How Donating to Disaster Relief Can Do More Harm Than Good | Juanita Rilling| Big Think

There are two aspects to every donation. There is the emotional/spiritual side, which is all good, and there’s the practical/material side, which is very tricky. The emotional/spiritual side is people giving to people who are hurting, which has spiritually evolved in civilization saving; that is all really good.

But a donation is a material thing in a situation where material things have to be prioritized. There’s no emotion in humanitarian logistics. Anything that is not needed gets in the way, and so people’s donations can actually prevent people on the ground from getting the help that they need. After a major disaster, there really are no flat, dry spaces to put things.

And so if there are flat, dry spaces, the relief organizations need them to stage and manage and deliver emergency supplies. So if it’s raining used clothing and canned food and bottled water, all of that has to be moved aside, and it’s in the elements because there really is no climate-controlled storage after a disaster—not for a long time. If there is, it’s used for medicines.

So all of these donated goods—these donated goods sit in the elements, and they degrade. The clothing gets moldy, the cans open up; these big piles become a haven for rats and snakes and therefore a health hazard for anyone who has to deal with them. Moving all of the stuff out of the way and managing it is relief workers taking relief workers’ time and heavy equipment and money away from the response.

So all of these resources that are used to manage unneeded donations are being taken basically from survivors. Like Give Well, Guidestar, Charity Watch, and Charity Navigator, where people who are open to donating money can look on the websites and find out what the organizations are doing, what they specialize in, and the donor can decide whether they want to support the organization. That’s really the best way to do it.

After the tornado in Moore, Oklahoma, a very generous donor offered 28 truckloads of new furniture to the people of Moore, Oklahoma. And the relief workers were like, “Dude, that is so wonderful of you, but can you wait? Because right now there are no houses—no houses.” But he was excited about his gift. People get very excited when they want to give something they know is special.

So up to Moore came 28 truckloads, and all of that furniture needed to be warehoused, and warehousing costs money. And so that’s money that comes away from building people’s houses. So timing is important in giving as well. And it’s not good to give household goods when there are no households.

The best way to help survivors of any disaster event is through cash donations to the relief and charitable organizations who are working directly in disaster-affected communities. That is because cash donations enable relief organizations to meet needs as they change, which happens frequently—especially in the early days right after a disaster, which are very dynamic.

Cash donations also enable relief organizations to purchase supplies close to the disaster-affected area because even in the worst disaster, a protracted famine, there’s always a perimeter of healthy markets from which to buy supplies. And when supplies are purchased locally, they are fresh and familiar to survivors. They’re purchased in just the right quantities, and they don’t require the heavy transportation costs and fees. They’re delivered quickly, and there’s enough for everyone.

They really—cash donations really are the best donation to give. And I understand that people are sometimes suspicious of relief organizations. And justifiably so, because in that tricky intersection of money and human nature, there will be pop-up non-governmental organizations after a disaster.

All of a sudden, you’ll see this compelling website with a name you’ve never heard of and a big red "donate now" button. And people are smart to be cautious. But that’s why the charity watchdogs are so helpful.