By Nicole Wallace

The ties that nonprofit groups in New Orleans forged after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita have made a huge difference in the charities’ response to the oil spill, says Keith H. Liederman, executive director of Kingsley House, an organization that serves children and families.

It took 27 charities roughly three weeks to put together a joint grant request to BP asking for money to provide social services for people who have been affected financially by the drilling disaster.

By contrast, says Mr. Liederman, before Hurricane Katrina, children’s groups in New Orleans met for three years to try to come up with a better way to coordinate their services, ultimately to no avail.

“We had things that we called partnerships” before the storm, he says. “But our post-Katrina experience showed us that we were just playing at it before. We were going through the motions.”