By Britt Lake | Director of Programs
On November 8, 2013, one of the most severe storms ever recorded hit the Philippines. With a width of 370 miles and gusts as strong as 235 MPH, Super Typhoon Haiyan (locally known as Yolanda) affected more than 13 million Filipinos. More than a million homes were destroyed or damaged, and close to 4.5 million people were displaced.
GlobalGiving donors like you displayed their generosity once again, donating more than $1 million for Haiyan relief efforts in less than a week and a half. Some gave to our project partners working in the typhoon-affected area, while others opted to have GlobalGiving determine the allocation of grant funds through our Super Typhoon Haiyan Relief Fund. Within days, we had already made our first disbursement on the ground so that your dollars could immediately begin to provide relief to those affected by this storm.
GlobalGiving looks at a number of factors when determining grant allocations to ensure that your money is having the biggest impact possible on the relief and recovery effort. We prioritize local organizations over international organizations because we believe these organizations have the specialized knowledge to be most efficient immediately with each dollar they receive. We also recognize, however, that in a disaster of this magnitude, the expertise of larger international relief organizations with experience in post-disaster relief efforts is also needed. We balanced these priorities with an understanding of each organization’s overall capacity, budget size, and history of transparency in the work that they’re accomplishing on the ground to determine the allocations below. In this first disbursement we prioritized relief activities over recovery, but will shift our funding to recovery efforts in the coming weeks and months.
Below you can see exactly how much has been disbursed to each organization. The amounts listed represent a combination of both the funds raised by the organization itself on GlobalGiving as well as the grants GlobalGiving has made to the organizations.
We have been in communication with our partners on the ground every day since the typhoon made landfall, and we have heard stories of the devastation this storm has wrecked on communities across the Central Philippines. Your dollars will be supporting organizations providing food to evacuees, fuel to relief workers to get supplies where they are needed most, locally-made toilets for safe sanitation and more. We are proud of our many partners working endless hours on the ground to alleviate suffering, and are committed to continue getting funds to the ground quickly.
We’ll continue to keep you updated on how your donations are being used in the coming months. Thank you again for your generosity.
Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.
If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can receive an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.
When a disaster strikes, recovery efforts led by people who live and work in affected communities are often overlooked and underfunded. GlobalGiving is changing this reality. Since 2004, we've been shifting decision-making power to crises-affected communities through trust-based grantmaking and support.
We make it easy, quick, and safe to support people on the ground who understand needs in their communities better than anyone else.
They were there long before the news cameras arrived, and they’ll be there long after the cameras leave. They know how to make their communities more resilient to future disasters, and they’re already hard at work. GlobalGiving puts donations and grants directly into their hands. Because the status quo—which gives the vast majority of funding to a few large organizations—doesn’t make sense.
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