Support for CDP fund evolves global disaster recovery efforts
No matter what form they take, large-scale disasters leave those left in their wake with significant challenges. While some of those challenges present immediate threats to life and well-being, others manifest in the months and years following a disaster — but they are no less severe. The opportunity to strengthen efforts focused on long-term recovery is what guides The Patterson Foundation’s work to help people, organizations, and communities cope, adapt and innovate in the face of a disaster.
The experts at the Center for Disaster Philanthropy (CDP) are one of The Patterson Foundation’s trusted partners guiding those efforts. CDP has demonstrated the importance of disaster recovery in the weeks, months and years following a disaster, addressing needs such as rebuilding homes, infrastructure and businesses while supporting children’s well-being, providing mental health services and boosting damaged agriculture sectors. CDP works with donors like The Patterson Foundation to help them maximize their impact through expert resources, community-driven grantmaking and philanthropic consulting services.
After nearly a decade of helping donors make an impact following numerous natural and human-made crises, CDP launched the CDP Global Recovery Fund in 2019 to further address medium- and long-term needs following international disasters. The Global Recovery Fund regularly monitors the evolution and status of international disasters and emergencies and provides donors with an efficient, flexible solution to expedite a gift to support recovery efforts for people affected by sudden and slow-onset disasters or protracted humanitarian emergencies worldwide.
As The Patterson Foundation has learned in its years of collaboration with CDP, this type of flexible, strategic funding model is crucial to meet both current challenges and those yet to emerge as communities persevere following a major disaster. To strengthen that model and highlight its potential for potential funders, The Patterson Foundation contributed $1 million to the CDP Global Recovery Fund, including $750,000 in matching dollars to encourage additional philanthropic support.
CDP’s strong reputation built through years of effective disaster recovery funding around the world, strengthened further by The Patterson Foundation’s catalytic funding, has helped the CDP Global Recovery Fund garner enthusiastic donor support. In the three years since its inception — a time rife with global disruption and economic hardship — the CDP Global Recovery Fund has provided more than $4 million in disaster recovery funding around the world.
CDP is working diligently to apply that funding to several diverse, ongoing recovery efforts spanning multiple continents.
This includes efforts focused on:
- Protecting and nurturing the education and well-being of children displaced by the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan.
- Improving agricultural knowledge and practices and access to water for vulnerable people in Kenya facing prolonged drought and hunger, focusing on climate-smart and market-based solutions, primarily targeting women and youth.
- Strengthening household economies, education and health care in the Amazon Rainforest’s indigenous communities during the pandemic.
- Helping communities in Germany recover from severe flooding.
- Rehabilitating maternal and newborn child healthcare centers damaged by earthquakes in Indonesia.
- Restoring critical habitats, protecting species and strengthening indigenous land and fire management practices following bushfires in Australia.
While these and each of the efforts strengthened through CDP’s work differ greatly in their nature, geography and objectives, they share a common thread: the opportunity for humanity to heal, rebuild and refocus on its aspirations for the future. The CDP Global Recovery Fund was designed to safeguard that opportunity wherever and whenever it presents itself.
Our recent times remind all of us how quickly and unexpectedly our reality can change, along with what it takes to reclaim our stability. Amid that great uncertainty, the CDP Global Recovery Fund has established itself as an agile resource to help people, organizations, and communities respond strategically and effectively to the challenges future disasters hold.
Support the CDP Global Recovery Fund’s efforts around the world.
Editor’s note: This blog was originally featured on The Patterson Foundation Blog on Aug. 31, 2022.
