Oklahomans giving more to charity since tsunami, Katrina

Journal Record, The (Oklahoma City), Jun 21, 2006 by Marie Price

Oklahoma donations to charitable organizations are up, following a national trend in the wake of disasters such as Hurricane Katrina and the December 2004 tsunami that devastated parts of Thailand, Sri Lanka, Indonesia and other countries.

Some officials said they were initially uncertain what impact the increased donations for victims of these disasters would have on local giving.

Erin Gillogly Brewer, vice president of marketing and communications for the United Way of Central Oklahoma, said that both donors and dollars are up for her organization.

Locally, we just completed our most successful campaign ever, Brewer said. So we're seeing that trend here, too.

Typically, she said, giving goes up nationally after major disasters.

We weren't sure what that effect would be for us in our local community, she said. But we found that people were just as willing to give here and support local programs as they have ever been.

Brewer said the local United Way campaign raised about $15.7 million during its most recent campaign, exceeding its $15 million goal.

She said this is almost $1 million more than last year.

Kathleen Coan, president and CEO of the Tulsa Area United Way, said donations declined during Tulsa's recent economic downturn and its accompanying job losses.

It's been a real turnaround, I think, Coan said of United Way's more recent campaigns. They never stopped giving here to us. It's just that it was reduced.

Coan said the fall 2005 Tulsa area campaign took in $21,758,000, which was about a 5-percent increase over the year before.

I think we would have done even better if it hadn't been for the hurricane disaster in the middle of it, which affected everybody's campaign, she said.

Matt Guillory, director of development for the American Red Cross of Central Oklahoma, said donations from Oklahoma City-area residents were up substantially, most of them earmarked by donors to Hurricane Katrina and related disaster relief.

However, Guillory, who moved to Oklahoma City from New Orleans, said donations dedicated to the local Red Cross for its own budget fell a bit below the previous year.

In years that there is not a major public disaster, they might have given that money to the local chapter to help our local needs and our local budgets, Guillory said.

Local donors were extremely generous after hurricanes Katrina and Rita, he said, and those donations were much appreciated, but they did not necessarily translate into more dollars for local needs.

Guillory said donors choose where their contributions to the Red Cross will go.

According to information supplied by the local Red Cross chapter, local donors gave $286,000 for tsunami relief and more than $2 million for victims of hurricanes Katrina and Rita.