Members Respond
to Asian Crisis
The earthquake and tsunamis in Asia have left a tragedy of unimaginable
proportions in their wakes. As the death toll continues to climb,
and the scope of the response and recovery efforts begin to become
clear, Americans are responding with wonderful generosity to the
need.
Associated Grant Makers Members are part of that quick and generous
response. The Germeshausen Foundation is making
$15,000 donations each to Doctors Without Borders and Oxfam
America. The Clipper Ship Foundation,
which traditionally makes $40,000 or more in international disaster
relief grants each year, will make a grant of at least $10,000 toward
tsunami relief responses.
Last week, a number of people called the Cambridge Community
Foundation to ask how they could help. Bob Hurlbut, the
Foundation’s Executive Director, pointed people to the lists
of agencies published by the New
York Times and the Boston
Globe, and also suggested that people think about substituting
monies planned for New Year's Eve partying as a measure of such
a gift. He also advised people to “wait and see which agencies
would be involved in the ‘rebuilding effort,’ a very
costly and time-consuming task that lies ahead.”
The Charles Stark Draper Laboratory will be collecting
donations from employees and will match them dollar for dollar (no
limit) through January 18. Contributions will be donated to the
relief funds of three agencies:
International Red Cross Services
U.S. Fund for UNICEF
Save the Children
Employees are welcome to specify one of the three agencies if they
choose; otherwise their donation will be divided and matched equally
among the three agencies. In addition, if employees contributed
to one of these agencies prior to the Laboratory's formal announcement
about this fund on January 4, then their contributions will also
be matched providing they show proof of donation.
The New York Times, parent company of The Boston Globe, has made
a donation of $250,000 to disaster relief. In addition, the Globe’s
Matching Gift Program for 2005 has been opened to 10 approved relief
organizations. The Globe will match employees’ gifts at $1.50
to each $1.00 contributed. Payroll deduction for those personal
contributions is available for four relief organizations.
The Millipore Foundation has announced it will
make a direct contribution of $50,000 to the American Red Cross
International Relief Services. Further, through its Matching Gift
Program, the Foundation will match all U.S. employee contributions
to relief effort organizations of their choice. Millipore India,
the company's joint venture based in Bangalore, India, has pledged
one million rupees (approximately $23,000) to local relief efforts.
In addition, Millipore India employees will donate two days' salary
over the nexst two months to help support these local efforts. Vast
portions of the Indian coast were devastated by the tsunamis.
Harvard Pilgrim Health Care and Harvard Pilgrim Health
Care Foundation are jointly giving $5K each (totaling $10K)
plus asking employees to consider making a donation (over $4,000
has been contributed so far). So, the total Harvard Pilgrim gift
is likely to be $15K. They have made a decision to fund 3 organizations:
UNICEF (because of their focus on health and children), the International
Medical Corps (because of their medical assistance) and the Vrindavana
Preservation Society (VPS) which is an Indian cultural and environmental
organization that one HPHC employee is active in. He is going to
India next week to distribute the money on behalf of VPS for school
and health clinic rebuilding if food and water are no longer needed.
A small group of HPHC employees will accompany him to offer help
as well.
Many funder organizations have also added links and pages to their
websites, providing information on disaster funding and how to make
donations. These include the New
York Regional Association of Grantmakers which has consolidated
links and information about how grant makers can respond to these
types of crises. Many of these resources were developed from the
lessons learned in responding to the events of September 11, 2001.
The Boston Foundation has a page
of information about opportunities to give.
Grant makers may also wish to look at information compiled by United
States International Grantmaking project which provides links
to information about disaster relief grantmaking, the legal aspects
of giving internationally, as well as to organizations that are
responding.
Is your organization making a contribution toward disaster relief?
Please send your stories to Miki Akimoto at makimoto@agmconnect.org
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