CHICAGO, Jan. 4 (UPI) -- The Internet is proving integral to the tsunami relief effort for major American charities, from Episcopal Relief and Development to the United Jewish Fund. Empathetic donors are wielding debit and credit cards to contribute cash instantly, rather than sending a check that could take days to arrive, development directors told United Press International.
The tragedy that last week killed upwards of 150,000 people in Southeast Asia and East Africa is, in its own way, reshaping the way non-profits raise funds, just as former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean's campaign remade political fundraising -- via the Internet -- during the last presidential election.
Instant access to donated money means charities can immediately spend the funds on priority items, such as medical supplies, providing comfort to victims of the natural disaster in Sri Lanka, India, Indonesia, Thailand, Myanmar and Bangladesh.
"We've raised $900,000 just in the last week from the Web," Malaika Kamunanwire, director of development and public relations at Episcopal Relief and Development, a charity founded by the Episcopal Church in New York City, told UPI's The Web. "We were able to spend $300,000 on emergency supplies right away."
The charity is a case study in the power of using the Internet for humanitarian purposes -- one that may be the model for others to embrace in the years to come.
Officials sent an e-mail with a bulletin insert about the tsunami effort to its list of Episcopal churches across the United States, and the rectors printed out the insert and included it in their Sunday bulletins. "Please help families at risk from disease and food shortages," read the insert, which included the URL er-d.org, as well as a toll-free number and an address to mail donations.
One church that included the insert was St. Chrysostom's Episcopal Church in downtown Chicago, Rev. Ray Webster, the pastor, told UPI. The insert was "also online at their (the charity's) Web site," he added.
The online option proved the most popular among donors nationally: $900,000 of the $1.2 million raised by Episcopal Relief and Development during the past week originated on the Internet, Kamunanwire said. After churchgoers returned home Sunday afternoon, the donations surged.
"We're getting more than one donation a minute," she said. "We're generating $7,000 to $10,000 per hour."
The charity, which revamped its Web site last fall, has never seen anything like this. Following an earthquake about a year ago in Iran, the entire relief campaign generated just about $100,000 online.
"There was nowhere near the activity we are seeing online now," Kamunanwire said.
Other charities are reporting similar successes -- and were able to provide assistance to the tsunami survivors within hours of the disaster.
The disaster is the "greatest humanitarian emergency of our time," Richard E. Stearns, president of the Christian relief and development organization World Vision, said in a statement to the media. "America's response to this crisis has shown our true character. This tidal wave of generosity will help them rebuild."
The response to the fundraising appeals often has been instant -- or close to it. The Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate, an international Roman Catholic charity, sent out an e-mail plea to a list of 24,000 people and started receiving responses within five minutes, a spokesman told UPI.
"Many people want to give and are wary of donating to groups they are not familiar with," the spokesman said.
Charities that generally work on specific projects, such as The United Jewish Appeal-Federation of New York -- which is known for its work in Israel -- raised $400,000 online last week for its tsunami relief fund.
"UJA-Federation raised $400,000 online for the entire 2004 fiscal year," a spokesman for the charity told UPI.
The religious-based charity, like others, is accepting payments via Visa, Mastercard, Discover and American Express. The charity cautions, though, that it is not accepting pledges, only direct donations. The approach has been quite effective -- two-thirds of the money it has raised for tsunami relief so far has come online, at the URL ujafedny.org/tsunamirelief, the spokesman noted.
Secular charities also are generating huge returns online in the wake of the disaster. Jeff Towers, vice president for marketing and development at the U.S. Fund for UNICEF, said online donations have been "unprecedented."
"Since the disaster occurred, we have recorded $21.2 million in online contributions," Towers told UPI. "This is truly remarkable. The dollars come through the financial systems so quickly and we in turn are able to deploy them to the field."
Those who are not traditionally in the non-profit business -- high tech companies -- also are getting involved in the online relief effort.
Users of eBay are selling items through a project called eBay Giving Works -- givingworks.ebay.com -- and are donating anywhere from 10 percent to 100 percent of the proceeds to non-profits, Clam Lorenz, a spokesperson for the Washington D.C.-based charity MissionFish.org told UPI.
"More than 20 organizations are involved in the effort," Lorenz said.
The search engine Yahoo.com built a Web site for the International Red Cross "to help them with accepting the overwhelming number of online contributions in response to the tsunami disaster," a spokesman for Yahoo told UPI. The URL is store.yahoo.com/redcross/donate/.
Major technology companies, such as Sybase, also are donating directly to charities involved in the relief effort.
The funds are being used for short-term relief, and long-term relief as well, Kamunanwire said.
The first phase of donations will be used to set up medical clinics, make sure sewage is contained, and the like. The next phase will turn toward opening schools and providing long-term housing.
Charities such as Habitat for Humanity International are fundraising online and planning to use the money to build low-cost housing for displaced tsunami victims.
After watching news of the disaster on TV or reading about it in newspapers, Americans are turning to the Web to find information about the tsunami.
Search engine Lycos.com said the term "tsunami" was the No. 1 search term on the Internet for the week ending Jan. 1, followed closely by the strangely popular heiress-vixen Paris Hilton.
"The tidal waves ... were by far the biggest natural disaster in memory," said Nilan Fernando, director of the Asia Foundation's office in Columbo, Sri Lanka. "Communication is still patchy, so we do not yet have a complete picture of the devastation."
Interest in the disaster is likely to continue for weeks and months to come.
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The Web is a weekly column covering the technological, and cultural implications of the World Wide Web. Contact: Gene J. Koprowski, [email protected]
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