In a world of environmental and geopolitical uncertainty, ongoing crisis headlines in the media stand out to each of us individually. A natural disaster, an armed conflict, or other tragedies often displace families, fracture communities, and upend everything about the everyday world people inhabited only a short time earlier. Funders of every kind ask themselves, what can we do? Where is help needed most urgently, and how can we be secure in the knowledge that the resources we offer will be put to the best use? We offer brief suggestions on steps to follow and share some organizations and resources that have proven themselves useful over time. For funders giving in response to international crises, we also offer guidance on how to effectively respond to humanitarian crises across the globe. Whether you wish to give to international aid organizations or to local non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that meet US federal guidelines for tax purposes, we’re here to help guide you.

Keep Your Philanthropic Planning Considered and Consistent. However urgently help is needed elsewhere, your existing giving ideally follows a strategy and is a commitment to issues and organizations about which you care deeply. So, it is important to make crisis or disaster philanthropy a thoughtful part of a broader portfolio, especially when you have the means to. It’s always useful to have a small pool of uncommitted funds that you can designate in an emergency, or spend at the close of your fiscal year. Additionally, consider your disaster philanthropy with the same lens as the rest of your giving. What is your focus? Health and medicine? Education and self-sufficiency? Children and families? The environment? Use those same parameters to narrow how you give in crisis, as well.

Go Big or Think Small? We don’t just mean in terms of the size of your gift. The immediate calls to action you will hear from responding organizations tend to be international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) with familiar names, who have teams on the ground already or quickly thereafter, and who are often intermediaries working with local groups as well. In every geographic area there are also pre-existing or spontaneously created community-based organizations (CBOs) that address immediate needs – finding and distributing food, locating those who might be stranded, setting up classes or other routines to create a sense of stability for children, and more. While these latter groups often do not directly qualify for US donations that meet IRS guidelines, there are usually local intermediaries that know which groups are most effective and do qualify.

TPI’s Center for Global Philanthropy has long-standing relationships with organizations around the world that help funders identify the best opportunities to be responsive to crises, in the short- and longer term. TPI encourages funders to learn more and support local organizations working with leaders already rising directly from the population of survivors and know what is most necessary.

Where to Start

This list is intended to provide a starting point for funders who wish to give immediately. For further information on specific crises, and for information on intermediaries by issue or geography, we also suggest funders visit any of the following organizations in the list below. For additional guidance, please reach out to us by emailing info@tpi.org.

A Deeper Dive into Funds and Organizations to Support 

Please note that US citizens and funders can give directly to a 501(c)3 or through intermediaries that assist with international giving, many of which are also listed below.  NGOsource manages a repository of vetted organizations and can assist in conducting equivalency determinations to verify that non-US-based charities qualify for tax deductions. When situations are volatile, you may want to consider short-term funding through intermediaries and organizations in neighboring countries, which can funnel and pivot resources to offices and partners locally.

Broad Humanitarian Aid

  • Amnesty International works to protect human rights of peoples at risk. 
  • CARE delivers food, water, hygiene kits, emergency shelter, psychosocial and other support to millions of women, girls, families, and the elderly. 
  • Give Directly delivers cash to trusted partners in the affected areas, which complements other types of aid and allows families to make “urgent decisions quickly in response to their most immediate needs.” 
  • Global Giving is a US-based nonprofit agency that raises money for other nonprofits serving victims. Funds are used to provide food, water and medicine, shelter and temporary housing, among other things. The agency  often transitions funds to recovery and rebuilding as needs evolve. 
  • The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC)  accept donations both through their National Societies or directly to the International Red Federation of the Red Cross here. 
  • The King Baudouin Foundation (KBFUS) is a member of Myriad, the alliance for borderless giving. 
  • Mercy Corps details its response and need for physical cash, support for frontline aid, and provision of trusted information to families and individuals transiting through conflict zones. 

