New Month, New Challenges

We’re officially into summer and while for many that means time off on vacation, we at the Center for Disaster Philanthropy (CDP) have found ourselves exceptionally busy.
During the month of July, CDP will be working with The Rockefeller Foundation and HUD on the National Disaster Resilience Competition. Forty communities that have experienced natural disasters are competing for one billion dollars in funds to help them rebuild and increase their resilience to future disasters. Our staff will attend Resilience Academies in Chicago and Denver with the jurisdiction finalists and work with them to develop initiatives and outreach plans that will better prepare them for future disasters – and, we hope, lead to better partnerships with foundations and corporations.  We’re excited about this initiative to develop better planning and preparation resulting in strengthened resilience and we hope it is only the first of many.
July is the second month of hurricane season. Since late May, we’ve watched two tropical storms develop – Tropical Storm Ana and Tropical Storm Bill. While neither caused significant damage in and of themselves, TS Bill brought huge amounts of rain with it as it made landfall in Texas and reminded us that rain and storm surges are often more destructive than wind during hurricanes. After dumping gallons of rain on an already flooded Texas, TS Bill swept northeast, through Oklahoma, Arkansas and Missouri, with rain and floods in those states as well. CDP continues to monitor both oceans, as we know the coming months will likely bring at least one major storm.
Finally, we are excited to see continuing interest from donors in providing Nepal with the necessary aid for recovery from April’s devastating earthquake. So far we have over 260 institutional and individual donors collaborating in the Fund, from 16 countries and 23 states. Our Nepal Earthquake Recovery Fund will provide mid- and long-term funding to a situation that will need attention and funds for years to come. We’ve enjoyed the many questions on how to best allocate and leverage funds. During June, we hosted a webinar on the status of Nepal two months after the earthquake. For those of you who missed it, you can listen to a recording and read a short summary here. If you are still considering how to give to this disaster, please contact us, we’d love to hear your interests and thoughts.