Fast, Responsive Aid After Hurricane Ida

The Friday before Hurricane Ida made landfall in Louisiana, as the region braced to respond to the quickly developing storm, our leadership team gathered at the Foundation offices. We know that our communities and our donors rely on us to act in times of disasters. We prepare to respond to a crisis before it hits—and when it does, we follow the protocol we’ve developed over years of experience.

ALWAYS READY

Our disaster response strategy provides a roadmap not just for moments of crisis, but for preparing to confront them. As hurricane season began, we hosted a hurricane preparedness workshop with 75 local nonprofits so they could develop their own response plans. We were joined by the Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness as well as local emergency management offices from New Orleans, Jefferson Parish, and St. Tammany Parish, who offered critical expertise. We also pre-registered over 20 organizations from across Southeast Louisiana to receive expedited grants for disaster response in case of emergency.

When, in the end of August, it became clear that Hurricane Ida was headed for our region, we sprung into action. On Friday, August 27th, we got in touch with local leaders like New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell and Jefferson Parish President Cynthia Lee Sheng. Some colleagues in philanthropy, such as the Kresge Foundation, contacted us directly, understanding the threat that Ida presented to the region and wanting to hear the Foundation’s plans. They committed to a generous gift.

As soon as President Biden approved Governor Edwards’ request for a Federal Declaration of Emergency for Louisiana, we activated our Disaster Response and Restoration Fund. This allowed us to provide funding for groups that were ready to jump in the moment the hurricane passed. Using our knowledge of the nonprofit sector and experience from past disasters, we made $50,000 in grants to well-established organizations that we knew were responding right away: the Second Harvest Food Bank, the American Red Cross of Louisiana, Team Rubicon, VIA LINK, and World Central Kitchen. They would offer food and medical aid, disaster cleanup, and a phone hotline to connect residents to more resources.

These early grants meant that when the hurricane did hit, the military veterans of Team Rubicon could begin heavy-duty disaster cleanup right away. It meant that the chefs of World Central Kitchen could immediately set up a staging area at the New Orleans Culinary and Hospitality Institute next door to the Foundation offices. We soon let them take over our parking lot, and they were quickly preparing 20,000 to 30,000 meals each day to distribute at dozens of sites across our region.

Meanwhile, our team kept working. We leveraged our strong relationships across the state — from the Governor’s office to nonprofits, local leaders, first responders, and community groups large and small—to understand what folks needed most. We heard directly from a bayou area community aid group that had never done disaster relief before, but was gathering food and supplies to stage for pick-up for the many people left without water, power, and sufficient shelter. Some were living in a tent, car, or camper in their front yard. We visited a distillery that had been transformed into a food bank. We connected with pastors as they scooped hot meals with their congregation. We met a brother-sister pair who had filled a school gym with large plastic buckets of resources for folks to take home. We spoke to partners in the United Houma Nation who were serving meals from their community center and managing complex supply distributions, even as there were holes in the roof of their headquarters and debris on their floor.

We offered care and resources, made connections across our networks, and personally delivered the news of grants. We also tended to the relationships we have built over many years. We wanted to assure them that we had their backs.

Our community of donors was energized, even as many of them were coping with the impact of Ida themselves. We received major gifts from the Baltimore Ravens in partnership with The Stephen & Renee Bisciotti Foundation as well as from the Atlanta Falcons via the Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation. Mrs. Gayle Benson generously matched our first two rounds of post-hurricane grants, and within five days of the storm, we had raised $2 million. Because our disaster response strategy is so well-honed, and our existing relationships with nonprofits are so strong, we were able to put those funds to use right away. We knew the nonprofits who needed the most support didn’t have electricity to charge computers, or internet to connect to even if they had it. Instead of requiring an initial grant application, we relied on our strong relationships with nonprofits and local elected officials to target the most pressing needs across our communities. We also relied on their relationships with one another; when the leader of one nonprofit or local official told us about another doing good work, we trusted them. We got them funding quickly, which enabled them to get resources like food, water, ice, tarps, and building supplies to their communities quickly. Then we reached back out a few weeks later for more formal conversations and brief applications that could be filled out from a phone.

Less than two weeks after the storm, we traveled to the Bayou region ourselves, bringing supplies and meeting with community leaders, clergy, and nonprofits. We heard their stories, saw their operations firsthand, and were able to tell them in person that they would be receiving grants ranging from $10,000 to $125,000 dollars, depending on the scope of their work and impact. We followed up with a trip to the River Parishes soon after.

Within a few months of the storm, we had raised over $7 million from more than 1,300 individuals, with a major gift from the Kresge Foundation and generous matching funds from the Dick J. Guidry Fund and Mrs. Gayle Benson. The Foundation had distributed over $5 million, nearly 40% of which went to organizations led by people of color.

These nonprofits have already accomplished so much, but our work remains unfinished. We know recovery can take years, and rebuilding to withstand future disasters requires funding and expertise. We will not abandon our communities in the hardest-hit regions of Southeast Louisiana; we stay involved long after the last power truck restores electricity. We will keep delivering grants as they are needed, and we will learn from these efforts to strengthen our strategies going forward. If community leaders want to transform grassroots efforts into more formal nonprofits, we can help. We will welcome them into our Nonprofit Leadership and Effectiveness programming. This can guide them into the institutional benefits of nonprofit status while helping them maintain the energy and spirit that launched their work.

As we connect with nonprofits, we are neighbors before we are program officers. We listen and build real relationships, as people, with those who have been most affected and who are doing the hardest work. Then, fueled by the generosity and compassion of our donors, we act. We show up for our nonprofits—and we stay.