Incorporating Disaster Response Into All Levels of Foundation Work
Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast in 2005 with visibly disproportionate impact on low-income communities and communities of color. Leadership at The San Francisco Foundation recognized that what had happened in Katrina could also occur in the Bay Area and that vulnerable communities and the organizations that serve them are often marginalized and under-resourced, and therefore often also the least prepared. In response, TSFF developed a disaster resilience project that was nested within its Community Health program, beginning our engagement in the disaster resilience field with several grants to the Bay Area disaster intermediaries that help prepare community-based organizations serving vulnerable residents.
A more extensive disaster resilience program was established in late 2007, beginning with externally-facing outreach and training activities at the neighborhood level in a modest number of low-income communities and communities of color. Over the nine years of its disaster resilience work, San Francisco Foundation staff developed and implemented a robust and comprehensive program, contributing in various ways and to varying degrees to six elements of disaster resilience.
Program highlights have included:
Immediate Disaster Relief Grant Program – The Foundation has pre-approved immediate relief grants to 42 nonprofits that serve vulnerable communities in our five-county area to support the delivery of food, shelter, health, and/or mental health services in the early days following a catastrophic disaster. Each of these organizations will receive a $25,000 grant upon confirmation that it has begun delivering services post-disaster.
Technical assistance and training – The Foundation supported technical assistance on disaster planning for all organizations in the Immediate Disaster Relief Grant Program. These organizations committed to developing, maintaining, and practicing robust disaster plans to recover their operations and provide services to their clients and community in the aftermath of a large Bay Area disaster. The Foundation will continue to supporting technical assistance by local intermediaries for this purpose through June 2017.
Advocacy – TSFF advocated for adequate funding for nonprofits before, during, and after disaster through implementation of California’s Private Non-Profit Disaster Reimbursement Program, government recognition of the role of nonprofits in disaster and the need for inclusion in planning, and increased foundation sector funding to nonprofit disaster preparedness;
Capacity-building – TSFF provided support to local intermediaries, including local Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster (VOADs), that support the readiness and resilience of the broader Bay Area nonprofit and faith-based communities.
Grantmaking – The Foundation granted nearly $1.4 million to the Bay Area nonprofit sector from 2007 through 2016 for disaster resilience, supporting five of the six elements.
Convenings – TSFF hosted three summits on disaster resilience. The first, Building a Disaster-Resilient Bay Area: Lessons for Strengthening Vulnerable Communities (April 2009), shared lessons and sparked dialogue on community resilience. The summits in 2010 and 2013 specifically focused on strengthening the Foundation’s disaster cohort, Deepening Your Readiness: A Hands-On Summit to Share Best Practices, Test Your Planning Assumptions, and Strengthen Your Networks and Plans (October 2010) and Collaboration in Disaster: Promising Practices And Pitfalls (June 2013). These latter summits included opportunities to learn about specific disaster topics, practice disaster skills, learn from leaders of nonprofits responding to previous large-scale disasters (e.g., LA riots, Hurricane Sandy), connect with disaster intermediaries and emergency managers from their jurisdictions, and share best practices with one another. TSFF also hosted convenings on specific technical assistance topics and for networking among nonprofits, government leaders, and funders.
Thought-partnership and –leadership – TSFF partnered with a variety of leaders in the philanthropic, nonprofit, and public sectors on disaster grantmaking strategies and processes, support for the nonprofit sector for disaster, public-private partnerships to manage donations after a disaster, approaches to promoting community resilience, and philanthropic collaboration models for disaster and a greater philanthropic constituency for the field.
Robust internal planning – The Foundation complemented its external, community focused work with internal planning to develop and practice our own disaster procedures to enable TSFF to support the community after a catastrophic disaster. Aspects of these plans have been shared with philanthropic partners in the Bay Area and around the country.
The project received financial support from three foundation partners – The California Endowment, Walter and Elise Haas Fund, and Y&H Soda Foundation.
In June 2016, The San Francisco Foundation launched an ambitious new strategy to advance racial and economic equity across the Bay Area to ensure that everyone has a chance to get a good job, live in a safe and affordable home, can be part of a truly inclusive democracy, and can live in a community that provides real access to opportunity. While our work on racial and economic equity will strengthen the resilience of Bay Area communities, we will exit disaster resilience as a discrete body of work at the end of this month. Final grants to our partnering organizations were made in June 2016, and wrap-up work will be completed by August 31, 2016.
