From the New York Times, Jan 1.
The huge response from individual donors who want to help victims of the tsunami in Southeast Asia, spurred in part by a year-end spirit of gift-giving, has stunned officials at the world's largest private relief agencies.
Many relief agency officials, accustomed to begging for donations after a disaster has hit, called the response "unprecedented." They said that while no one has tallied all private giving, the numbers reported by individual organizations indicate that the amount will far surpass contributions for previous disasters.
Even efforts by companies to coordinate private giving has exceeded expectations. "Wow," said Craig Berman, spokesman for Amazon.com, when he was told that donations to the Red Cross through the company's Web site had topped $8 million by Friday morning. (By evening, they exceeded $9 million.)
In five days, Oxfam raised $28 million around the world, $7.5 million each from the United States and Britain and $5 million from Australia. "We are looking at the type of giving and interest in volunteering and giving in kind that is equal to and may end up eclipsing the response we saw to the super-famine in Ethiopia in 1984, where the numbers of dead were well over one million," said Nathaniel Raymond, communications adviser for humanitarian response at Oxfam America.
Mike Kiernan, a spokesman for Save the Children USA, said that in the month following a disaster, the organization was normally lucky to receive several hundred thousand dollars. It garnered $6 million in four days after the tsunami disaster. "Comparisons are hard to make, but 10 years ago, when there was the great flight from Rwanda, there was an enormous outpouring of support," Mr. Kiernan said. "But even that doesn't come close to what we're seeing now."
Almost $9 million had poured into CARE USA by Friday, more than its fund-raising for Hurricane Mitch at $6.1 million, Kosovo at $8.3 million and the earthquake in Gujarat, India, at $6.6 million. "We're amazed," said Debra Neuman, senior vice president for external relations.
A variety of factors is driving the giving, including the death toll - more than 140,000 and mounting - and the vast geographic territory covered by the disaster.
The crisis also fell at a time when many people in the world were celebrating holidays that revolve around generosity and giving - and at a time when many Americans in particular want to take advantage of the tax breaks generated by charitable contributions.
Benjamin Rosenbaum, a computer programmer in Falls Church, Va., and his wife, Esther Bieri, devote 10 percent of their income to charity, and this year they gave $360 to Asha for Education, a group devoted to education in India that is taking part in disaster relief. "It's such an extreme disaster and it's the end of the year anyway, and I'm gearing up to give to charity," he said.
Scandinavians, shocked by the number of their compatriots who died or are still missing, have donated $39 million. In Norway, two 10-year-old children, Ebba Tangen and Jor Hjustad Tvedt, sold their toys and some cakes in a square in central Oslo to raise $450 for the victims.
Six-year-old Daniel Kushner of Cincinnati raided his piggy bank and handed his entire $10 in savings to the local Red Cross chapter. "I just thought maybe those people really needed the money," he said.
Pfizer Inc., the pharmaceutical company based in New York, is giving $10 million in cash to local and international relief agencies and $25 million worth of medicines, like Zithromax and Diflucan, that fight infection. Pfizer has 4,100 employees in the region and several facilities.
The Internet has also played a role. The home pages of Yahoo, AOL, and Google among others offer links to charity Web sites.
Bethany Porter, a 19-year-old in Fort Thomas, Ky., who is working at Wal-Mart to put herself through college, donated $20 to the International Relief Fund of the American Red Cross after reading reports of the destruction on a Web site. "I know how devastating it is to lose one person you love," she said. "They lost 100,000."
The Carnegie Corporation of New York, which normally makes grants in the areas of education and international peace and security, is making an unusual grant of $1 million for disaster relief. "This is so enormous that it transcends all kinds of normal guidelines about giving," said Susan King, a spokeswoman.