How to Help Following a Disaster
Unless specifically requested, don’t send clothes or food or any things to a charity after a disaster. There’s a big reason for not wanting donations of things following a disaster. The logistics of sorting items requires manpower and time — two things that are in short supply right now.
The absolute best thing you can do is donate cash to the charity of
your choice that is helping with relief efforts.
Also, please do NOT earmark the money you donate as specific to this
disaster (like “Hurricane Relief”). This might seem contrary to what
you’re hearing in the media, or even what the president said the other
day, but specifying the way your money can be spent means that the
organization MUST spend it on this event. After 9/11, the Red Cross
had far more money donated specifically for 9/11 than was needed and
ran into problems when they needed to spend that money for other
disasters.
Trust that the people who need help will get help, just as
long as the organization has money to do it.
