraising shortfalls directly attributable to the tsunami. A CommUlinks of Colorado survey measured these impacts through the end of March. We discovered that nearly 17% of responding nonprofits experienced significant revenue deficits due to the diversion of their donors' dollars to tsunami relief efforts. Tsunami relief fundraising may have contributed to deficits at another 30% of responding organizations. Especially telling was the fact that fully 20% of donors who responded admitted that they had diverted dollars from organizations they traditionally supported to tsunami relief. Full report: http://www.commulinks.com/newsletter/forbenefit-0805.htm.

From a fundraising point of view, Katrina and Rita have created the "perfect storm." The scale of fundraising efforts for both 9/11 and the tsunami disaster have been dwarfed by Katrina and Rita. The appeals have been more intense, immediate, widespread and sustained. In many ways, Katrina and Rita happened to "all of us," so donors' attentions will be focused on hurricane relief far longer than they were on the tsunami.

If nonprofit organizations, and the millions of people who rely on them, hope to maintain services at pre-disaster levels, and if donors also give to disaster relief efforts, then donors must give more. We all know that there are just so many discretionary dollars, and, just as happened after 9/11, market forces may shrink that pool. I urge donors to redirect other discretionary spending-fast food, travel, entertainment, clothing, automobiles, and so forth-to charity. Donations have to come from somewhere.

Now more than ever, nonprofit organizations are in direct competition with McDonalds, Sony, the Gap and Toyota. My gifts to Katrina relief are on their way and my gifts to the other organizations I support continue unabated. Dinner out has been cancelled.

I hope all donors will do the same.

For more information about CommUlinks of Colorado, contact Jim Moore or Renee Beauregard at 303.400.34456 and visit their web site at www.commulinks.com.

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