The Case for Pooling Donor Funds in Haiti

It's not exactly throwing stones, and especially after some of the uglier fallouts that have followed emergency fundraising drives, the American Red Cross must be feeling some measure of relief. But this article by Stephanie Strom, on whether relief organizations should take a closer look at a different model of fundraising -- pooled donations -- is a much-needed injection into the debate on how fundraising has unfolded in Haiti overall.

Consider this: Prior to the quake, Partners in Health had over 700 doctors and nurses in Haiti, out of a staff of nearly 5,000. They were running a hospital, as well as multiple clinics. By contrast, the American Red Cross had just 15 people in Haiti when the quake struck.

Since Jan. 12, which organization do you think has been able to raise more money?

Okay, okay, hardly a fair or surprising contest. The Red Cross, naturally, pulled in some $200 million to support its efforts in Haiti, and Partners in Health just one-fifth of that amount.

But it's hard not to ask, as Strom does, how organizations doing exemplary, on-the-ground work can find better support in times of crisis, especially when competing against those that command considerably more star power.

We've written extensively about how donors can try and target the most effective organizations in Haiti. Obviously, though, despite our fondest wishes, expecting every casual donor to try and navigate the maze of nonprofits out there isn't a realistic ask (tools like Charity Navigator, itself the subject of considerable critique, not withstanding).

One better option when disasters strike, as Strom describes, might be the creation of a fund that pools contributions -- a fund that, in turn, gets distributed among groups by an advisory panel.

There are all kinds of knee-jerk reasons be skeptical about this kind of model: greater levels of bureaucracy, questions over who would decide on distribution, et cetera. But other countries have put it into good practice, including Canada and the U.K. It's even been used on a smaller scale here in the U.S. -- for eg., with the Hope for Haiti telethon, and to a limited extent after Hurricane Katrina. In fact, after the tsunami, the Red Cross itself acted as a sponsor of pooled funds, contributing nearly half of the $581 million it raised to other organizations, such as the World Food Program. And in Haiti, the Red Cross has started down a similar path, by again committing $30 million to the WFP.

As for concerns about how the process might slow down the delivery of aid -- well, as has so often been cited in the past few weeks, Haiti's reconstruction process will be one that gets measured in years, not months. If the international community is committed to supporting relief efforts for the next 10 years -- as donors pledged in Montreal last week -- it also makes sense to think carefully about who they'd want to invest in for the job.

Photo Credit: david.nikonvscanon