January 27, 2010 | Read Time: 1 minute
Friday’s star-studded telethon has raised more than $66-million so far for Haiti relief and recovery efforts – more than three times the amount raised via telethon after the 2004 Asian tsunamis.
So what’s happening with all that money?
An “advisory committee” of nonprofit and Haiti experts has been formed that will, along with the Entertainment Industry Foundation, help decide that question.
The committee includes people like Diana Aviv, the head of Independent Sector; Brian Concannon, director of the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti; and Judith Rodin, president of the Rockefeller Foundation.
The committee members will meet this week to review information submitted by the charities already chosen by the Entertainment Industry Foundation, with help from the Bridgespan Group, to get a share of the telethon money.
The beneficiaries are the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund, Oxfam America, Partners in Health, the Red Cross, UNICEF, the United Nations World Food Programme, and the Yéle Haiti Foundation.
Based on those charities’ plans for using the money, the committee will decide how much each group will get and also give advice on how to ensure the money is well spent.
Some money will start to be distributed next week.
“Our top priority is ensuring that proceeds from the telethon are distributed as quickly, responsibly, and effectively as possible,” said Lisa Paulsen, president of the Entertainment Industry Foundation, a nonprofit group that collected the telethon money.
