Funders’ Dedication to Data Informs Disaster Giving

Without the financial support and thought leadership provided by the Irene W. and C.B. Pennington Foundation and the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, we would lack a critical piece of the puzzle that we, at CDP, need to educate and inform our philanthropic audience.

One key recommendation we stress with donors is that they make multi-year funding commitments. We encourage grantmakers to develop strong relationships with grantee partners, ideally in advance of a disaster, and we urge them to support their grantees for many years – strengthening their internal capacity and making sure they have funds available to support long-term recovery.
When I think about the recommendation outlined above, and how it pertains to the Center for Disaster Philanthropy, two funders come to mind. The Irene W. and C.B. Pennington Foundation, with their lead gift, and additional funding from the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, have supported the creation of the Measuring the State of Disaster Philanthropy report since its debut four years ago.
Their four-year dedication to this project means that CDP and our partner, Foundation Center, can annually undertake comprehensive data collection and analysis of disaster-focused charitable giving. With their generous funding, we are able to establish baseline data, aggregate multiple data streams, and track disaster giving globally.
The overarching purpose of the report is to more accurately capture how philanthropy currently responds to disasters and encourage the philanthropy community to support the full arc of a disaster, not just the immediate humanitarian needs. Without year over year funding from our two funding partners, we would lack a critical piece of the puzzle that we, at CDP, need to educate and inform our philanthropic audience.
Without the financial support and thought leadership provided by the Irene W. and C.B. Pennington Foundation and the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, we would never have learned the following:

• $23 billion in disaster-related giving was documented for 2015.
• Grants awarded by 1,000 of the largest U.S. foundations for disasters totaled $158.1 million
• An additional $119.7 million in funding was awarded for disaster-related purposes by smaller foundations, public charities, and international foundations.
• Official development assistance by 29 government members of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development’s Development Assistance Committee totaled $16.8 billion for disasters and humanitarian crises. Non-DAC government donors and multilateral organizations contributed an additional $3.7 billion.
• FEMA distributed $2.2 billion in grants and assistance for domestic disasters in 2015.

Knowing the full disaster funding landscape is incredibly important to understanding how best to navigate long-term recovery. We are ever thankful for the generosity of the Pennington and Hilton Foundations for understanding and supporting this important work.
Before I sign off, I have two asks of you:

1. Please be sure to register for next week’s State of Disaster Philanthropy webinar on November 7 at 2pm eastern.
2. Download the Measuring the State of Disaster Philanthropy 2017: Data to Drive Decisions to learn more about how philanthropic contributions were allocated to disasters in 2015.