Speakers:

• Monte Achenbach, senior director of programs, American Refugee Committee
• Michele Boston, co-founder and executive director, No Time for Poverty
• John Hasse, senior director for Latin America and the Caribbean, World Vision
• Ali Lutz, Haiti program coordinator, Partners in Health
• Lisa Rothstein, international manager, Healing Hands for Haiti

Following are notes summarizing the Q&A discussion:

• For some nonprofits who previously had difficulty gaining corporate support, the support of the business community has been appreciated during this disaster relief effort.
• Some lessons to be learned regarding in-kind donations:

Much of what is donated is not needed; Haiti is a small island, and there are “cemeteries” of unused product.

Storing products is a problem. With buildings demolished and hurricane season approaching, there aren’t places to store product that is currently sitting outside unprotected.

Transportation of product is also a challenge. Right after the disaster, even if product was shipped to a port other than Port-au-Prince, the gas lines were cut off, so there was not fuel for truck transport.

Some education needs to be done about what is needed in disasters. Nonprofits need to clearly articulate specifically what they need. Money is the most flexible and allows the organization to use it where it’s needed.

Nonprofits, especially small organizations, need to learn to say “no thank you” to some product donations that don’t match the need; but sometimes that’s hard, especially if the organization is trying to develop a relationship with a donor/company.

When donating product, think of the donation in baby steps: how will it get to where it’s needed, how will it be stored, will it get used before its expiration date, is there a plan to get the product from one organization to another organization that can use it?

• Nonprofits saw some coordination and sharing of goods on the ground in Haiti, but it didn’t seem like there is much coordination before the product was sent to Haiti.
• Regarding shelter and sanitation needs, the country is still in emergency mode.
• While some believe the United Nations cluster groups were on the right track in trying to facilitate communication around the relief efforts, others thought much could be improved to effectively and efficiently coordinate and lead during the immediate response phase.
• Many Haitians do not feel safe inside buildings and will not go inside, yet want to stay by their homes, so many are cooking, eating, working outside their homes and businesses, even if the building is still standing; we need to be sensitive to this when rainy season comes and rebuilding starts.
• It is a struggle to have even the large NGOs coordinate their disaster response – each disaster and situation is different; however, there could be a role for funders in helping to enable this.
• Important to track outcomes – not just what’s being done, but to make sure that what’s being done is meaningful.
• An immediate response to a disaster often fills donors’ need to feel needed and to help, but donors should also look at supporting long-term rebuilding/response efforts. This may require some education, so that employees, for example, understand that their company is responding to the disaster – even though the response is not immediate – in an effective way that works for the company. (Employees are often the driving force of corporate responses.)

Join the conversation: If you’re a funder, what are the burning questions you’d like to ask of nonprofits on the ground in Haiti? And to the nonprofits, what would you ask or discuss with funders if you could sit across the table from them?

MCF has compiled responses by Minnesota grantmakers to the Haiti earthquake. We continue to update this site as we learn more. Our website also contains valuable disaster relief resources for grantmakers.

-  Chris Murakami Noonan, MCF communications associate