In the Wake of Hurricane Katrina
By Erin Spurling - Marketing Communications Program Manager, Amergent

The devastation wrought by Katrina is almost incomprehensible. Billions of dollars in damage. Hundreds of thousands stranded. Thousands now homeless. People all feel helpless, and they all want to help. The most critical need? Money.

Therefore, we are also all wondering, how will that need affect our own fundraising programs?

Immediate Effects

As you are surely aware, effective immediately, the Postal Service is not accepting any Standard Mail or Periodicals Mail (from any source) addressed for delivery within the areas affected by the storm. The U.S. Postal Service has suspended the sale of Express Mail in several ZIP codes in Louisiana , Mississippi and Alabama . In addition, it closed a large number of ZIP codes in the region and expanded from Monday the ZIP codes not accepting drop shipments and where retail and delivery services are suspended until further notice. At Amergent, we are treating this as a three state region – not just specifically affected ZIP codes.

Immediate actions we can take are:

• Suppress prospecting in the three affected states for 6 – 12 months

• Suppress donor mailings to all affected ZIP codes for at least three months , then review on a month to month basis.

• We do not recommend holding off on regional mailings outside the gulf coast. We should, however, review messaging on all future mailings.

• Review all messaging over the next three weeks.

• We suggest posting any affiliation with relief efforts on your website.

Keep in mind that there are quite possibly more storms to come – hurricane season is not over yet.

A Broader View

The American Association of Fundraising Professionals commented following the Tsunami disaster earlier in the year that it did not believe that charitable giving will be affected by the scale of giving in response to the tsunami appeals. "AFP believes that people recognize that the tsunami relief effort represents a special gift, over and above what individuals and organizations would normally give."

They added, "most charities will not see any long-term impact from the tsunami relief efforts, as has been the case historically, including 9/11 and other major national and international tragedies.” For information on how giving has rebounded after major events, go to the 9/11 section on the AFP website. ( http://www.afpnet.org/research_and_statistics/sept_11_aftermath )

In fact, according to the Index of National Fundraising Performance, despite substantial gifts for the Southeast Asia tsunami, most nonrelief charities experienced strong increases in both revenue and numbers of donors in the first quarter of 2005.

It is doubtful there will be an overall drop in charitable giving in the US during the coming 11-12 months. Core donors seldom choose not to respond to an effective, relevant appeal simply because they gave an unusual amount last month or six months ago. "I won't give to the children's hospital this month because I gave to the Red Cross in September" does not ring true.

You will certainly hear some fundraisers say that their income is down "because" of the success of these emergency appeals. Some fundraisers will even be able to point to letters from donors saying that they can't respond on this occasion because they gave to the Hurricane Katrina appeal. We should not make business decisions that affect all, based on the comments of a few.

Direct mail appeals landing on doorsteps during the past and coming week, during which there has been extensive news coverage of the disaster and the emergency appeals, are likely to suffer a poor response rate. However, it would be surprising if that effect would continue more than two or three weeks.

Some of your colleagues may be panicking that you are going to go bankrupt because people are giving to the various charities collecting in the wake of the Gulf Coast “Tsunami” disaster.

Rest assured, a great deal of this emergent response money is coming from people who do not practice any form of regular philanthropy, of any scale. These crisis events are extraordinary needs. These emergencies bring out the good in people who don't regularly help with their money. Those people who are your regular donors will not abandon you.

We believe that people often view these donations as more of an "extra" donation rather than replacing the donations they usually give. Many millions of dollars have been given to Hurricane Katrina that certainly weren't being given to other causes before the disaster.

We should all face the issue head-on, as we have in the past. We would suggest that if you are trying to raise funds not associated with the Hurricane Katrina that it's a modified business as usual. Ignoring a story this big will seem absurd to your donors, so recognize what's happening.

Please feel free to contact us with any questions and concerns you may have during this time. We will answer all of your questions and share our answers with others if you will allow us.