Charities Win Mixed Results From Appeals to Help Indonesian Earthquake Victims

By Brennen Jensen, Candie Jones, and Caroline Preston

More than 50 American charities are providing medical care, food, and other services to victims of Saturday's earthquake in Indonesia, but their fund-raising efforts have thus far met with varied results.

Save the Children, for example, had received $70,000 through May 30, largely via an online appeal to past donors. That amount is greater than the sum the organization raised in the four days following the earthquake last year in Pakistan, which killed an estimated 80,000 people — more than 10 times the number killed in this most recent temblor.

Mike Kiernan, a spokesman for the group, said the early response from donors was particularly encouraging given that the earthquake happened during the Memorial Day weekend.

"It's a weekend when people really concentrate on their families and not so much on what's on the TV news or in the newspaper," he said. "We are not disheartened at all by the response."

Mercy Corps had raised more than $300,000 as of May 31, yet that amount fell below the $442,000 the group brought in online during the four days following the Pakistan earthquake.

For other groups, donations have come in at a much slower pace. Lutheran World Relief has raised just $6,900, and Church World Service has brought in less than $5,000 from individual donors. Lutheran World Relief has committed $25,000 from an emergency-response fund to help pay for its work.

"It's been deafening silence," said Neil Frame, of Operation USA, which has received only a few hundred dollars thus far for the earthquake. "The story line has been a phone not ringing."

Many organizations cautioned that it is still too early to measure donor response because they are just beginning to send out their fund-raising appeals or have additional appeals in the works. International Aid, for example, sent out an online appeal on Tuesday and mailed a second appeal the following day.

The disaster response has been facilitated, in part, by organizations' experience working in Indonesia after the 2004 tsunami. International Aid, Islamic Relief, Lutheran World Relief, Operation USA, and many other organizations were able to quickly deploy staff members who were working on tsunami rebuilding in Banda Aceh and other parts of Indonesia to Yogyakarta, near where the earthquake struck.

Emily Sollie, a spokeswoman for Lutheran World Relief, said: "The fact that we had an office there and had already established relationships with three other agencies on the ground from the tsunami certainly made the response a lot easier and faster."

Many groups are also beginning to look beyond the immediate relief stage toward longer-term needs, including rebuilding homes and providing medical care. Islamic Relief, which has allocated more than $900,000 for immediate needs, hopes to raise $3.7-million for rebuilding efforts after the earthquake. The charity has currently raised nearly $300,000 in cash and $1.6-million in products.

"It will take months to rebuild," said Salar Rizvi, finance and administration director. "We don't want to just be there to get food in the short-term. We want to help these communities try to get back on their feet."

Other early fund-raising results for organizations providing relief to earthquake victims include:

• American Red Cross has received more than $270,000.

• CARE USA has raised more than $100,000 through its Web site and hopes to raise $5-million from private and institutional donors.

• U.S. Fund for UNICEF has raised $112,000, of which $100,000 was donated through the Internet.

• Oxfam America has raised nearly $100,000.

• Save the Children received more than $70,000 toward its goal of $3-million.

• Direct Relief has received $10,000 from individuals and $100,000 from the company Amgen.

• Relief International has raised at least $8,000.

• Church World Service has received more than $4,900 from individual donors, as well as $6,000 from the Christian Church Disciples of Christ denomination. The organization is asking for $1.2-million.