Humanitarian Crises: The Money Trail

In order to address humanitarian emergencies, vast economic and financial resources need to be mobilized fast to provide first-aid items such as food, tents, blankets and medicines to people stricken by either war or disaster. Also the post-emergency setting requires major resources, but as needs change, also the ways and objectives of the intervention have to shift. Emergency and post-emergency have different dynamics, and thus require differing fundraising methods.
The few private organizations that provide first aid in humanitarian crises – the largest being Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) – must invest preemptively in stocks of medical and first-aid goods, and thus activate fundraising drives to be ready to face future calamities. Conversely, in the post-emergency phase ad hoc and/or targeted fundraising is what's needed. To understand the difference, let us cite a striking example: on January 4, 2005, MSF stopped the fundraising campaign in connection with the aftermath of the tsunami in Indonesia, because in less than 10 days €40 million were raised, which was much more than MSF's spending needs in the first phase of the emergency. In order for fundraising to be effective and productive in humanitarian emergencies, there are a few conditions to be fulfilled. First of all the emergency must be continuously broadcasted by main mass media (the so-called media-driven emergency). For instance, in Italy, contrary to other countries, media attention for the Japanese catastrophe seems to have waned over the last month. Also, if media context and focus do exist, a humanitarian organization enjoys the benefit of being able to let its donors and public opinion know rapidly about the seriousness of the situation and its task in helping. This enables the production of more focused texts and images, since their function is no longer to let people know what happened, but to explain what projects are being planned to address the crisis.

Secondly, fundraising is usually helped by the presence of associations, committees and NGOs in the lands stricken by catastrophe. They act as mediators and organizers of investment aid and offer a third-party guarantee (with respect to government institutions) that aid will be properly managed. Lastly, since emergencies are about sudden events, fundraising instruments must also be characterized by immediacy. For instance, solidarity text messages have been widely used to raise money fast. An SMS message can also ask you to enable a pay pal or credit card donation. An interesting application is Cause World: by checking in the shops that endorse the fundraising campaign, credits are accumulated which can be donated to various humanitarian causes. You are not required to fork out your own cash, since it's Cause World's sponsors that are paying.