Charities and Foundations Spent $352 Million on Disaster Efforts in 2019

Foundations and charities directed at least $352 million in 2019 for disasters and humanitarian crises, with half of the 2019 total flowing to response and relief, according to a new report.

The second biggest category of spending was preparedness, at $58 million, followed by reconstruction and recovery, at $21 million. Resilience funding totaled only $13 million.

The report was produced by the Center for Disaster Philanthropy and Candid, a philanthropy research group. The report draws on multiple sources including Candid, the United Nations, commercial donor-advised fund sponsors, government agencies, and the forms that foundations and charities are required to file annually with the Internal Revenue Service.

The researchers say that the pandemic slowed the processing and availability of those tax forms, so the data for 2019 is incomplete, making a direct comparison with 2018 impossible. However, the researchers say that disaster-related giving in 2019 appears to be about the same as in the previous year, based on organizations from which data was available for both years. According to last year’s version of the report, foundations and charities in 2018 distributed $468 million in response to disasters and humanitarian crises.

The disaster response in 2019, including government funding, totaled nearly $30 billion, according to the report.

North America Is Top Recipient

North America received 61 percent of all philanthropic disaster funding in 2019, followed by Africa, at 14 percent. Global programs received 17 percent.

The biggest donor was the Gates Foundation, which gave $73 million, followed by the OneStar Foundation and the United Way of Greater Houston, both at $32 million.

The top recipients were the Red Cross, at $36 million, the World Health Organization, at $25 million, and BakerRipley, a Houston-based nonprofit, at $23 million.

Texas coastal communities, Houston in particular, were battered by Hurricane Harvey in 2017 and Tropical Storm Imelda in 2019, which both caused severe flooding and other damage requiring multi-year responses.

Epidemics Pre-Covid

Covid-19 wasn’t fully felt until 2020, so little of the funding cited in the report was in response to the pandemic. But another deadly disease commanded attention: The Ebola virus and other epidemics were allocated $72 million in 2019.

Storm relief totaled $60 million, flooding response was $20 million, and wildfires response drew $18 million in funding.

Fidelity Charitable, the nation’s largest donor-advised-fund sponsor, reported $21 million in grants for disaster relief.

Network for Good reported $11 million in gifts through its online-giving platform.