Hilton Foundation Gives Millions and Keeps Track of Region’s Needs

Within days of when the hurricane struck the Gulf Coast, the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation announced it would award $6-million to help the battered region.

Yet even more significant, say officials of the Reno, Nev., foundation, is the giving that followed: another $5-million to meet longer-term needs. Those subsequent grants have helped shape the foundation’s policies for how it responds to future disasters.

A year after Katrina, the foundation hired a consultant from the Initiative for Regional and Community Transformation, at Rutgers University, to survey the post-disaster landscape in New Orleans and determine unmet needs.

“A cool-headed needs assessment after the immediate relief phase of the disaster is critical,” says Brad Myers, a Hilton program officer.

Aiding Poor Children

Acting on the consultant’s report, which identified child care as an urgent issue in the still-reeling city, the Hilton Foundation made a $1.3-million grant to the United Way for the Greater New Orleans Area for a program designed to improve the quality of child-care centers that serve poor children.

Another directive in Hilton’s disaster policy: Collaborate with a local grant maker who knows the region.

The foundation’s largest recovery grant was a $2.5-million contribution to the Community Revitalization Fund organized by the Greater New Orleans Foundation to help strengthen the city’s ability to rebuild low-cost housing.

Altogether 22 local and national foundations contributed $25-million to the fund.

New Orleans is “its own special place,” says Mr. Myers, and it didn’t take grant makers long to realize how important it would be to have people they could trust on the ground.

He hopes that’s a lesson that will stick for future crises.

“Hopefully when a disaster hits cities that are a little less quirky and a little less idiosyncratic, it won’t just be a New Orleans thing but a disaster thing.”

The Hilton foundation also hopes to build in some money in the future to help groups anticipate disasters and help minimize the damage they cause.

Says Mr. Myers: “The master plan would be not just purely responding to disasters.”