The Chronicle, 10/20/2005: Earthquake Taxes Capacity of Donors and Charities to Provide Relief Aid

The Chronicle, 10/20/2005: Earthquake Taxes Capacity of Donors and Charities to Provide Relief Aid: "Earthquake Taxes Capacity of Donors and Charities to Provide Relief Aid

By Nicole Wallace and Ian Wilhelm

The catastrophic earthquake that devastated parts of Pakistan and India this month has strained the ability of many international relief organizations to raise funds from American donors, many of whom feel overwhelmed by appeals for what has been an unusually high number of major disasters this year.

So far donations to about a dozen major relief groups for the 7.6-magnitude temblor -- which may have killed as many as 40,000 people and left more than a million people homeless -- have totaled $13.1-million. If donations continue at the current pace, these groups would receive only a fraction of what was raised for the Indian Ocean tsunamis, which totaled $1.3-billion, or for Hurricane Katrina, which to date comes to $1.8-billion."