How You Can Help The Victims Of Hurricane Katrina

[cheri]

Give To An Established Charity: Don't let an unscrupulous charity take advantage of your goodwill. Find a charity with a proven track record of success with dealing with this region and this type of disaster. Avoid fly-by-night charities created specifically to deal with Hurricane Katrina relief efforts. Even well-meaning new organizations will not have the infrastructure and knowledge of the region to efficiently maximize your gift. If you do feel compelled to give to a new charity, be sure to get proof that the group is in fact a registered public charity with 501 (c) (3) status.

Designate Your Gift: Worried that your donation will go towards the charity's general operating fund or saved for an upcoming crisis? This is a very understandable concern. Many charities do encourage donors not to designate their gifts so that the charity can decide how best to utilize the money, but depending on your confidence in the charity's ability to make that determination, you may want to tell the charity exactly how to use your gift. By designating your gift specifically for Hurricane Katrina relief efforts, you'll ensure that your donation will be used for the victims of this particular disaster.

Avoid Telemarketers: Be wary of fundraisers who pressure you to make a contribution over the phone. Never divulge your credit card information to someone soliciting you via the phone. Instead, ask the fundraiser to send you written information about the charity they represent and do some research on your own. Once you feel comfortable with the charity, send the organization a check directly in the mail, or give through their website, thus ensuring 100% of your gift goes to the charity and not the for-profit fundraiser.

Research And Follow Up: As always, take the time to find a charity you can trust. And be sure to follow up with the charity in a few months to find out (a) how your donation was put to use and (b) if they need additional support to complete the recovery effort.

Talk to your employers: Some will match your donation, so it never hurts to ask... and remember that your contributions ARE tax deductable.

One of the best places to donate to would be the American Red Cross www.redcross.org


Here is the US govt's FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) site, which is directing clean up efforts: http://www.fema.gov/press/2005/resources_katrina.shtm

You can find the following information:

Resources for Hurricane Katrina
Instructions for Evacuees
How to get help
How you can help
Donations
Wind & Flood - prevention techniques for rebuilding
Recovery
Resources
Recent news releases


They also have a link off that page about fraud:
http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/tmarkg/charity.htm

[SueShopper]

http://www.tsasw.org/qso/healthandwelfare.asp

[LadyBehir]

Many churches also have disaster assistance programs. I know the Presbyterian Church USA does. See here: http://www.pcusa.org/pda/ for what they do.

[s1mon3]

Tom Joyner has teamed up with Tavis Smiley and created a relief fund for the families taking in displaced family members. These funds raised by the BlackAmericaWeb.com Relief Fund will go to individual families who have opened their homes to families displaced by Hurricane Katrina, to supplement their personal households as the recovery efforts continue. To find out more on the relief effort and how you can help visit:

http://www.blackamericaweb.com/relief/


Let's get busy ya'll!! Love your neighbor as yourself

[Smudgy]

Thank you for the info. There's a lot of work to be done. I hope people will continue to open their hearts and their wallets.

Cheers,
Smudgy

[jerzygurl]

Black America Web is one of my favorite dwelling places. I'm all in, as usual.

[scigirl3]

I heard about this yesterday on his radio show. I was waiting for today for the donation part to open up. I like how they just help people by giving them money in their time of need. No loans etc.

Thanks for posting this.
kels

[Jamie]

The United Church of Christ (UCC) has also started a pledge drive....

www.ucc.org

If you have some cash back bonus built up from your Discover card, Discover will add 20% to your contribution to the Red Cross. For instance, I had $200 accumulated that was going to go for Christmas presents, so I donated it through their site and the total contribution will be $240. Just go to "spend your cashback bonus" find the pull down tab for "go to vendor" and right up on top of the list is the Red Cross.

Let's get those donations flowing!

Dano

If you go to any Lowes store and donate money, Lowes will match it dollar for dollar.

Dano

[DiamondDeb]

This sounds like something we can enjoy & should raise a lot of money at the same time.

NBC to hold concert for Katrina victims
A Concert for Hurricane Relief

LOS ANGELES - Four Louisiana-born stars — Harry Connick Jr., Wynton Marsalis, Aaron Neville and Tim McGraw — will headline a televised charity concert to air live on Friday for victims of Hurricane Katrina, NBC said Wednesday. McGraw's wife, country star and Mississippi native Faith Hill, will also perform.

The event will be broadcast live from NBC’s New York studios at 8 p.m. ET on NBC, CNBC and MSNBC, and will air on Sirius Satellite Radio’s CNBC channel 101. The broadcast will be tape delayed on the West Coast and will re-air on CNBC at 11 p.m. ET and throughout the weekend.

[dveverhart]

I know some of us online divas (and divus)use the MyPoints program for shopping online, earning points to put toward gift certificates for many merchants. MyPoints has just added the Red Cross to their redemption list. MyPoints will convert your Point donations into a cash contribution to the Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund. If you have as little as 500 MyPoints, you can send them to the Red Cross, who will receive cash from the program. Just a heads-up for those of us who use this service.

Blessings to all, be safe over this holiday weekend.

[DiamondDeb]

Originally Posted by dveverhart

I know some of us online divas (and divus)use the MyPoints program for shopping online, earning points to put toward gift certificates for many merchants. MyPoints has just added the Red Cross to their redemption list. MyPoints will convert your Point donations into a cash contribution to the Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund. If you have as little as 500 MyPoints, you can send them to the Red Cross, who will receive cash from the program. Just a heads-up for those of us who use this service.

Blessings to all, be safe over this holiday weekend.

Thanks! I use MyPoints and can do this!

[Meri]

1-866-KAT-MEDI

Folks with medical training who wish to volunteer please call to be part of co-ordinated efforts for the South.

[Micko]

Don't forget about the pets that need our help http://www.hsus.org/ and http://www.noahswish.org/

[LindaJ]

If you would like to help the Coast Guard members who are working so hard to rescue others but who have lost homes and possessions themselves, you can donate here:

http://www.cgmahq.org/

[Lisa Marie]

Another very good place to donate is America's Second Harvest, at www.secondharvest.com.

I work for a food producer and we often donate products to them. Because America's Second Harvest has so many contacts with food producers they're able to buy products for pennies on the dollar and get many, many donations. They can make a dollar go much, much farther than we can in purchasing groceries for the hurricane victims.

[cheri]

Originally Posted by Dano

If you go to any Lowes store and donate money, Lowes will match it dollar for dollar.

Dano

Wow... that is really great to know! If only people knew this and did it this way... WOW, that could add up to a lot of money... thanks for the heads up!

cheri