When disaster strikes, philanthropy has a valuable role in both emergency and long-range relief efforts. Many times, grantmakers tackle both challenges, making modest initial grants to meet immediate needs, then reviewing the situation to make careful choices on where and how to make gifts.

Philanthropic Response to Recent Disasters
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Disaster Grantmaking Publications

	Best Practices in Disaster Grantmaking: Lessons from the Gulf Coast Published by NYRAG, April 2008 (PDF, 44 pages) This comprehensive report shares the experiences of donors that provided funding following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, and offers a blueprint for future philanthropic intervention following such disasters.
	Donors' Guide to Gulf Coast Relief and Recovery Published by NYRAG, December 2007 (PDF, 144 pages) A comprehensive manual on the relief, recovery, and rebuilding efforts in the Gulf Coast.
	Disaster Relief: Providing Assistance through Charitable Organizations IRS (PDF, 28 pages) By using this publication at an early stage to help plan your relief efforts, your program will be able to help victims in ways that are consistent with the federal tax rules that apply to charities. This document contains advice about helping to provide relief through an existing charitable organization, information about establishing a new charitable organization, guidance about how charitable organizations can help victims, requirements for documentation, and more.
	We Were There: The Role of Philanthropy in Disasters Council on Foundations (PDF, 16 pages) This report highlights how philanthropy has helped meet both long-term and immediate needs after national emergencies, and helped spur progress in other societal challenges. The booklet tells philanthropy's story after the 1989 San Francisco Earthquake, the 1995 Oklahoma City Bombing, the September 11 attacks and Hurricane Katrina, and offers commentary from grantmakers and government officials on the role foundations played.
	Disaster Grantmaking: A Practical Guide for Foundations and Corporations Council on Foundations, European Foundation Centre (PDF, 46 pages) Foundations and corporate grantmakers can make a significant contribution in the disaster relief field by filling critical gaps in underfunded areas like disaster rehabilitation, prevention, research and education activities. This booklet that contains ideas, examples and resources related to disaster grantmaking.
	Rebuilding Affordable Housing: The Challenge of Creating Inclusive Communities Urban Institute (PDF, 13 pages) New Orleans has a unique opportunity to recreate itself as an economically diverse, inclusive city that offers its low-income residents authentic opportunities. With careful planning by and for all, New Orleans can bring back its families and offer them homes in vibrant mixed-income communities.
	Power Admist Chaos: Foundation Support for Advocacy Related to Disasters Alliance for Justice (PDF, 36 pages) Foundations responded in many ways after the 2005 hurricanes. This paper provides a guide for foundations to evaluate their grantmaking practices and community involvement, and to assess how they can help communities become better prepared before disasters strike as well as better able to respond after they do.
	Partnership for Disaster Response Business Roundtable
	Grantmaking Legal Resources Council on Foundations

• Red Cross Disaster Fund is Depleted
  (Washington Post, June 17, 2008)
  
• How the Floods will Hurt the Economy
  (CNN Money, June 17, 2008)

• Foundation Center-Focus on the Golf Coast Hurricane Giving
  The Foundation Center has launched an online and interactive resource to mark the anniversary of Hurricanes Katrina & Rita. Over $1 billion has been marked for the relief, recovery and rebuilding efforts of the Gulf Coast by US grantmakers. This new feature contains interactive maps and charts of over 4,000 grants demonstrating where and what types of services and organizations received grants. There are also links to related research and news and a helpful guide on what is included and how to use the tools available.
  
• The Equity and Inclusion Campaign
  The Equity and Inclusion Campaign is a nonpartisan policy advocacy and public messaging initiative working for the fulfillment of the federal commitment to confront persistent poverty and inequity during the Gulf Coast recovery and rebuilding process. The Campaign seeks to effect systemic change so that all Gulf Coast residents are included, valued, and empowered.