Specific questions about the Disaster Resilience program should be directed to vpprograms@sff.org.
Toolkits and Tip Sheet
The following toolkits and tip sheet gather practical, proven strategies into applicable, step-by-step actions funders can take now to help their communities prepare, respond, and recover from major disasters.
Ideas and questions for this section may be sent to playbook@disasterplaybook.org
From Chaos to Community: The Difference of Elected Officials in Recovery
Talk to Ursula Hyman and she’ll tell it to you straight.
“The early days and weeks following the disaster – in my case a wind-fed wildfire that destroyed my Altadena-area neighborhood along with hundreds of other homes in surrounding neighborhoods – were a blur of chaos and small comforts, crossed signals and incredible caring.”
Hyman, whose home was the only one that survived on her block, stepped up and chaired the Eaton Canyon Recovery Alliance. ECRA members sought to retrieve from the flames as much normalcy as possible and became a safe haven from which neighbors could plan a pathway back to community.
“One of the best lessons that survivors of the Altadena fires in the 1990’s learned,” Hyman reflected, “was how critically important it was for Los Angeles Supervisor Mike Antonovich – an elected official with enormous regional power and in whose jurisdiction the fire had occurred – to appoint one of his most senior deputies as the designated red-tape cutter, or ombudsman.”
The deputy carried the weight of the supervisor’s authority and power. He used this to convene county agency leaders, to facilitate cross-department rather than silo-specific responses to local needs, to thwart finger-pointing, and to mitigate the attitude of “it’s not my department’s role” that can arise in budget-strapped and power-conscious bureaucracies.
“The person appointed by Supervisor Antonovich brought an extensive network of relationships, a history of working with all levels of government, and empathy for the myriad rebuilding problems facing constituents.”
Here are examples of the ways in which the ombudsman helped survivors overcome specific difficulties:
- Revised zoning and building codes concerning such issues as fault lines, flood plains and required setbacks now applied to rebuilding in burn areas. A new earthquake fault, for example, had been discovered after Eaton Canyon and an adjacent neighborhood were initially developed. Had ECRA been unable to work out a liability waiver through the ombudsman, these new building codes would have prohibited many homeowners from rebuilding.
- Laws dealing with environmental issues like water run-off protection imposed on neighborhoods like Eaton Canyon that border public lands affected neighborhoods needing to rebuild. Having an effective spokesperson from the local community working with ECRA made a difference in finding legal, practical ways to apply new standards.
- Changes in road requirements designed to facilitate emergency vehicle access into neighborhoods presented property owners with significant financial burdens not covered by their household insurance. Homeowners worked with the ombudsman to identify appropriate funding alternatives and ways to spread the costs through an annual assessment.
- Changes in building standards and codes instituted long after the neighborhood’s initial development stood to influence the size and cost of new structures. New setback requirements, for example, threatened to make it impossible to rebuild on the same pad area, leaving homeowners with smaller homes than they had before the disaster. Similarly, changed building code requirements resulted in a higher cost per square foot than some homeowners could recover through insurance. No one wanted safety to be compromised, so creative problem solving was required. The ombudsman helped facilitate effective interaction with local zoning appeals boards on building code variances in ways that helped board members consider the special circumstances that occur in the wake of a fire catastrophe.
With the assistance of a well placed insider helping the community, the most critical issues they faced were managed legally, respectfully and safely. When homeowners began rebuilding their own homes, the proper policy considerations had been made for the scope and unexpected nature of the disaster and the rules were clearer. The community re-established itself, eventually emerging from the chaos and settling into a new normal.
“Given the many challenges we faced,” Hyman concluded, “having a powerful elected representative’s deputy serving as ombudsman made every difference.”
Paul Vandeventer, President & CEO of Community Partners, worked with Ursula Hyman, a retired senior partner with the law firm of Latham & Watkins, and with numerous other fire survivors to author From Chaos to Community: A Guide to Helping Friends and Neighbors Recover and Rebuild After a Major Disaster.
Spotlight on the Rita Allen Foundation
The Rita Allen Foundation invests in transformative ideas in their earliest stages to leverage their growth and promote breakthrough solutions to significant problems. It enables early-career biomedical scholars to do pioneering research, seeds innovative approaches to fostering informed civic engagement, and develops knowledge and networks to build the effectiveness of the philanthropic sector. Throughout its work, the Foundation embraces collaboration, creativity, learning and leadership.
