A Fund Created After Hurricane Katrina Turns Its Focus to Latest Catastrophe

A grant-making organization founded in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina has started an aggressive fund-raising effort to make sure that grass-roots environmental groups and community organizations along the Gulf Coast have the money they need to respond to the BP oil spill. After raising more than $100,000 in the first month after the spill started, the Gulf Coast Fund for Community Renewal and Ecological Health now hopes to raise $1-million by the end of the year.

So far, the fund, a project of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, has raised more than $245,000 and has awarded $155,000 in emergency grants to 27 grass-roots groups. The fund dipped into its reserves to make the first round of awards.

Among the organizations’ efforts: providing independent monitoring of the effects of the disaster, advocating for more safety equipment for cleanup workers, and mapping where oil is coming ashore.

Last month, the fund led a three-day trip that gave two dozen foundation officials and philanthropists a chance to meet with leaders of the groups the fund supports and see first-hand how the spill was affecting coastal communities.

At this point, tour participants have made commitments of at least $60,000 to those organizations, apart from the money raised and awarded by the Gulf Coast fund.

It was agonizing to see “the horrible, horrible impact that this oil spill will have on the very fabric of the communities of the gulf,” says Mike Herz, a donor and longtime environmentalist who lives in Damariscotta, Maine. The trip, he says, really drove home the devastating human consequences of the ecological disaster.

“I went down there as an environmentalist,” says Mr. Herz, “and I came back as a social activist.”

Monitoring Oil Plumes

The Gulf Restoration Network, which received a $7,000 emergency grant from the fund, has been an active participant in the effort to hold BP accountable for the damage caused by the spill.

The New Orleans organization was one of three environmental groups that sued BP in federal court last month to try to force the company to mount a more effective response to the disaster and to be more open about its actions. In addition, several times a week since the disaster started, the group has sent employees out either by boat or plane to document the extent and location of oil plumes.

While the Gulf Restoration Network’s focus is on the environment, the group is also concerned about the impact on people along the coast, so the organization has decided to give 25 percent of the money it raises in the next few months to the Gulf Coast Fund, says Cynthia Sarthou, the organization’s executive director.

“We needed to make sure that part of the money went to groups who were in need and may not have the wherewithal or ability to raise money like we do,” she says.