If you would like to help victims, human and animal of disaster events there is a really important point that I’d like to urge you to take on board and share widely.
Please donate money
Please donate money and not stuff.
Australians have a well-deserved reputation for generosity in the wake of disaster events, but too often that very generosity impacts negatively on the recovery of affected communities.
There are two reasons for this.
The first is that there are enormous issues for the agencies who have to handle donated goods. It costs money to store, sort, distribute and dispose of donated stuff. In the Black Saturday fires, the Red Cross had to hire warehouses to store donated goods and in the end handling donated items for the Black Saturday fires cost over $6 million, which could have been better used. In terms of time, cost, occupational health and safety (not everyone donates safe goods) and equity, donated goods are a problem.
“Public generosity and care following a disaster plays a significant role in individual and community recovery. It reflects broader community sentiment and help s those affected to feel supported, and more positive and confident about the rebuilding tasks ahead. Money is the most useful donation because it provides flexibility and choice to meet immediate needs. It also circulates in the affected community, stimulating faster recovery for the local economy.
People affected by disasters report that thoughtful, personal donations and gifts lifted their spirits and even became precious family items.
However, much of the public’s good will results in unsolicited donations of second -hand goods. This response is less helpful and can actually undermine recovery efforts and community resilience. The influx of donated goods quickly exceeds actual need. The sheer quantity of donations often stretches resources a nd infrastructure, diverting efforts from other aspects of disaster response and recovery.” (National Guidelines for Managing Donated Goods)
The second point is equally as vital. It is not only individuals who are impacted by disaster. The local economy, including local businesses, takes a huge hit – not only might their own facilitates be damaged, but their customer base is impacted. In order to support the recovery and sustainability of local businesses it is really important that they continue to operate. Local businesses tend to employ local people. The donations of goods from outside the affected area will impact on the local economy (why would you buy a new fridge from your local store when someone has donated one to you?), and in many cases local businesses struggle to recover. The impacted communities not only lose homes and infrastructure, but jobs.
If goods and services (such as animal food and equipment) are sourced from outside the local area and donated, it means that local business is even further impacted, and in many cases that impact means they don’t survive the aftermath of a disaster. Not because of the disaster, but because of the donation of goods.
The donation of goods also removes from disaster victims the dignity of making choices. Receiving money allows them to choose what items they wish to replace and also offers opportunities for local business to benefit from people buying new goods and services. It allows them to choose when they wish to buy new goods – in the aftermath of a disaster they may have nowhere to store items, no matter how useful they are.
So please, donate money to a reputable organisation such as the Red Cross, Salvation Army, a local animal shelter or wildlife group. If you’d like to help directly, find a local business which is operational and buy gift cards for people, or open an account with a sum of money and offer that to community members.
If you have goods you’d like to donate, consider having a garage sale or online auction and donating the proceeds to a reputable disaster relief fund.
If you’d like to check my facts, please refer to the National Guidelines for Managing Donated Goods and the Community Recovery Handbook.