“When disasters and tragedies strike communities, we are moved to want to help in any way we can,” said Elizabeth Good Christopherson, President and CEO of the Rita Allen Foundation.
Creative, collaborative efforts to create more robust civic institutions and technology can yield vast dividends for communities facing disasters. In 2012, Hurricane Sandy made landfall outside of Atlantic City eight days before the national presidential election. Widespread power outages, road and school closures, and massive flooding in the days after Sandy forced the relocation of dozens of polling places. The steep challenge was how to alert citizens to new polling station locations—in the Rita Allen Foundation’s home state of New Jersey, more than 2.7 million households and businesses were without power, and access to normal channels of communication and news was disrupted. An innovative project to expand access to election information, led by the Pew Charitable Trusts and supported by partner funders including the Rita Allen Foundation, swung into high gear. The Voting Information Project (VIP) allowed more than 243,000 people in New York and New Jersey to find election information and polling places using a simple text message system made possible by VIP and project partner Mobile Commons. Many others used VIP online and mobile tools created with partners including Google, Microsoft, Facebook and AT&T—ultimately, VIP provided nonpartisan election information to 25 million voters in the November 2012 election. Voters everywhere were served by the Rita Allen Foundation and VIP’s and commitment to fostering an informed and active citizenry‚ but in areas most effected by Hurricane Sandy, it became crucial.
In the weeks and months following the hurricane, the Foundation also supported New Jersey’s long-term recovery efforts with a grant to the New Jersey Recovery Fund. The Fund supported catalytic and collaborative projects focused on community recovery, civic engagement, investigative journalism and sustained media attention for a fair and transparent recovery.
In addition, the Rita Allen Foundation has provided leadership support for this Disaster Philanthropy Playbook, a comprehensive repository of the innovative strategies, effective best practices, lessons learned, and successful collaborations that have come about in response to disasters and tragedies.
“When disasters and tragedies strike communities, we are moved to want to help in any way we can,” said Elizabeth Good Christopherson, President and CEO of the Rita Allen Foundation. “Yet recovery efforts can be so much more effective if they begin before a crisis, in building resilient and knowledgeable networks of support. The Disaster Philanthropy Playbook takes a proactive approach to helping communities deal effectively with disasters before and after they occur. The Disaster Playbook will help the philanthropic community across the country save lives and livelihoods and ensure a quick recovery when disaster strikes. That is a highly transformative way to approach disasters. And it’s one we’re honored to have been a part of from the very start.”
Spotlight on OceanFirst Foundation
OceanFirst Foundation makes its home in Toms River, New Jersey and OceanFirst Bank has served the Jersey shore markets of Ocean and Monmouth Counties for more than a 100 years. So when Superstorm Sandy made landfall and left a devastating impact in so many of the coastal communities served by OceanFirst, they knew quickly that they would need to have a role in both the immediate relief and long term recovery efforts – their customers, colleagues and community were counting on them.
Like many, the Foundation was challenged in the days following Sandy with no power and access to the tools typically used in the course of business. So it was no easy task to reach out to their network of grantees and community organizations that they knew people would turn to for help. In the days following, they worked outside the box to mobilize resources to help long-time grantees – key anchor organizations and trusted partners – that would have the capacity to address the most basic urgent needs. OceanFirst Foundation’s Board quickly established a $500,000 Sandy Recovery Grant Program and strategic grants were made to address both immediate relief and long term recovery needs. This required great flexibility and a simplification of the Foundation’s grant making process.
Within weeks, OceanFirst Foundation provided the seed funding for and worked with County government and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to host the first gathering of 150 community leaders and citizens from all sectors and neighborhoods to begin talking about and working on a path to recovery. From this dialogue, the Ocean County Long Term Recovery Group (OCLTRG) was established with a mission of strengthening and streamlining disaster coordination and response. A similar organization was established in Monmouth County shortly thereafter (Monmouth County Long Term Recovery Group – MCLTRG). They supported the work of both organizations and provided the groups with grant writing and fundraising support to ensure they had resources at their disposal to address the unmet needs of those impacted. In addition, they provided grants to both organizations to support operating costs and unmet needs.

