onPhilanthropy - From Relief to Rebuilding: A Modest Proposal for American Philanthropy

onPhilanthropy - From Relief to Rebuilding: A Modest Proposal for American Philanthropy: "rom Relief to Rebuilding: A Modest Proposal for American Philanthropy
By: Susan Raymond, Ph.D., 09/16/05

By almost anyone’s measure, $100 billion is a lot of money. That is a recent estimate of what it will take to clean up and rebuild the infrastructure of the Gulf Coast after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. The price tag is likely to get bigger, not smaller, so $100 billion may be a foolishly optimistic estimate.

Even now, well over $740 million has been donated by philanthropies big and small and people near and far to support the relief effort. Those generous donations have been a critical element of the effort both to evacuate residents of the stricken communities and resettle them securely. The relief effort continues. But it will not continue indefinitely. In the next several weeks, the attention of government and commerce will turn from relief to rebuilding. "