Donations Pour In for Victims of the Attacks

Concern for the victims of last week’s terrorist attacks has touched off an estimated $360 million in donations across the country--a demonstration of largess that shows no signs of slowing.

The staggering generosity is being hailed as an inspiration, but privately, many nonprofit charitable organizations worry that a tight economy will mean far fewer donations for other causes during the crucial year-end fund-raising season.

On the East Coast, some organizations, such as New York’s Amnesty International, have taken a hiatus from solicitations and postponed scheduled fund-raisers. The National Multiple Sclerosis Society put off a Washington gala, and in Palm Desert, the Billy Barty Foundation said it had postponed its fund-raising golf tournament this weekend.

Across the country, scores of nonprofits are observing a voluntary moratorium on telephone and mail solicitations not related to the relief effort. Two philanthropy conferences were canceled--a meeting on Internet giving in Virginia next week, and a gathering on the federal government’s faith-based charity initiative that was to have been held Wednesday in Cleveland.

Los Angeles billionaire Eli Broad, one of the nation’s largest individual philanthropists, said he did not believe support for terrorist victims would mean less money for other causes, adding that, if anything, Americans will simply “open their purses wider.”

But Stacey Palmer, editor of the Chronicle of Philanthropy, predicted it will be “very gloomy for many charities that aren’t related to the disaster effort. They’re going to have to work very hard to continue to raise the amount of money that they need to continue to provide services.”

The flood of donations has the Better Business Bureau scrambling to sort out the new charities, and professional philanthropists are volunteering to help organizations distribute the money.

The Sept. 11 Fund, which is handling the largest pool of pledges, had raised $106 million by Thursday, much of it earmarked for such groups as the Red Cross and the Salvation Army.

Many organizations do not offer updated figures. But the Chronicle of Philanthropy reported that the Red Cross had raised $129 million by late Wednesday; the Salvation Army had an estimated $20 million.

President Bush said this week that more than $55 million had been raised by one Internet-based site, https://www.libertyunites.org, set up by a coalition of Web companies. Precise totals are elusive, but New York’s Foundation Center, an authoritative philanthropy source, counted $289 million in corporate donations by late Thursday, and $70 million more in grants from other funds, such as the Carnegie Corp. of New York, which donated $10 million.

Tonight, Hollywood will draft celebrities for a fund-raising telethon that will air on all four major television networks, as well as on some cable TV and public radio stations.

Philanthropy experts say the record groundswell of giving is being driven, in part, by the images of the disaster that are being broadcast into American homes.

“The stories of the families of the firefighters who risked their lives are so compelling and so moving,” said Casey Wasserman, grandson of Hollywood legend Lew Wasserman, who donated $100,000 each to the Red Cross and a fund for the firefighters. “Everyone’s touched and affected.”

The Direct Marketing Assn. called for a voluntary moratorium on mail and phone solicitations for all other types of charities through the rest of the month. “In this time of national tragedy, this is simply the right thing to do,” said H. Robert Wientzen, the group’s president.

The Boys and Girls Clubs are encouraging relief donations through their 3,000 clubs around the world. More than 100 youngsters from the New York Boys and Girls Clubs lost relatives in the attack on the twin towers of the World Trade Center--a link that underscores the sentiment expressed throughout the philanthropy world that the country is in this together.

“When something like this happens, it breeds a sense of helplessness, and transforming that by being helpful--giving blood, donating food, checks--is a very essential tool for healing,” said Jill Brooke, author of “Don’t Let Death Ruin Your Life,” and editor of a New York magazine, Avenue, that covers the philanthropy scene. “What will suffer, though,” Brooke added, “are funds for artistic institutions, versus [those for] saving lives.”

New York-based modern dance choreographer Bill T. Jones said he received an e-mail from a board member who feared that arts fund-raisers would face an uphill climb “because the economic world is licking its wounds and what we do will be seen as frivolous.”

The greatest challenge for nonprofits may be the damage wrought on an already slowing economy.

“We have had foundations that have said, ‘We do not have the same amount of money to give away,’ ” said Rob Parker, a fund-raiser for the Boys and Girls Clubs.

Because 90% of the giving in this country is by individuals, not corporations, “We’re counting on individuals to step up and fill in the gap,” Parker said.

Kate Morrison, chief financial officer of the March of Dimes, based in White Plains, N.Y., said the charity’s growth rate was slowing even before the attacks.

“We’re going to be watching very, very carefully over the next several weeks,” she said.

For nonprofits involved in social service, the slowing economy is a double whammy, threatening funding at the same time that it makes life harder for the disadvantaged people the advocates help.

In Los Angeles, cultural institutions are young and in the midst of expansions that would bring the fine arts closer to the level that would be expected in the country’s second-largest city. Trustees of arts groups are discussing the impact the disaster could have on fund-raising.

“I would not want to forget the very encouraging behavior people have demonstrated in the past week, but at the same time, I share concern about cultural organizations in a tight economy,” said Deborah Marrow, director of the Getty Grant Program, the grant-making arm of the J. Paul Getty Trust. “I wouldn’t go so far as to predict gloom, but I think there is concern over how educational and cultural organizations are going to fare.”

Nevertheless, experts say the response to the crisis likely will enhance future generosity.

The Internet long has been available to donors, but has never drawn large sums, said Jim Ferris, director of the USC Center for Philanthropy and Public Policy. But now, “All of a sudden it has come alive.”

*

Times staff writers Susan Brenneman, Oscar Garza and Lewis Segal contributed to this report.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Corporate Donations

To aid in the relief efforts of the Sept. 11 attack, corporations have donated to organizations such as the United Way and American Red Cross. Here are some of the largest donations, in millions.

*

*--*

Amt. Contributor $30 Lilly Endowment $15 Citigroup $10 AXA Group $10 Bear Stearns $10 Carnegie Corp. $10 DaimlerChrysler $10 Exxon Mobil $10 Ford Foundation $10 General Electric $10 Johnson & Johnson $10 Microsoft $10 Morgan Stanley $10 Pfizer $10 Philip Morris $10 Starr Foundation $6 Cisco Systems $5 Amerada Hess $5 AOL Time Warner $5 Chevron $5 IBM

*--*

*

Note: Does not include value of products donated.

Source: Associated Press, Philanthropy News Digest