Tornado Recovery Fund

Known as “nature’s most violent storms,” the U.S. is home to more tornadoes than any other country.

In 2024, there were 1,882 confirmed tornadoes in the U.S. in states such as Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, and even places like New York and Maryland. The number of storms made 2024 the most active tornado season since 2017.

Some communities that experienced tornadoes were already struggling to recover from the damage caused by other storms, like hurricanes and floods. This left people vulnerable and needing medium- and long-term support for recovery.

CDP’s Tornado Recovery Fund allowed donors to target their contributions to meet specific medium- and long-term philanthropic goals for communities affected by tornadoes in the United States.

(Photo: Tornado damage in St Bernard Parish, Louisiana on March 23, 2022. (Source: NOLAReady via Twitter)

Tornadoes do not discriminate when they strike, but recovery is often unbalanced and more challenging for marginalized populations. This fund supported initiatives prioritizing communities devastated by tornadoes, especially those facing systemic barriers to equitable recovery.

To effectively address the growing tornado threat across the country, CDP’s team of experts worked directly with local nonprofits to identify specific needs and funding gaps.

Through this fund, CDP funded grantee partners who rebuilt and repaired homes, provided mental health services, and met other challenges identified by communities that arose as recovery efforts progressed.

This fund supported these disasters:

Priority funding focus areas

Tornadoes often affect geographic areas where the norm is sub-standard housing, generational housing, and uninsured and under-insured homes occupied by older adults, low-income earners, and traditionally marginalized and racialized populations. Some are homeowners, but many are also renters.

These disasters often receive much less media attention and, as a result, fewer resources for recovery. Communities prone to tornadoes often struggle with the profound trauma of layered disasters against a backdrop of lifelong experiences of struggling economically or socially because of intersecting factors that have caused marginalization.

This fund prioritized:

Funding for Black- and women-led organizations that have built or can build trust networks with survivors needing recovery assistance.
Advocacy for and provision of affordable housing, housing repair and utility support, especially for low-income homeowners or renters in communities of color.
Building response capacity and improving infrastructure to mitigate risks to the most marginalized communities affected.
Investing in equitable and holistic disaster case management programs to equip local communities that have limited resources and low organizational capacity with the means and tools for disaster recovery. These programs strengthen a community’s local resources and its ability to provide culturally- and contextually appropriate case management services to its people.