CSR in Coping With Community Disasters / Emergency Appeals

When we see images of flooding and wind damage caused by storms, tornadoes, hurricanes and other nature disasters, or damage caused by fire or an earthquake, we are often moved to help. And help is most certainly needed. But before your company starts a clothing drive to help hurricane victims, sending employees into neighborhoods to clear debris or sending money to the first disaster-aid organization that comes to mind, you first need to do a bit of research. Even better: doing research and making connections BEFORE a disaster can help you act more quickly when disaster strikes.

Consider this:

I spoke at a conference a year after a hurricane had hit the area. There was a representative from a corporation there that did a presentation about their post-disaster response. She was oh-so-proud of the "help buckets" her company had put together with its employees. Each bucket was filled with what the company thought people would need after a disaster. But it slowly became apparent to me that most of these buckets were never distributed: the corporation never asked any disaster response experts what people need who are displaced from their homes or that have experienced water damage in their homes, never asked if any organization would be able to store their buckets for later distribution and never looked into how the buckets would be distributed. They had lots of pictures of employees happily putting together these buckets - but none of people gratefully receiving them.
In many post-disaster situations, there is NO food, shelter, services or gas to spare for volunteers. Many volunteers going into areas in the USA after major hurricanes have to be absolutely self-sustaining for many, many days, even weeks. No shelter or safety measures can be provided to these volunteers by the government - they are too busy dealing with displaced people. Volunteers who weren't self-sustaining created big problems.
In disaster situations, volunteers are going to be encountering disaster victims that are going to be stressed, maybe desperate, and maybe angry. As a trained volunteer or paid staff member working with a credible organization, you are going to know how to comfort these people and direct them to where they can get assistance, and how to convince them that you have to save this person over here instead of their relative over there. If you are untrained and unaffiliated, you may become a target of their anger, because you cannot provide them with appropriate assistance, or because you provide them with incorrect information.
Spontaneous volunteers also may not familiar with the concepts of situation assessments, incident management or chain of command. These three skills are essential in disaster situations, to ensure that resources get where they are needed as quickly as possible, rescues and relief efforts go to the most needed, efforts aren't duplicated in one area while another area has absolutely nothing, etc. They must understand cultural and legal boundaries, and accept supervision. Gaining these skills comes from previous training with a credible organization specifically regarding disaster response.

Even wildlife rehabilitation and clean up requires people with proper training and experience -- not just people with good hearts. People have harmed wildlife instead of helping them in their DIY efforts to respond to disasters.

Disasters are incredibly complicated situations that require people with a very high degree of qualifications and experience.

Nonprofits in areas affected by disaster that will be in desperate need of your company's financial (cash) assistance:

Shelters that help victims of domestic violence (they may use this money for motel vouchers for clients)
Shelters that help people experiencing homelessness (they may use this money for motel vouchers for clients)
Shelters that help animals (they may use this money to pay for the transportation of animals to shelters outside the area, as well as transportation crates)
The local chapter of the American Red Cross (the chapter serving that specific area; they will help people get into temporary housing)
Nonprofit galleries and museums (they may need the money to transport items elsewhere, or to restore items harmed by water damage)
Nonprofit senior centers and cultural centers in the area (they may use the money to help their clients)

All of these are easy to find online with the name of any city and state in an affected area and the subject matter, such as

animal shelter Charlotte South Carolina

Also, please do NOT start gathering food, clothing, medicine, toys, furniture or whatever for those affected in a disaster zone. DO NOT DO THIS. Unless you have called an organization in an affected area (a homeless shelter, an animal shelter, a hotel, whatever) and spoken to someone who told you EXACTLY what they need, by what date, and you have arranged transportation to get it there (do NOT expect the organization to come pick it up!), do NOT gather items to send to a disaster area.

Long-Term Disasters

Flint, Michigan is still in the throes of disaster. But because it's a slow-moving disaster, it's not treated with the urgency of hurricane or earthquake.

In 2011, the state of Michigan took over Flint's finances after an audit projected a $25 million deficit. In order to reduce the water fund shortfall, the city announced that a new pipeline would be built to deliver water from Lake Huron to Flint. In 2014, while it was under construction, the city turned to the Flint River as a water source. Soon after the switch, residents said the water started to look, smell and taste funny. Tests in 2015 by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Virginia Tech indicated dangerous levels of lead in the water at residents' homes. Lead consumption can affect the heart, kidneys and nerves. Health effects of lead exposure in children include impaired cognition, behavioral disorders, hearing problems and delayed puberty. On February 16, 2017, it was reported the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention discovered the first genetic links between city water and patients diagnosed with Legionnaires' disease in Genesee County.

Martin County, Kentucky is also in the throes of a disaster regarding drinking water. Customers of the county's water district post videos and pictures on social media of brown cloudy water spouting out of their taps. Sometimes, it comes out looking like blue Gatorade. Sometimes, it smells like diesel fuel. Customers received notices on the back of their water bills stating that their water had been tested and found to be above federal limits of trihalomethanes and haloacetic acids. Exposure to these chemicals could mean an increased risk of cancer. Eastern Kentucky has some of the highest levels of cancer in the country due to smoking and obesity, but residents here also wonder whether their water is to blame.

