A Feb. 27 article about donations to charities helping victims of the Gulf Coast hurricanes misstated the amount of money the United Methodist Committee on Relief has available for long-term charity work in that region. It has dispensed $14.1 million and has $55.5 million remaining. Also, the value of its contract with the Federal Emergency Management Agency was misstated. The value is $66 million, not $60 million.
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Two-Thirds of Katrina Donations Exhausted
"I would hope that the [big charities] won't move like our federal government is moving," said the group's founder, LaTosha Brown. "We're six months out, and people are still up in the air. The resources are not getting to the communities."
Charities are braced for hard decisions as they spend what is left. In December, 1,000 Gulf Coast ministers jammed into a New Orleans hotel ballroom for an agonizing debate over whether $20 million donated to faith organizations by the Bush-Clinton Katrina Fund should be divided among many organizations or focused on a few.
  Minnesotans Mike Harrington and Roger Anderson carry supplies from one home to another in East Biloxi, Miss. (By Katherine Frey -- The Washington Post) Coverage of the Storms
The Gulf Coast was hit hard by two massive hurricanes in the fall of 2005.
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Their decision: Rather than funding a "full dinner" for a limited number of groups, many organizations should receive a "sandwich," said the Rev. William Gray III, co-chairman of the fund's ministerial advisory committee.
Disillusioned by the sluggish government response to the storm, some nonprofit organizations are choosing to spend private dollars on projects that might otherwise be publicly funded.
The Baton Rouge Area Foundation has hired planners and other consultants at a cost of $15 million to devise a blueprint for development in southern Louisiana, a task normally taken on by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. It also is spending $1.2 million on consultants to map out a regional health care system. The foundation has yet to raise all the needed cash, having exhausted the millions in relief funds it raised earlier.
"We can do it, and we can do it much better" than the federal government, said John Davies, chief executive of the foundation.
And many homeowners and renters are turning to nonprofit groups after failing to qualify for government aid.
"We've been swamped" with inquiries, said Ken Meinert, senior vice president for Habitat for Humanity's Operation Home Delivery project, which is rebuilding 1,000 houses along the coast with the $80 million it has raised. It hopes to raise additional money to build another 1,000 residences.
Catholic Charities USA hopes to build 5,000 housing units for the poor in New Orleans, some of it on church-owned land, leveraging its money with loans and grants, said the Rev. Larry Snyder, the group's chief executive.
The group has so far disbursed $58 million of the $142 million it collected to 76 Catholic Charities agencies and other organizations in 29 states for counseling, job placement and housing.
New Orleans resident Tyler Jones, 45, who lost everything in the storm, said Catholic Charities provided his family with medical care, money for clothes, counseling and other support to get their lives back on track. "They restored my faith and my hope by helping me," said Jones, a New Orleans sheriff's deputy.
In its survey, The Post identified 15 charities that collected the most money, based on a database from the Center on Philanthropy of 141 charities raising money for hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma.
