2015 Information to Add to New Report

Just before the holidays, The Center for Disaster Philanthropy, along with our partners at the Foundation Center, released Measuring The State of Disaster Philanthropy: Data to Drive Decisions, a ground-breaking research project measuring how philanthropic organizations respond to disasters.
This ever-evolving research will continue to consume much of our focus in 2015. During the next twelve months, we hope to expand the report from its initial focus on large foundations and large grants to include important, but harder to measure organizations such as small foundations, corporations, and individuals.
Our report details the giving of 1,000 of the largest foundations in the United States. The research examined grants of $10,000 or more in 2012. Among grants given towards disasters, the majority – 58 percent – was given to natural disasters; eleven percent of giving went to complex humanitarian emergencies. Nearly half of all disaster funding was directed to response and relief efforts and the smallest percentage of giving went to disaster preparedness.
Our hope is that the report will help donors improve their disaster related giving and put a greater perspective on the need to fund throughout the full lifecycle of disasters (you can read the full report here). In order for our research to present an accurate picture of disaster giving, we plan to spend 2015 developing a gathering network – people and organizations willing to share the details of their disaster giving in order for us to paint a better picture of philanthropy before, during and after a disaster.
Knowing the full range of responses allows us to better advise, coordinate, and address responses to disaster needs. In order to do this, however, we need you. We need you to first be willing to share information you might normally not make public, and then we need you to take action and do so. I would welcome the opportunity to work with you on this important project. Please email me at bob.ottenhoff@disasterphilanthropy.org.