Northeast US Flood Relief Fund

Thank you for your generous donation to the GlobalGiving Northeast US Flood Fund - we can’t say it enough! Your outpouring of support has allowed communities to continue rebuilding their livelihoods, homes, and local institutions in these ongoing months of recovery after flooding inundated the Northeast United States in July of 2023. 

After the floods, a local community member described the impact of devastation in his community to local newspaper, the Vermont Digger, as follows: “Once the water goes down, things begin to look normal pretty quickly…But for the people who have been impacted, it takes a long time. It takes a lot of energy, and they’re going to need a lot of assistance from people who weren’t impacted directly.” From the bottom of our hearts, we are grateful that you stepped up to be one of those who offered their assistance. 

The Northeast US Flood Relief Fund has powered three grants to high-impact and community-led nonprofit organizations at the forefront of this crisis. 

Here is a description of the critical work you’ve supported: 

• Northeast Organic Farming Association of Vermont (NOFA VT)  is a Vermont-based nonprofit organization founded in 1971 that aims to bolster an environmentally sound and economically viable agricultural system in Vermont.  Since the floods, NOFA VT has continued to award individual grants to farmers who have been impacted through its Farmer Emergency Fund, which supports farms experiencing emergencies that cannot be covered by insurance and mobilize funds as quickly as possible for those awaiting FEMA assistance.  This work was particularly necessary given the vital importance of and disproportionate disaster-caused impacts of flooding to the agricultural community in Vermont.
  
  
• Operation Address the Homeless (OATH)is an nonprofit organization founded in 2014 that has been serving community members impacted by homelessness since 2011 through social services, employment training, food access, and sheltering.  The organization is working in Lehigh County to address the devastation that impacted homeless individuals on Kline Island, an isolated community on the river that was washed away with the floods by providing tents, sheltering, and other supplies to people wihout homes in this area.

• Craft Emergency Relief Fund (CERF+) is a nonprofit organization based in Montpelier, Vermont, one of the towns most heavily impacted by the floods in the state. Originally founded in 1985 as a grassroots mutual aid effort, CERF+ acts as a safety-net and resource hub for artisans around the country during times of disaster. Since the July 2023 Northeast US floods, CERF+ has continued to mobilize relief grants to over 200 artists who lack the support of traditional employment such as paid leave, as well as to work in partnership with local networks and institutions such as the Vermont Arts & Culture Disaster Resilience network and New England VOAD to rebuild livelihoods of artists around the state affected by this disaster.

Jeremy Ayers, an artist supported by CERF+,  shared the following with the Vermont Digger in response to the floods: 

“Just fix the things that you can fix today. One day at a time, one bird at a time, and then it’ll all add up. All we can do is just do the best we can do today. Then tomorrow will be tomorrow.”

Your support of the GlobalGiving Northeast US Flood Relief Fund is advancing community-led recovery, and it means people like Jeremy have received critical resources to help their community rebuild after the floods.  

GlobalGiving has been hard at work ensuring that your generous donations have reached the important work described above. This fund is no longer accepting donations, and this will be the only fund report of this kind from our team. We hope you’ll stay in touch! 

You can stay connected with our work through Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and our Learn Library, where we regularly share stories about the incredible impact of the powerful GlobalGiving community. 

With gratitude,

Alli + the GlobalGiving Team