I came into class today hoping to get my idea for this post and thanks to Harvey here we are. Today in class Harvey brought up the point that when we have years when disasters happen, i.e. 9/11 or Katrina other nonprofits don’t get enough attention because people immediately turn to the Red Cross or a cause benefiting the disaster and donate. I agree that the years of the disaster nonprofits are hit negatively, but I got to thinking about the years after them. When 9/11 happened and we all go those envelopes in the mail from Red Cross begging us for donations, my parents gave a fair amount. Which then worked into their yearly budget for years to come. Therefore, we continued to put more money aside to donate. I don’t know why, but, they didn’t continue giving to the Red Cross they chose different organizations that they felt were closer to something our family was dealing with, we now give to American Cancer Society and Walk to cure Diabetes. Therefore, because of the 9/11 disasters other nonprofits benefited. They might have taken a hit that year, but it has worked out in the long run. I have no idea if other families are as crazy about keeping a strict and organized budget like my parents, but it works to benefit others. Who knows maybe people just donated to 9/11, Katrina or other disasters then decided that was enough? But, this kind of proves that could help nonprofits in the long run. It may have opened people’s eyes to what’s out there to donate money too, and how simple it is. I by no means am saying “yeah, go national disasters; you’re helping in the long run.” I am just saying it may not be as painstaking as people think it is.
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This entry caught my attention because I’ve been to New Orleans and Biloxi to help with Hurricane Katrina relief. It’s amazing how much a national disaster can encourage people to give their time and money to help out. What I’ve seen is that it actually creates a trend among people to give to other charities as well. Hurricane Katrina helped explode the popularity of alternative spring breaks. A national disaster like Katrina with such destruction gained a lot of attention. That made many college students, families, organizations, etc want to help out. At K-State we formed a club called Building on Breaks that traveled to New Orleans to help clean up and rebuild houses. What we’ve seen is that even after much of Katrina is cleaned up, many students still wanted to take alternative spring breaks. The club now offers trips to Dallas to help with AIDs victims, Biloxi to build with Habitat for Humanity, and Greensburg to help with those affected by the tornado. Katrina was one disaster that opened many people’s eyes to helping out many other charitable, volunteer organizations. It assisted in making helping out a popular thing.