Without a greater tax base, the aging water system infrastructures in these areas can not be addressed. Tax breaks for large industry has decimated the tax base in these and other areas. Part of corporate social responsibility is contributing to the tax base that keeps roads and water system infrastructure updated and safe. Businesses, large and small, need to consider how they have contributed to such long-term disasters and how they should address such even if they haven't contributed to the cause of such. More about my philosophy about CSR.

Encourage Employees to Get Disaster-Response Training

If you want your business or company to help with a disaster beyond financial donations, start thinking NOW about ways to get the training and affiliations over the next 12 month. There are many ways you can put your business and your employees into a position to help during future disasters - and these actions will help your employees help each other after a disaster or a time of crisis as well:

Encourage employees to get first aid and post-disaster training. The American Red Cross is a fantastic place to start. They also host a great deal of training related to responding to emergencies. Your nearest community college or fire station may provide at least CPR and basic first aid training.
Encourage employees to get mental health first aid training. mentalhealthfirstaid.org can connect you to training in your area (it's a two-day training).
Contact the member organizations of National Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster (NVOAD), which coordinates planning efforts by many voluntary organizations responding to disaster, and see what training you need to be involved in the future. NVOAD is not itself a service delivery organization; its member organizations independently provide relief and recovery services.
Contact the United Way or your nearest Volunteer Center for more information on how volunteers could receive training for disaster relief and crisis response.
Contact organizations that help people in crisis situations, such as domestic violence shelters, and ask if you could pay for your staff to go through some of their training, to help your staff know how to help people experiencing highly stressful situations.
Consider working with disaster response organizations and government agencies in your area to develop a campaign to help educate community members regarding how to prepare to live for seven days without electricity or running water, and how to create an escape, rendezvous and post-evacuation communications plan for the entire household. Such a campaign would need ongoing workshops, public service announcements on the radio and TV, perhaps even a cell phone text messaging campaign, and certainly lots and lots of volunteers.

There are some online volunteering activities volunteers can do related to disaster response and relief efforts, but note that your likelihood of being of value to these online efforts greatly increases if you have engaged in any of the aforementioned traditional disaster response activities. These online opportunities include:

Humanity Road volunteers use Internet and mobile communications technology to collect, verify and route information online during sudden onset disaster. Using the Internet, they provide public safety information as well as directing the public to governmental and aid agencies that are providing assistance for the disaster.

Crisis Commons / CrisisCamp mobilizes technology volunteers to work together to create crisis response and learning events with volunteers, who collaborate to aggregate crisis data, develop prototype tools and train people on how to use technology tools to aid in crisis response. To be involved as an online volunteer, you need to be an experienced, credible IT expert and you need to establish a relationship with this organization BEFORE a crisis. If you cannot figure out how to contribute as an online volunteer after visiting the web site, you probably don't have the level tech skills needed for this organization's initiatives. To see what kinds of online volunteering opportunities offered through Crisis Commons, join their GoogleGroup.

In the USA, register with your local chapter of the Civilian Volunteer Medical Reserve Corps (DCVMRC or MRC). MRC units are community-based and function as a way to locally organize and utilize volunteers who want to donate their time and expertise to prepare for and respond to emergencies and promote healthy living throughout the year. MRC volunteers supplement existing emergency and public health resources. As a member of an MRC unit, you will be ready and able to bolster local emergency planning and response capabilities. Many MRC volunteers also assist with activities to improve public health in their community â€“ increasing health literacy, supporting prevention efforts and eliminating health disparities. Here's more about volunteering with the Civilian Volunteer Medical Reserve Corps. The more trianing you get, on your own, the more likely you will be accepted as a part of the MRC. Note that each state is different on how it registers these volunteers. For instance, in Oregon, you express interest by registering on the State of Oregon Responder Management System.

In addition to all that training, you have to also get affiliations. Agencies that respond to disasters have to know you long before a disaster!

If you are in the USA, then once your employees have training of value in a disaster situation, they can register at HelpinDisaster.org, an initiative of the Points of Light Foundation to register disaster volunteers.

Places to look for credible organizations receiving donations for disasters:

All For Good

ReliefWeb

Coming soon

Employees volunteering abroad

Some corporations cover the costs of employees going abroad to work on short-term assignments. I will have a page of advice on this later in 2019.

Return to my index of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) resources & advice for ethics, strategies & operations.

I'm Jayne Cravens. I'm a consultant regarding communications and community engagement, primarily for nonprofits, NGOs and other mission-based organizations. I have many years of experience working with corporations, governments, foundations and other donors, and for two years, I ran a corporate philanthropy program at a Fortune 500 company. I created these corporate social responsibility (CSR) pages on my web site out of frustration of the continuing disconnect between what mission-based organizations, including schools, are trying to accomplish and what corporations and other businesses want to fund and volunteer for. Most advice for CSR comes from people in the for-profit world who have never worked for a nonprofit, charity, public school, etc., and often has a paternal approach to working with mission-based organizations. My approach is different: I am urging the business world to be partners, not dictators, when it comes to the third sector.

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