What Actually Happens to Aid Relief Donations?

With recent earthquakes in Ecuador and Japan, it becomes easy to compare them to devastation that other nations have faced such as the earthquake in Haiti. It is no secret that many believe the global community failed Haiti in helping them to recover from the earthquake. Large NGOs, among others, went into the country in order to provide food, water, and shelter to those impacted. An absurd amount of donations were outpoured to help this tiny nation. It was the kind of outpouring one hopes to see after every major disaster. But a larger question looms around where all of that money went.

6 years ago, Haiti was struck by the earthquake, and yet the nation still sits in much of that same turmoil, poverty, and destruction today. Many organizations have moved out, no longer helping the region. Even larger NGOs that have stuck around have release false reports as to the relief they actually provided. ProPublica in conjunction with NPR has release a large report surround the Red Cross’ involvement in Haiti. The Red Cross collected over $500 million in donations for Haitian relief, but refuses to release how they have spent that money. They claim that how they spend this money is a “trade secret” and would disadvantage their competitive advantage as a non-profit.

Should an NGO be able to take this stance in providing international relief? If they are spending their money in a wise and financially responsible manner, what do they have to hide? I understand the argument that these are “trade secrets,” but non-profits all have different ideas of how to provide relief. In addition, I hardly buy the idea that the Red Cross gets more donations because of their competitive advantage. At this point, the volume of their donations has more to do with their reputation and longstanding helping around the world.

Margaret Moroney says:

April 30, 2016 at 12:43 am

Hi Casey! This is super interesting and relevant! I am traveling to Indonesia this summer and this is something my class has been discussing at length. In 2004, lots of countries in the Indian Ocean were struck my a tsunami and are still recovering. Some areas of Indonesia were the hardest hit. Of course there were tons of organizations to help out but the infrastructure of the country is still damaged and out of date. It becomes an interesting question of how effective these groups are and how long they stay in one given area. Most of the relief in Indonesia is now over and groups have moved on but the recovery is not over and people are still struggling. Even 12 years later, double that of Haiti, the country is still hurting. It seems that these groups help at the start to jumpstart relief but are ineffective at implementing long term effects.