Redefining Disasters Preparedness And Resilience Within The Philanthropic Sector

By Tammie Caldwell


A billion dollars is considerably a hefty sum. If a normal disaster has this total in damages, it attains the benchmark of measurement by the Government of the United States. Such billion dollar catastrophes are rising in occurrences. New threats happen often and faster than disasters preparedness facilities can keep up. Examples of such calamities include Texas tornadoes and wildfires in some western states.

We know that the most adversely affected people are those already facing vulnerabilities and various risks before disasters strikes. We know that relieve from such risks is distributed according to social forces. These forces essentially determine allocation of resources. The forces have power to provide money for safe homes or location of levees. In essence, calamities are most painful where philanthropy is most active.

Philanthropic advanced activities like leverage, collective capacity and coalition building must kick in immediately disaster strikes. Experience and research has shown, however, that donations from the private sector including from foundations declines dramatically in six months. Donations are also quite poorly coordinated.

The 2011 framework on disaster recovery from FE MA provides a dramatic insight upon the social sector as a comprehensive system and its level of resilience. The framework pinpoints preparedness as key to continued survival and resilience from a calamity while stronger and intact.

The philanthropy sector needs to better prepare itself for a swiftly changing operating scenario. This scenario has basic infrastructures of accountability, law and opportunity under siege. Such a scenario measures recovery in years and not in months or cycles of elections.

The diverse and important functions played by donor foundations have been well documented. This documentation has a wide spectrum covering resilience, relief and recovery. We have many literature covering philanthropy and disaster providing how to guidance and instructions or who provided which funds for what. Analysis of this kind is published after years. Their findings are critical for insights into disaster funding organizations and their response regimens.

Those experiences that communities affected by disasters go through show dramatically how improved data infrastructures a shared sense of urgent accomplishment could do. An organization that leverages information effectively has a major role to play in taking valuable resources and producing good outcomes among affected people. A good example is The Foundation Centers Foundation Maps. This is a grant online tool. It shares with non profit enterprises and donation financiers a framework that defines crucial data in real time.

Whether the occurrence is an outbreak of Ebola in West Africa or bankrupt Detroit, disaster communities constitute the proverbial canaries in the coalmine. They expose an underlying status of the society infrastructure as well as how they affect people. When a catastrophe strikes, everyone sees himself or herself as a people. Everyone sees his or her fragility and vulnerability. For a moment in time, it becomes us and not them.

As the environment, scale and rate of recurrence of disasters rises, patronage must swing focus into awareness. It can commence doing this with a shared urgency sense while making a commitment to improve infrastructures of data. That way, first responders have a better opportunity to spring into action faster. It will enable them help communities in self organization long before the rest of the world can mobilize.




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