The Foundation partnered with key recovery organizations to host and sponsor a legislative briefing to keep elected officials informed of recovery challenges and solutions. OceanFirst Foundation also worked closely with the Council of New Jersey Grantmakers to organize a daylong tour of disaster-affected shore communities with speakers crossing all sectors. This helped inform Council members of the incredible challenges and issues that lied ahead in recovery and helped jump start conversations about how members could be a part of the State’s recovery.
OceanFirst also responded to inquiries from philanthropic organizations across the country about local needs and potential partners. They played the important role of “match-maker” that resulted in millions of dollars and resources being invested in the shore’s recovery. Through it all they learned right alongside their neighbors about disaster recovery, what works and the value of having a long-term recovery plan.
Spotlight on the Minneapolis Foundation
The Minneapolis Foundation (TMF) has a rich history of providing disaster relief aid to communities in crisis, both within Minneapolis, further out in greater Minnesota and across the country. TMF’s success in raising funds from its own donors and external donors has continued to grow with each disaster relief effort. TMF has served as a grantmaker that works with the community involved and convenes an experienced group that are on the ground to make decisions and distribute funds quickly and effectively while providing oversight and accountability to the donors.
Three early examples of TMF’s disaster relief grantmaking campaigns are the 1997 Minnesota Helps – Flood Recovery – Red River Valley, 1998 Minnesota Helps – Storm Recovery Fund St. Peter Tornado and the 2005 Minnesota Helps – Hurricane Katrina. With the 1997 MN Helps Flood Recovery Fund, $109,544.71 was given to flood survivors. When the St. Peter tornado hit in May, 1998, the Minnesota Helps Fund was set up again, this time collecting and giving $63,754.71 to help rebuilding efforts. Later, when the disastrous 2005 Hurricane Katrina struck, Minnesota Helps banded together once more, and distributed $535,972.82 to those struck by the devastation.
More recently, The Minneapolis Foundation was an integral partner in the recovery from the August 1, 2007 35-W bridge collapse disaster in which 13 people were killed and 145 were injured. The Minnesota Helps – Bridge Disaster Fund collected $1,268,369 and disbursed (with the addition of interest income) $1,287,933. The fund was created just two days after the disaster. Then-Mayor R.T. Rybak requested The Minneapolis Foundation take the lead on setting up a fund that would provide an efficient way to pool contributions from the public. An initial $225,000 in seed money was contributed by The Minneapolis Foundation, The Saint Paul Foundation, Minnesota Community Foundation, Greater Twin Cities United Way, McKnight Foundation, Northwest Area Foundation, and Thrivent Financial for Lutherans Foundation. Contributions came almost immediately from foundations, corporations and their employees, faith groups, community organizations, fundraisers, and thousands of individuals.
Approximately 20% of the distributions were made as grants to agencies that provided a variety of services, such as group counseling and activities for the children on the Waite House school bus that had been on the bridge at the time of collapse, trauma and grief support groups, and helping families with translation services. The other 80% of contributions were distributed to pay for medical bills, living expenses, transportation costs, medical equipment, physical therapy, and other expenses on direct behalf of 110 individuals or families.
An inter-agency Long-Term Recovery Committee (LTRC) was formed with membership from the American Red Cross, Catholic Charities, Salvation Armies, Hennepin County, Pillsbury Waite House, Greater Twin Cities United Way and The Minneapolis Foundation to coordinate the case-by-case assistance to individuals and families. A LTRC is a standard structure created in the aftermath of a disaster to coordinate community resources to help survivors reach a point of stability. It provides a means to distribute private contributions to cover immediate expenses not covered by insurance or other resources. This emergency response effort and the role of the LTRC is a model now being used by other communities to respond to disasters. This was an historical and collaborative effort of many philanthropic, nonprofit entities.
The Minnesota Helps Fund was activated again in 2011, within 24 hours of the May 22nd tornado that struck North Minneapolis. The Minneapolis Foundation partnered with Greater Twin Cities United Way to seed the fund with a $200,000 challenge grant to spark more donations and partnered with GiveMN.org to accept online contributions. More than two dozen foundations contributed to the fund, along with numerous local businesses and individuals. The fund reached $1 million within a month and ultimately raised and distributed $1.7 million to help people and neighborhoods recover from the storm. With damages estimated at $166 million and FEMA denying assistance to those impacted, this funding provided a lifeline for uninsured households looking for shelter, and a bridge for families working through their insurance companies to get repairs taken care of before the cold weather set in. One hundred percent of the money raised was distributed back to help North Minneapolis residents get their lives back on track.
