Nonprofit Stories

Trust-Based Philanthropy in Action

A Conversation with Isabel Barrios

Isabel Barrios is a senior program officer and our in-house disaster recovery expert. We asked her to describe some key aspects of trust-based philanthropy in a disaster.

How is disaster grantmaking different from other grants the Foundation makes?

Disaster grantmaking is a particular kind of grantmaking that is in response to an event—a disaster. But disaster grantmaking is also very related to the work that we do year round.

The impact of disaster really is about the kind of conditions that people experience day-to-day, the infrastructure, and the quality of housing that they live in. The better-off people are, the less vulnerable they are to disasters. So any foundation that’s working on changing socially-produced conditions is really working on long-term disaster preparedness and mitigation.

How do you pick grantees during such a chaotic time?

We trust people to do the work. And we trust people to know how to best use the funds to help their community. There is a whole layer of “due diligence” that has to happen in order for us to be able to make a grant. We have to adhere to IRS rules, and so organizations that we give money to have to be in good standing with the IRS.

But our due diligence is also very relationship-driven. We confirm what organizations are doing good work from our existing relationships with nonprofits across the region. We also learn from board members, elected officials, local leaders, program officers, other foundations, and people who are doing work in the field. We look to the people who are loved, trusted, and looked up to.

We also ask our grantees, “Who’s out there doing the work?” They want to tell us. They’re really generous—they want to see other nonprofits get resourced to do aligned, collaborative work.

In addition to that, we read whatever is being reported in the papers or online. And whenever we can, we do visual verifications—we’ll drive out to the place and see what people are doing. We join the state and regional Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster (VOAD) calls, in which organizations share and coordinate their responses as well.

We try to do all of that very quickly. Whenever we know that a storm is barreling in, we’re on our way. We are texting, we are calling, we are checking in with people so that we can have something lined up right away.

To our community;

It was nearly noon on August 29, 2021—the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina—when Hurricane Ida made landfall near Port Fourchon in Southeast Louisiana. It was a Category 4 storm, and its impact was devastating, especially in the Bayou Region, River Parishes, Northshore, Grand Isle, and Plaquemines Parish.

When a disaster like this hits, we often turn to metrics of impact: power lines downed, numbers of buildings and homes destroyed, meters of water level rise. This is critical information to track and understand.

But when we respond to disasters, we respond to people. When the Foundation learned that Ida was coming, we thought about the people we have come to know and love through our work. We knew some of our nonprofit partners were already planning their efforts. Others would take action just after the storm had passed. We stood behind them, and our funders did, too.

In this report, we reflect on that work through a particular snapshot in time—from just before the storm hit, to six months afterwards, in early spring 2022.

Within three weeks of the storm, we’d raised $4 million from 1,300 generous donors. Much of our funding went to “rapid response” grants, through which we can get funds swiftly to nonprofits in the face of emergency. We had supported more than 70 nonprofits, and distributed over $3 million, by October 2021. In this document, we aim to capture the impact of those early grants through stories, data, and photography from our grantee partners themselves.

The damage Hurricane Ida left in its wake is by no means fully repaired, and families and communities are still recovering both physically and emotionally. As yet another hurricane season is upon us, our nonprofits continue to meet our region’s needs, and we continue to support them. Their work grows stronger and more effective every day.

We also know that every day, our efforts around climate resiliency grow more urgent. Our region’s nonprofits are aware of this, and they are working to mitigate the impact of future disasters. By supporting their work, our donors show foresight and innovation—they look ahead, knowing that together, we will build a more secure and sustainable future.

Sincerely,

Andy Kopplin
President & CEO, Greater New Orleans Foundation
Doris Z. Stone Chair in Philanthropic Leadership

A Conversation with Kenneth St. Charles

Kenneth St. Charles was new in his role as Vice President for Philanthropy when Hurricane Ida hit. We spoke with him about his experience with the generosity of our community both near and far.

Giving started off strong. Can you tell us about those first few weeks after the storm?

I was just brand new on the job. I was two months in. And basically, when we left work on the 28th, we knew we would be impacted. We made a few initial grants before the storm hit. And then Andy [Kopplin, President and CEO of the Greater New Orleans Foundation] gave us the directive to, you know, “be safe and evacuate, and we'll be in touch.”

The storm hit on Saturday. People were dispersed. I was in Houston. And Andy reached out to me and said, “We have to activate the Hurricane Ida Disaster Relief Fund.” So we put the credit card information on the website, and changed the website to make it accessible to those interested.

My email was on the website, too. So I started getting all of these emails and phone calls while I was sitting in the hotel in Houston. People were saying, “we would like to connect with you so we could discuss sending a gift to help the fund.”

And Andy started getting phone calls too, and he was directing those to me. Many of them were six figure gifts. We did not anticipate that so many national foundations and national and international companies would be moved to support us.

It was clearly not a “nine to five” situation. We were getting calls early in the morning and late at night. We responded as quickly as we could to everybody. When you woke up in the morning, you were working. Many nights in the hotel I spent writing proposals and grants.

Again, I was in my second month, so it was a good learning experience for me. I got to learn a lot about the funders and donors, but also about the level of mission that the Greater New Orleans Foundation has.

And people were so generous, and so persistent in reaching us. I was evacuated for about ten days. And we probably raised about a million and a half dollars, just during those ten days.

Did donors share what motivated their giving?

Especially at first, they did not want to know who was going to ultimately receive the grant. They did not want to know whether it was going to help a particular institution or a particular parish. That was not their interest. Their interest was, “We know that the Greater New Orleans Foundation will be the best vehicle to help get support to the citizens who need it the most.”

We got a phone call from the owner of the Atlanta Falcons and we got a phone call from the owner of the Baltimore Ravens—you’ve got to remember, this is August, and football season was starting in a few weeks. And these two professional football teams, who were very competitive with the New Orleans Saints, did not even blink when they decided that they would both individually make half a million dollar gifts to this fund.

There's a fun rivalry between the New Orleans Saints and the Atlanta Falcons. But the Atlanta Falcons owner, Arthur Blank, his foundation, decided to put all of those rivalries in the rearview mirror in the past, and to really go ahead and make a difference. These were individuals who were not looking for publicity, and they were not looking for any type of gratification, they really were looking to make a difference.

And now, you know, of course, we had a lot of people give who are current fund holders with us. They trust us. They have experience with us, and they know we're providing much-needed support and services to the community. We really are grateful for that level of trust in our role.

What do you want the Foundation's partners, donors, and funders to know?

Thank you is not enough. It is not just thanking you for your gift. It's thank you for believing in our mission. Thank you for trusting us to be good stewards of your gift. Thank you for knowing that you made a difference in the individual lives of citizens.

You know, we support nonprofits. But at the end of the day, the people you're helping are the young people who had no clothes, or a family that had no roof or no home to return to. And you know, at the end of the day, all of our donors—those who gave five dollars to those who gave one million dollars — we thank you for believing in us and for trusting us. For bringing a sense of comfort and relief to those that were probably at their lowest point. Your support of the Greater New Orleans Foundation has truly made a difference both for short term immediate and long term recovery.

The Greater New Orleans Foundation would not have been in a position to make as many grants as we did, had it not been for these generous donors and friends. I would venture to say that, if you define friendship as worrying about your neighbor, we made a lot of friends who trusted us to do good things with their funding. And I'm still touched by it today when I look at the list.

Learn how you can help support future disaster response and recovery efforts when they arise. For more information, email kenneth@gnof.org.