Americans set to give more for Haiti than tsunami

Wed Jan 27, 2010 5:09pm EST

* Americans have so far given $519 million for Haiti

* Companies want to do more next time than write a check

By Michelle Nichols

NEW YORK, Jan 27 (Reuters) - Americans are on track to give more for Haiti than the 2004 Asian tsunami despite a struggling economy, but the earthquake has left some companies wondering how they can do more than write checks, experts said on Wednesday.

Two weeks after a magnitude 7 earthquake devastated Haiti's capital of Port-au-Prince, killing as many as 200,000 people, Americans have donated some $519 million, The Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University said.

Patrick Rooney, the center's executive director, said Americans were on track to beat the $1.92 billion raised in 2005 after a tsunami killed 226,000 people, mainly in Indonesia, India, Thailand, Sri Lanka and the Maldives.

"It seems like the economy is not having a big impact on giving," Rooney told Reuters. "It's a fairly remarkable philanthropic response."

But he said the Haiti fund-raising was unlikely to match the $2.8 billion given following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States or the $6.47 billion donated after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita hit the U.S. Gulf Coast in 2005.

Rooney said the median gift given after the Asian tsunami, the Gulf Coast hurricanes and the Sept. 11 attacks was $50.

"We don't think people are doing a massive reallocation of their consumption or their philanthropy," he said. "Rather they are digging in a little bit deeper and they might be giving up going out for dinner or drinks one night instead."

Of the money donated so far for Haiti, $122 million has come from U.S. companies, according to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's Business Civic Leadership Center.

It is currently the third largest U.S. business disaster response, said the center, behind the $566 million raised for the tsunami and the $1.08 billion given after the hurricanes.

COMPANIES SEEK NEW WAYS TO HELP

Stephen Jordan, senior vice president and executive director of the Business Civic Leadership Center, said that much of the business response to Haiti was employee-driven.

"Because there isn't really a customer presence in Haiti, a lot of this is employee motivated, the employees just expect companies to be a part of the response," Jordan told Reuters.

"Compared to (the 2008 earthquake in) China, where you had every company and its brother with an interest in China, some years the American Chamber (of Commerce) in Haiti doesn't have enough members to even keep operating," he said.

Jordan said companies were eager to find ways of responding beyond just giving money.

"What we are really seeing here is a renewed determination to improve the disaster response process because it can't continue to be about throwing money out the door," he said.

Companies are frustrated at seeing problems in areas such as telecommunications or delivery of aid that they could help with if a better coordination system were in place, Jordan said.

Edith Falk, chairwoman of the Giving USA Foundation, which promotes philanthropy, said it appeared that Americans were donating to a wider range of groups than during previous disasters and that text messaging could extend fund-raising by keeping mobile phone users aware of the disaster.

Some $30 million has already been raised for Haiti through donations by mobile phone users made by text messages.

"Disasters like this really bring out the best in people," she said. "Wouldn't it be great if people would give at this level on a regular basis because the needs are so great in so many different parts of the world?" (Editing by Mark Egan and Xavier Briand)




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