I wanted to follow up on the last post I wrote – particularly the part about funding grassroots organizing in New Orleans – by sharing a really cool experience I had this week.
As you all probably noticed, the situation in New Orleans started looking even more dire not long after I put up the last post. I spent most of that weekend glued to my phone and computer, following the news about hurricane Gustav and trying to keep in touch with friends who were evacuating. At some point in the middle of it all, I got an email from an organizer friend in New Orleans asking for donations to support evacuees who lacked financial resources. Originally, the money was being gathered to distribute to folks in the city and was being coordinated through the New Orleans Women’s Health Clinic. (a project of INCITE!) Then, when New Orleans shut down and it became impossible to get the money into the city, my friend began working with other organizers to figure out a way to wire money directly to key cities where it could be a resource available to people trying to evacuate safely.
She emailed me and a network of other folks asking if we could be available to wire money if the situation continued to get worse. I sent the email out to a big group of people who I trusted and knew had some financial resources, they sent it out to people they knew, and all in all (in the course of one weekend) I got over 40 responses from folks who wanted to send money. The networks I sent this email to were not incredibly extensive, so that kind of response was pretty amazing.
Throughout the weekend, my fear about the storm was mixed with hope and gratitude that so many people were prepared to respond. I wrote earlier about being a passionate fundraising geek, and last weekend was a great example of why. It was an awesome fundraising-as-organizing moment; I sent out some action alerts and information along with the fundraising email, so folks who offered to wire money also made phone calls to elected officials, forwarded info to folks they knew, and kept track of what was happening. It felt like a really important way to share the urgency and immediacy of the situation, and get people to feel involved even from far away. Also, it was great to be offered a direct, grassroots way to support evacuees, because most of the time in disaster situations the only options a lot of us are given are large charities like the Red Cross and the Salvation Army, which are known for their racism and mistreatment of the folks they’re supposed to serve.
And the coolest thing about it was getting to see a network of people respond to immediate needs of folks in New Orleans just because we were in touch with what was going on. Most of the folks who responded to offer support were also organizers and activists who see the struggle of folks in New Orleans as connected to all struggles for racial and economic justice. They were grateful for the opportunity to give money, forwarded the request on to friends, and many of them even followed up emphasizing that they wanted to be included in future requests for support. No one expected their donation to be tax-deductible, or demanded an explanation of exactly how the money would be distributed. We just trusted that community organizers in New Orleans knew what they were doing.
New Orleans is (at least to some degree) back up and running, so the specific need that was initially put out is not longer relevant. However, there was still a lot of storm damage, particularly in the coastal low-lying areas of southwestern Louisiana and Mississippi (indigenous communities were particularly hard hit); and people who were forced to evacuate are still trying to find each other, deal with very poor treatment by police, FEMA, and the Red Cross, and return home. I’m hoping the network that formed to aid evacuees can continue to be a resource as new immediate needs become clear – and again, please feel free to get in touch with me if you want me to let you know when these kinds of requests come my way!
Finally, here are a few links for people trying to keep up with what’s been going on in these areas (as well as info about the much more sparsely covered damage in Haiti):
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080903/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/tropical_weather