Democracy, Civil Society, Peace & Security

Internally Displaced Peoples & Refugees

  • Americares has an emergency response team which sends in “large-scale shipments of medicine and relief supplies” when disasters occur. 
  • Choose Love and the Global Whole Being Fund support grassroots efforts around emergency medical care, food, shelter, clothes, legal support, support for the LGBTQIA+ community, and mental health support. 
  • Global Empowerment Mission is US-based and uses donations to buy refugees transportation to reach family and friends in nearby countries. 
  • GlobalMedic works with local partners and nearby agencies to support the distribution of food, hygiene items, and more to displaced people. 
  • International Justice Mission works internationally to combat trafficking and slavery as well as violence against women and children and positions itself at borders to collaborate with local NGOs to protect displaced children, women, and youth. 
  • International Rescue Committee supports displaced families with critical aid. 
  • Operation USA mobilizes alongside American aid groups to facilitate the delivery of much-needed material aid to refugee camps. OpUSA also distributes emergency cash grants to community-based organizations supporting displaced families. 
  • ShelterBox works globally to provide emergency shelter for displaced peoples. 
  • The United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) works with local authorities, the United Nations, and other partners to provide humanitarian assistance. 
  • United Way Worldwide often launches crisis-specific funds to provide refugees with food, shelter, medicine, transportation, and critical childcare supplies like formula. 

Health, Medicine, and Food

  • Direct Relief coordinates emergency medical support. 
  • Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) deploys teams of medical staff and equipment to areas in need to provide care to families. 
  • Health Tech Without Borders provides digital health and telehealth aid to several regions where area teams, often seeing women and children, are understaffed. 
  • International Medical Corps provides medical, mental health, and other healthcare-related services. 
  • Project C.U.R.E. sends cargo of much-needed resources to local hospitals. 
  • Project HOPE activates emergency response teams to provide immediate health and humanitarian relief, often for internally displaced peoples. 
  • Refugee Trauma Initiative provides psychosocial support in areas in crisis. 
  • World Central Kitchen uses helicopters and off-road vehicles to reach hard-hit communities, providing sandwiches, fruit and water to survivors and responders alike. Its helicopters are also used to ferry other emergency supplies into remote regions. 
  • WHO Foundation raises funds for “immediate large-scale emergency response and health needs and humanitarian response.” 

Media Freedom

  • The GroundTruth Project is an award-winning, independent, nonpartisan, nonprofit news organization with a mission to serve under-covered communities by supporting the next generation of journalists to do on-the-ground reporting and to advance sustainability, innovation, and equity in journalism worldwide. 
  • Internews supports independent media around the globe, including in crisis zones. 
  • Reporters Sans Frontiers/Reporters Without Borders supports journalists globally, especially within crisis and conflict areas. 

Women & Children

  • Global Fund for Children sends grants to local partners who are mobilizing to provide food, warm clothing, fuel, and shelter to children and families.  
  • Save the Children is on the ground worldwide helping to deliver lifesaving aid to children at high risk of physical harm, emotional distress, and displacement. 
  • UNICEF works close to conflict-affected areas delivering water, medical and hygiene supplies, and emergency education. They also work to ensure immediate aid for children and families who have been displaced in hubs along travel routes. 
  • World Vision helps countries close to conflict areas prepare to meet the needs of children and families forcibly displaced due to escalating crisis.
  • Urgent Action Fund supports women, trans, and nonbinary activists on the ground by providing flexible funding and security support. 
  • Women’s Peace and Humanitarian Fund, a United Nations and civil society partnership, mobilizes on behalf of local women-led organizations providing humanitarian aid.  

LGBTQ+ Community

  • OutRight Action International works with partners around the globe to strengthen the capacity of the LGBTQ+ human rights movement. 
  • Trans Lifeline is a grassroots hotline and non-profit organization offering direct emotional and financial support to transgender and gender non-conforming people experiencing crises. 
  • The Trevor Project is staffed by volunteer crisis counselors who are trained to answer calls, chats, or texts from LGBTQ+ young people who reach out for confidential and secure 24/7 service when they are struggling with issues such as identity, depression, abuse, and suicidal thoughts.

Please note that the above list is a compilation of nonprofit, NGO, and governmental resources by which leaders in the global aid community are utilizing to educate themselves as crises evolve, and through which they may be directing general crisis response support or specific humanitarian aid to. Please contact us at info@tpi.org if you see or hear of other helpful resources. 

 

Photo credit: gankogroup/Vecteezy