Disaster Giving

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The school has collected and tracked extensive data on disaster philanthropy from U.S. individuals, corporations, foundations, and nonprofit organizations to major domestic and overseas disasters since 2001, including the September 11th attacks, the 2004 Asian tsunami, Hurricane Katrina and the Pakistan earthquake in 2005, the 2010 Haitian earthquake, the Japanese earthquake and subsequent tsunami in 2011, Hurricane Sandy in 2012, and the 2013 Philippine Typhoon Haiyan. All publicly reported gifts of $1 million or more for disaster relief are also recorded in the school’s Million Dollar List.

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Now showing 1 - 9 of 9
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    Understanding Philanthropy in Times of Crisis: The Role of Giving Back During COVID-19
    (2021-11-03) Paarlberg, Afshan; Bergdoll, Jon; Houston, Peter; Kou, Xiaonan
    For individuals, corporations, and nonprofit institutions, the long-term effects of the pandemic are still unfolding. However, by examining the pandemic’s short- and mid-term effects, this report provides vital information to donors and nonprofits for planning and adaptation.
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    U.S. Household Disaster Giving in 2017 and 2018
    (2019-05-21) Bergdoll, Jonathan; Clark, Chelsea; Xiaonan, Kou; Osili, Una; Coffman, Suzanne; Kumar, Supriya; Saronson, Betty; Sato, Grace; Davis-Jones, Melanie; Entcheva, Ruja; Gulliver-Garcia, Tanya; Webster, Regine
    In 2017 and 2018, the U.S. experienced the first- and fourth-most costly years of major natural disasters on record. In the two years combined, the country was affected by 30 natural disasters that each caused more than $1 billion in damage. After a major disaster occurs, individuals usually respond quickly with an outpouring of generosity. Much, however, remains unknown about the patterns, preferences, and practices of individuals’ charitable giving for disaster aid efforts. For example, how many Americans donate to disaster aid, and how much do they give? Does giving to disaster aid come at the expense of giving to other causes? What are the main drivers of disaster giving? After disasters, to what extent do people donate online through social media and crowdfunding platforms in addition to traditional ways of donating? Based on new data on U.S. households’ disaster giving in 2017 and 2018, this analysis from the Center for Disaster Philanthropy, Candid, and the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy answers these questions.
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    Responding to natural disasters: Examining identity and prosociality in the context of a major earthquake
    (Wiley, 2019-01) Maki, Alexander; Dwyer, Patrick C.; Blazek, Susanne; Snyder, Mark; González, Roberto; Lay, Siugmin; Lilly Family School of Philanthropy
    How does a major natural disaster relate to individuals’ orientation towards society? We collected repeated cross‐sectional surveys before (n = 644) and after the 2010 Chile earthquake (n = 1,389) to examine levels of national identity, prosocial values, helping motivations, and prosocial behaviours in the context of such a calamitous societal event. Our research questions, derived from the literature on helping in times of crisis, considered how natural disasters may implicate identity and prosociality, as well as how identity, prosocial values, and motivations are linked to prosocial action after a disaster. Higher levels of national identity, helping motivations, and disaster‐related helping were found after the earthquake, suggesting that in the aftermath of a disaster, people unite under a common national identity and are motivated to take action related to disaster relief. National identity and prosocial values were closely linked to helping after the earthquake, but specific helping motivations rarely predicted prosocial behaviours. Additionally, proximity to the epicentre was related to higher levels of national identity and participation in reconstruction efforts. These findings contribute to our understanding of people's responses to natural disasters and suggest ways of encouraging prosocial behaviour in the aftermath of unexpected tragic events.
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    Community Reconstruction after the 2008 Sichuan Earthquake: A Reflection on Participatory Development Theories
    (2008) Hu, Ming; Zhu, Jiangang
    The participation of China’s civil society in the 2008 Sichuan Earthquake reconstruction featured a number of NGOs and social work organizations. Additionally, participatory development theories were broadly accepted and applied in their community efforts. However, our three-year field work effort in an earthquake-stricken village finds that those theories, based as they are on the presumption of alienated traditional communities, are being confronted with great challenges. Applying the extended case method, we claim that, quite contrary to a single and closed self-recovery, community reconstruction is deeply embedded in and reshaped by a series of much broader social processes: state-dominated post-disaster reconstruction, urban-rural integration development, and social management measures. We further recognize three major forces constructing those social processes: neo-authoritarian local governments, victims with rising citizenship awareness, and community-based NGOs. Redefining the power structure in community reconstruction, we argue that, instead of the traditional bottom-up empowerment approach, in open communities pluralistic governance, through the collaboration of governments, residents, and NGOs, can work more effectively to empower communities and reach sustainable development.
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    Contributions to Haiti Earthquake Relief January 2011
    (2011-01) IU Lilly Family School of Philanthropy
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    Giving Following a Crisis: An Historical Analysis
    (1/21/2010) Brown, Melissa S.; Rooney, Patrick M.
    While conventional wisdom in fundraising maintains that donors of all types give in response to need, analysis of contributions from 1939 to 1999, including years of 17 national crises ranging from war, natural disaster, political crisis, and terrorism, shows that economic variables are strongly associated with giving, whereas crisis is seldom a significant factor. Crisis seems to matter in bivariate (giving/crisis) analysis, but not after controlling for economic changes in multivariate analyses. Results are very robust to type of crisis, time period, sources of giving and specification of model.
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    America Gives: A Survey of Americans’ Generosity After September 11
    (2005) Steinberg, Kathryn S.; Rooney, Patrick M.
    This paper describes a telephone survey (called America Gives) which asked 1,304 randomly-selected adults about their philanthropic behavior (giving of time and treasure) after the events of September 11, 2001. The questions were part of a larger national study (n = 4,200) on giving and volunteering that was being conducted at the time of the September 11 attacks. This paper provides a brief description of the study that was being conducted at the time of the terrorist attacks, the methodological considerations resulting from the immediate philanthropic response to the September 11 events, and steps that were taken to adapt the study to the changing national conditions. Next we provide descriptive results from the survey, along with multivariate analyses of the determinants of giving and volunteering in this unique situation. Finally, we provide some caveats for researchers who may want to assess household giving and volunteering, and discuss implications for nonprofit managers and policy makers.
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    America Gives: A Survey of Americans’ Generosity After September 11 - Technical Version
    (2005) Steinberg, Kathryn S.; Rooney, Patrick M.
    This article describes a telephone survey (called “America Gives”) that asked 1,304 randomly selected adults about their philanthropic behavior (giving of time and treasure) after the events of September 11, 2001. The questions were part of a larger national study (n = 4,200) on giving and volunteering that was being conducted at the time of the September 11 attacks. This article provides a brief description of that study, the methodologi-cal considerations resulting from the immediate philanthropic response to the September 11 events, and steps that were taken to adapt the study to the changing national conditions. Next, the authors provide descriptive results from the survey, along with multivariate analyses of the determinants of giving and volunteering in this unique situation. Finally, the authors provide some caveats for researchers who may want to assess house-hold giving and volunteering, and discuss implications for nonprofit managers and policy makers.
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    America Gives: Survey of Americans’ Generosity After September 11
    (2002-01) IU Lilly Family School of Philanthropy; Association of Fundraising Professionals
    The Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University surveyed 1,304 adults about their household’s philanthropic behavior after the events of September 11, 2001. The questions were part of a larger study on giving that the Center was conducting at the time of the September 11 attacks. The Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP) and the AFP Foundation for Philanthropy funded the post-attack portion of the study and joined the Center in releasing the results.