Who gets how much is $1 billion question

With more than $1 billion pledged to help the victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the nation’s nonprofit organizations are struggling to decide exactly who should qualify for assistance.

The challenge, officials say, is to help as many as possible without spreading funds too thin.

“It’s a lot of money, but it’s not a bottomless pit,” said Ani Hurwitz, senior consultant with the New York Community Trust, which is helping administer the $170 million September 11 Fund. “You clearly don’t want to define it so broadly that it ends up not going where it’s needed. On the other hand, there are so many people affected by this.”

From the beginning, agencies collecting the money have stressed the need to deliberate in the distribution, coordinate efforts and eliminate duplication. Now, as checks are being cut, ideas differ as to eligibility for assistance.

Struggling restaurants near ground zero, displaced workers and uprooted apartment dwellers could all plead financial hardship. So could off-Broadway theater owners, Chinatown shopkeepers and others whose business has dropped off dramatically since Sept. 11.

How their needs stack up against those of the families of the more than 5,000 dead or missing is unclear.

“I think what’s happening is that the circle of victimization is getting larger,” said Barbara Bryan, president of the New York Regional Association of Grantmakers.

Some of the money has been handed out, providing an insight into how different agencies have chosen to define need. Some charities have specific missions, such as aid to the families of fallen firefighters or of those who died while working at the Cantor Fitzgerald LP bond trading firm. But many more dollars remain uncommitted, as other agencies work to fill gaps.

The $1 billion total, estimated by the Chronicle of Philanthropy, is by far the most raised in response to a disaster in America. Almost half has been collected by the American Red Cross.

Red Cross spokesman Mitch Hibbs said the agency has defined victims “very narrowly,” concentrating on the families of those killed or on those who lost homes near ground zero.

Of the $452 million the Red Cross raised through Wednesday morning, $100 million has been earmarked for a Family Gift Program, in which the agency will cut checks of up to $30,000 each to the families of those who died in the attacks.

But fewer than one-third of the families who lost a loved one have come forward, leaving $72.8 million of the fund unclaimed. Hibbs said the agency is working feverishly to contact victims’ families, but some have been difficult to locate and others won’t accept the money.

Others funds have taken a much broader view of the term “victim.” The September 11 Fund, administered by New York Community Trust and the United Way, has distributed about $16 million of the $170 million it has raised, with money going to a wide range of needs.

The fund has given almost $10 million to agencies cutting checks to those who lost loved ones in the World Trade Center. But it also has given $438,000 to the Consortium for Worker Education, which is providing assistance to those who lost their jobs as a result of the attack; $100,000 to Interfaith Neighbors Inc., to provide counseling to children and teachers; and $50,000 to the New York Immigration Coalition, part of which will go toward helping document incidents of bias.

“The answer is we haven’t defined [`victims’] yet,” Hurwitz said. “Why limit the possibilities until you know what they are?”

Some observers have raised concerns that narrow definitions could lead to complaints similar to those heard after the 1995 bombing of the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. There, some relief funds had definitions so narrow that money sat unused for years.

The Red Cross says that won’t occur in New York. “We will get the job done,” Hibbs said.