More than 60,000 North Minneapolis residents were assisted thanks to the generosity of Minnesota Helps Fund contributors. Over the summer, youth cleared debris from local parks and 200 homes and helped rebuild 147 homes and apartment buildings. About 1,700 young people participated in summer programs and received 6,500 meals. More than 200 children went on field trips to give them a break from their damaged parks and neighborhoods. Donations supported emergency relief and met longer-term needs including food, housing, counseling, transportation, childcare, and more. Many children were traumatized by the tornado – either from witnessing it directly or from how it affected their families’ lives. Minnesota Helps supported counseling for children and training for teachers and summer camp workers to spot distress in children and help them overcome fears. Hundreds of individuals and families received help with home repairs, as well as legal assistance in mediating conflicts between tenants and landlords. Legal help was also available to help people track down and get reimbursed by “storm chaser” contractors who accepted payment, but either didn’t do the work or did sub-par work. Minority contractors, most from North Minneapolis, were trained and certified to participate in the recovery, providing an economic boon to the neighborhood. Over a thousand individuals received clean clothes, food and water in the days following the tornado. Additional supplies were distributed to help clean their homes and meet basic needs including provision of new IDs, access to food stamps, housing assistance, behavioral health, and other services. More than 51,000 individuals received food and cooking supplies through Second Harvest Food Bank, and Urban Homeworks repaired nearly 300 homes in the aftermath of the tornado.
With dozens of local agencies serving thousands of people each with various needs, the need for collaboration quickly became clear. The Northside Community Response Team (NCRT) formed to ensure all residents were assisted, efforts weren’t duplicated, and funding was used as efficiently as possible. The 20 participating agencies were able to streamline the process, creating a hotline to connect people with a caseworker to get them the help they needed. This process helped 1,233 households receive assistance.
The close relationships The Minneapolis Foundation has with organizations on the Northside led to a powerful and thoughtful response, one that was directed by the neighborhoods affected. Our expertise in giving, community issues, and local nonprofits ensured services were delivered effectively, comprehensively, and transparently.
Spotlight on Public Service Electric and Gas
For Public Service Electric and Gas (PSE&G), disaster response encompasses two critical components: safety and preparedness. After all, the Utility is among first responders when disasters occur.
As a result, PSE&G has developed an integrated set of programs designed to reach all layers of the communities the company serves.
For example, the PSEG Foundation partnered with Sesame Street Workshop to develop Let’s Get Ready: Planning Together for Emergencies, and Here For Each Other: Helping Families After Emergencies. These programs are emergency preparedness and response initiatives focused on family preparedness, offered in both English and Spanish, free of charge.
“These two programs also include an engaging, interactive app that helps families prepare for emergencies in simple ways, as children learn basic information to help them stay safe and make them proud to be prepared,” said Marion O’Neill, Director, Corporate Contributions for the Foundation. Tied into the emergency preparedness programs are supplemental materials for families and classroom teachers. “The overarching message is about feeling safe in your community and home, and being ready for a disaster,” O’Neill said.
While the program is geared towards children, the supplemental supplies aimed at parents and schools make it applicable to a number of community nonprofits, after-school programs, and faith-based community activities.
PSE&G responded in a robust manner when its home state of New Jersey was impacted by Hurricane Sandy in 2012. The Foundation supported the establishment of a statewide VOAD organization (Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster), which was critically essential for New Jersey’s recovery. The Foundation is proud of NJVOAD’s capacity to serve and assist counties and municipalities in being prepared and available when the need is greatest.
The Foundation works closely with its Regional Association, the Council of New Jersey Grantmakers, and in the months after Sandy, it worked with the Council on organizing a rare site visit to a PSE&G Substation for foundation leaders to learn about how the hurricane impacted the electrical grid and the monumental task faced by all electric and gas suppliers in New Jersey and New York whose territory were in Sandy’s catastrophic path.

The PSEG Foundation knows that proactive strategies reduce vulnerability to disasters. They are committed to educating families on safety and preparedness, and strengthening the capacity of emergency response organizations and staff. Through a partnership with the American Red Cross, they are pre-investing in disaster relief by supporting activities in advance of a disaster, including training volunteers, securing shelter locations, stocking warehouses and maintaining disaster-relief vehicles.
