Louisiana’s floods attract more GoFundMe money than any disaster
3rd October 2016 · 0 Comments
By Susan Buchanan
Contributing Writer
You may have heard flooded, south-central Louisiana residents say their plight would get more attention if the storm that struck them in mid-August had been named. That may be true, but more money has been raised on GoFundMe’s crowd site for the state’s recent flood victims than for people in any natural disaster since the California firm was founded six years ago.
Since mid-August, GoFundMe donors have given over $11.2 million to help Louisiana, exceeding $7.4 million for Nepal’s 2015 quake sufferers and $2.5 million for California’s 2015 wildfire victims, company spokesman Bartlett Jackson said last week. “In a widespread emergency, the benefit of donating on GoFundMe is you see exactly where your money’s going,” he said. “Families can get help quickly and directly, and donors can follow their progress and recovery.”
Money has poured into the site’s more than 6,400 Louisiana campaigns from across the nation and from overseas. Donors in high-population states—California, Florida, New York and Texas—have given the platform’s Louisiana quests at least $200,000 per state since mid-August. Residents of Louisiana, Georgia and Tennessee donated $100,000 or more to the Pelican State, and those in Mississippi, Alabama, North Carolina and Virginia gave at least $50,000.
GoFundMe helps users raise money for small charitable projects. The group charges fees, deducting five percent from each donation. And a WePay account, opened during a campaign’s start, charges 2.9 percent per donation, plus 30 cents for each one. But, as Jackson noted, one of the things GoFundMe users like is that they can access donated money soon. And with few complaints against it, the company has an A-plus rating from the Better Business Bureau.
GoFundMe tracks data points and has mechanisms to get funds to intended beneficiaries, Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry said in August. The state’s Department of Justice has worked with the service to develop communication streams that raise red flags if a money-raising campaign looks unethical. And if a participant suspects that donations weren’t distributed properly, GoFundMe addresses that complaint and can reimburse the individual.
As for other big, crowd-funding sites, New York-based Kickstarter has helped creative projects in Louisiana in recent years, and California-based Indiegogo has given a boost to some of Louisiana’s small businesses and entrepreneurs.
Why choose GoFundMe to help flood victims? Educator Monica Fabre, a New Roads resident in Pointe Coupee Parish, supports a project on the funding site to help several older people displaced from flooded homes make permanent repairs. They live in the nearby African-American community of Pecan Acres, where she was raised. “These are women—three in their 70s and one nearly 60, whose homes aren’t livable,” Fabre said. “Americorps volunteers have already gutted their houses. But the owners didn’t have flood insurance because they couldn’t afford it, and therefore Federal Emergency Management Agency has denied them assistance. They may qualify for the state’s Shelter at Home Program, but it’s for temporary solutions—a working bathroom and a microwave and mini-refrigerator.”
Fabre said another reason she supports the GoFundMe drive for Pecan Acres homeowners is her worry that a disproportionate amount of all flood aid will wind up in Livingston Parish, east of Baton Rouge. That’s where heavily damaged Denham Springs is located.
“We, the community, embarked on our small GFM project to help these homeowners purchase building supplies for permanent repairs,” Fabre said. The campaign, which began in mid-September, had raised $500 by last week, and she hopes it will continue to attract donations. To learn more about the project, visit “Pecan Acres Flood Victims” on the web at dm2.gofund.me/22sw3hwc.
The state’s Shelter at Home program provides up to $15,000 in repairs to make a house safe, secure and habitable during the rebuilding process. The state pays contractors and subcontractors to do the work, rather than paying homeowners, Shauna Sanford, spokeswoman for Governor John Bel Edwards, said last week. “The owner and contractor must agree to the project, and they sign off on its completion,” she said. An estimated 150,000 Louisiana homes were damaged or destroyed in the mid-August floods, and so far 19,000 owners have applied for Shelter at Home help.
If you’d like to aid flood victims, the Edwards Administration encourages everyone to do what they can, and it appreciates all donations, Sanford said. The administration supports donating through the Red Cross and the Baton Rouge Area Foundation and through the group known as Louisiana Voluntary Organizations Active in Disasters. “These are independent organizations, and the governor’s office isn’t coordinating donations online or otherwise,” Sanford said.
BRAF’s Louisiana Flood Relief Fund assists nonprofits responding to flooding across the state, and donations to that fund are tax deductible. To give to it, visit www.braf.org on the web. To volunteer time or to donate items, take a look at lavoad.org.
The Red Cross by mid-September had received nearly $23 million in donations and pledges since mid-August for Louisiana’s recovery. “To help Louisianans, we mobilized the largest sheltering and feeding effort since Superstorm Sandy in 2012,” Red Cross spokeswoman Patricia Kemp said last week. “In August, Louisiana had the most people in need of emergency shelter and food that we’ve seen in four years.”
As of Sept. 13, the Red Cross and its partners had facilitated more than 80,000 overnight stays in 73 shelters in Louisiana; had served more than 1.27 million meals and snacks; and had distributed nearly 700,000 relief items. “Our health-services and mental-health volunteers provided 42,000 contacts to Louisianans in need,” Kemp said.
“More than 4,700 Red Crossers from all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico have supported Louisiana since the flooding began,” Kemp also said. Over 90 percent of those workers are volunteers.
The feds, meanwhile, have been the greatest source of assistance to flooded homeowners. As of last Wednesday, 147,705 homeowners and renters in Louisiana had applied for FEMA aid since the August floods, FEMA spokesman Alberto Pillot in Baton Rouge said. The agency had approved $677.1 million in funds to cover repairs, rental assistance, and hotel and trailer stays.
Total federal aid to Louisiana’s flood victims since mid-August exceeds $1 billion, and along with FEMA’s share, includes Small Business Administration loans to help homeowners and firms rebuild; National Flood Insurance Program payments that let policyholders repair and build; and the Department of Agriculture’s Disaster Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, food benefits.
Last Wednesday, Congress approved a stop-gap spending bill, with $500 million in disaster assistance—of which $400 million is for flood-wrecked Louisiana. President Barack Obama said he would sign the bill.
If you’d like to participate in crowd funding, donations made to GoFundMe certified-charity campaigns are sent to registered 501c(3) nonprofit groups and are tax deductible. But donations made to GoFundMe personal campaigns can be considered gifts in some cases and aren’t necessarily deductible. Donors are advised to consult tax professionals.
Attorney General Landry in August warned about possible, charity scams as communities try to recover, and he said to phone his office’s consumer protection hotline at 800-351-4889 with any concerns.
This article originally published in the October 3, 2016 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
