Hurricane Giving Slows; Less than $1-Million Raised for Hurricane Rita

After the massive outpouring of giving to help victims of Hurricane Katrina, donors are responding far less generously to appeals for help with Hurricane Rita, charities say.

The slow response to fund-raising appeals has some nonprofit groups concerned about their ability to respond to the devastation wrought by Rita, which struck the Gulf Coast on Saturday, causing a wide swath of damage along the Texas and Louisiana coasts.

The Red Cross had raised a total of $977.2-million for hurricane relief as of Wednesday, according to Sarah Marchetti, a spokeswoman for the charity. Only $494,000 of that has been designated for Rita. Giving has slowed over the past week, she says.

"Our numbers are not rising as quickly as they were."

Altogether, charities nationwide have raised nearly $1.4-billion for Hurricane Katrina causes, a Chronicle tally has found.

The Red Cross has estimated that it will need $2-billion for Katrina. Preliminary estimates suggest that Rita's damage could compare with that caused last year by Hurricane Charley, which cost the Red Cross $30-million, Ms. Marchetti said.

At the Salvation Army, Katrina appeals have raised $185-million to date, but its Rita effort has brought in just $100,000 since last Sunday, according to Major George Hood, national community-relations secretary.

"Everyone expected Rita to be a rerun of what we went through with Katrina," he said. "When it wasn't, everybody breathed a sigh a relief and went back to business as usual. Yet there's been such devastation along coastal areas from Rita; these little fishing villages and country towns have just been destroyed."

Part of the slower pace may be due to donor fatigue, Mr. Hood says, but another part may be hesitation as donors wait to see how much the federal government plans to do for survivors. As news reports have made clear that the Federal Emergency Management Agency plans to reimburse the Red Cross and certain other charities for relief efforts, that has helped to create uncertainty about how much individuals, foundations, and corporations should do, he said.

Ms. Marchetti of the Red Cross said she could not say whether its donors have been confused or angered by the news that the organization may receive some reimbursement from the federal government for its work. She said the Red Cross hasn't seen received any federal money for Katrina yet, and it doesn't have a written agreement with FEMA that it will be reimbursed for the $100-million it has spent on placing Katrina survivors in hotels.

"We're obviously going to have to be transparent with donors, and we'll let them know when we have a contract with FEMA," she said. "But we need so much more than $100-million." As of Tuesday, she said, the Red Cross had spent $1.1-billion on Katrina, including $603-million in direct financial payments to 608,000 families.

At Network for Good, which is forwarding hurricane donations electronically to some 300 charities, donations peaked on September 1 and are now coming in more slowly, said Katya Andresen, vice president of marketing. After reaching $3-million on on September 1, giving through Network for Good has leveled off to about $45,000 a day, slightly more than the typical activity the site receives, she said.

"Viewed in isolation, Rita would be seen as a huge disaster," she said. "But coming on the heels of a hurricane on the scale of Katrina made it seem relatively mild by comparison," she said.

At America's Second Harvest, which has raised $18-million towards its $21-million Katrina goal, officials anticipated that Rita "would be a different type of storm," said Phil Zepeda, a spokesman for the charity. Second Harvest reworded its fund-raising appeals after Rita to solicit donations for hurricane-relief assistance in general, not for one specific storm That has brought in $1.1-million.