Reports Recommend Ways Charities and Corporations Can Deal With Crises

Two new reports focus on how philanthropy should respond to national emergencies, disasters, and other crises by examining how charities and corporations reacted to the September 11 attacks:

• Relief charities should not rely solely on news organizations to convey important information about their efforts, goals, and accomplishments, according to a report issued by the Century Foundation, in New York. Nonprofit groups should communicate directly with the public through paid advertisements and other direct means.

“The nonprofit community is too much taken for granted, and after September 11 was unfairly criticized because, for the most part, its story was left untold,” said Paula DiPerna, former president of the Joyce Foundation, who wrote the report.

• Companies ought to plan their charitable response to disasters by establishing guidelines for how they distribute funds, forging relationships with disaster-relief charities, and creating networks of donors prepared to make contributions following a disaster.

“If there are communication and partnerships beforehand, when there is a crisis, companies know the organizations providing the services, and the organizations know who to contact and what resources might be available,” said Linda B. Gornitsky, president of LBG Associates, the consulting company that issued the report.

The two new reports are part of a growing body of literature dissecting the role of philanthropy after the terrorist attacks, and fishing for clues to help charities prepare better for other crises.

“Disasters of all kinds are happening every day somewhere in the world,” said Ms. Gornitsky. “We are all now more aware that the world of philanthropy has to be ready to respond.”

Rethinking Response

Ms. Gornitsky said she decided to examine the role of corporate philanthropy after watching what she describes as companies’ haphazard charitable efforts following September 11.

“The amount of money corporate America gave was incredible and heartfelt, but it was not all well spent,” she said.

Many companies contributed money to cover college costs for the children of people who died in the attacks, for example, Ms. Gornitsky said. But, she added, those funds appear to have been overstocked while other efforts to provide relief to the victims were neglected.

What’s more, she said, a survey that her company conducted last year revealed a gap between the resources businesses have to respond to a crisis and their readiness to donate them.

Roughly 30 of the 72 major American and Canadian businesses that participated in the survey have a line item in their contributions budget for disaster relief, according to the report.

At the same time, however, only one out of 10 companies in the survey said they have policies or guidelines in place that govern how they decide to spend that money or direct other disaster-related gifts.

Similarly, while nearly all of the survey respondents said their company practices strategic philanthropy — which entails, among other features, measuring the impact of corporate contributions — 83 percent of the businesses said they do not evaluate how the donations they make in the wake of a disaster are used.

“Companies typically have crisis- or disaster-management plans for every part of their business except for their philanthropy,” Ms. Gornitsky says. “They can no longer afford, if nothing else from a public-relations perspective, to ignore that kind of planning.”

The report from LBG Associates encourages businesses during noncrisis times to reach out to charities that do relief work.

It especially urges companies to consider making connections with small religious organizations that have not traditionally received corporate donations, but often provide the bulk of the ongoing support to victims of disasters.

Improving Communications

The Century Foundation report tracks news-media coverage of the September 11 relief efforts, extracting lessons for how charities could improve their image and credibility.

The report says that the September 11th Fund, created by the United Way of New York City and the New York Community Trust, could have avoided the damaging criticism it faced if it had better enunciated its purpose and message to the public.

As it was, the report says, the organization was skewered for what was characterized as its sluggish distribution of money, when in fact it spent more than $10-million to help victims just in the first few days after the attacks. The report says the money moved “more or less invisibly” from the fund to Safe Horizons, a New York charity, which was providing direct assistance to victims.

To better get the word out, the report says, the September 11th Fund should have appointed a single spokesman as soon as possible to make reports about its progress more readily available.

It would have been helpful, too, the report says, if the September 11th Fund had set up a table at the emergency center in Lower Manhattan that was providing help to families and friends of people who died or were injured in the attacks.

“On the one hand, such overt presence may have run the risk of being interpreted as self-serving and self-promotional,” the report says. “But on the other, it would have given the fund an ongoing opportunity to explain its mission and constant feedback on its work.”

Full text of the Century Foundation’s report, “Media, Charity, and Philanthropy in the Aftermath of September 11, 2001,” is available free on the foundation’s Web site at http://www.tcf.org/Publications/Detail.asp?ItemID=216. Free copies of the report are also available from the Century Foundation, 41 East 70th Street, New York, N.Y. 10021; (212) 535-4441.

A summary of the report from LBG Associates, “Corporate Philanthropy in Times of Crisis,” is available on the company’s Web site at http://www.lbg-associates.com.

Copies of the full report, which cost $225 for businesses and $125 for nonprofit organizations, can be ordered from the site, or by contacting the company at 2122 North Cameron Street, Arlington, Va. 22207; (703) 248-0226.