PSE&G seeks to keep people and their homes safe. While we cannot predict if or when the next extreme weather event occurs, a more resilient infrastructure helps safeguard our communities and PSE&G has made a long-term investment in protecting its communities across its territory. Through their community, government and nonprofit partnerships, they work to provide the tools, resources and preparation that focus on disaster safety, and reduce our vulnerability in times of emergency.
Funder Collaborations
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Vermont Community Foundation Responds to Tropical Storm Irene
While the Vermont Community Foundation had emergency plans in place for their organization and their immediate service areas, they had not planned for the widespread disaster caused by Tropical Storm Irene. Moreover, when the storm subsided, road access was completely cut off in some areas, making parts of Vermont inaccessible for needs assessments. Despite these challenges, in the aftermath of Hurricane Irene, the Foundation took a leadership role in the state’s disaster relief efforts, helping to provide technical assistance and resources to populations in need—many of whom were overlooked or ineligible for federal and state dollars.

Immediately following the storm, the Foundation established a dedicated website to help coordinate the philanthropic response and facilitate recovery efforts. To assess the areas in greatest need, the Foundation collected information from social media. Armed with this data, as federal and state dollars started to come into Vermont, the Foundation focused its grantmaking on farms, nonprofit organizations and mobile home residents.
Agriculture is a critical part of Vermont’s economy, and to provide support to individual farmers who were affected by the flood, the Foundation established the Vermont Farm Disaster Relief Fund, in partnership with the Vermont Agency of Agriculture. The Fund was launched within a week of Irene, and the first grants were dispersed within 10 days of the disaster.
In the aftermath of Hurricane Irene, the VCF took a leadership role in the state’s disaster relief efforts, helping to provide technical assistance and resources to populations in need.
In the absence of a statewide opportunity for individuals to donate to damaged nonprofits, the Foundation established several giving opportunities for individuals including the Vermont Farm Disaster Relief Fund, the Mobile Home Relief Fund and the Special and Urgent Needs Fund – Irene Recovery. Because the new fund was an expanded version of the Vermont Community Foundation’s existing Special and Urgent Needs Fund, which provided small grants for emergencies, it could be launched quickly. The Fund provided immediate support to nonprofit organizations that were either affected by the flood or had seen a dramatic increase in demand for services because of the flood.
Because mobile home parks are often located in vulnerable areas or on marginal land, such like flood plains, these residents were disproportionately affected by Irene. As a result of the storm, sixteen mobile home parks across the state suffered severe damage and 700 families were displaced. Furthermore, since mobile homes are not permanent “stick-built” homes on foundations, residents did not have access to full reimbursement from FEMA, even when their home was totally destroyed. To aid these residents, the Foundation launched the Mobile Home Relief Fund. Managed by the Champlain Valley Office of Economic Opportunity (CVOEO), through their Mobile Home Project, and established in partnership with the Vermont Community Foundation, the Vermont Disaster Relief Fund, the Agency of Commerce, and the Office of the Lieutenant Governor, the Program was designed to provide immediate support for mobile home park relief efforts. The first priority was to pay for demolition and removal of destroyed and dangerous mobile homes at no cost to residents. The Fund took about three weeks to launch and a documentary film—The Strength of the Storm—was produced. The film details life in Vermont’s mobile home parks in the wake of Irene.
[sw_youtube src=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqYOjj4oxk4″ width=”560″ height=”315″]
The impact of the storm resulted in a decreased number of already limited affordable housing options in the state. In order to replace this stock, as well as help local housing authorities prepare for future events, numerous stakeholders were called together to implement several new initiatives. The Vermont Department of Housing and Community Development issued a series of recommendations to improve the disaster resilience of mobile homes and parks. Its Report on the Viability and Disaster Resilience of Mobile Home Ownership and Parks also addressed longstanding challenges facing mobile home and park owners. Based on extensive research and collaboration with other agencies and stakeholders, the report suggested actions at the individual, local and statewide levels.
Eighteen months post-Irene, the Foundation continued to support disaster-impacted communities by aligning their investments and grant programs and working closely with Vermont’s Long Term Recovery Group to help redirect donations to the Vermont Disaster Relief Fund. The Foundation also participated in leadership efforts about resiliency and climate change work that continue today.
For more information about the Vermont Community Foundation’s response to Hurricane Irene, please visit http://www.vtfloodresponse.org/.