As bushfire donations pour in, new challenges arise
Distributing money to its intended destination is proving difficult, writes Isabella Kwai
For the rural firefighters of Australia, no donation is too small. They have long been known to canvass for dollars and cents in town markets, and their collection tins are fondly displayed in local storefronts.
That hat-in-hand approach can now be put on hold. As bushfires have ravaged Australia, celebrities, business moguls and horrified people around the world have inundated the country’s fire services and other nonprofit organisations with tens of millions of dollars.
This outpouring has presented new challenges for a country more accustomed to handing out largesse to needier nations than to being the recipient of it. Suddenly, Australia has found itself trying to efficiently distribute huge sums of money and to decipher donors’ sometimes vague intentions.
“This is a seminal moment in Australia when it comes to philanthropy and giving,” said Krystian Seibert, a fellow at the Center for Social Impact at the Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne. “I haven’t seen something like it before.”
One after another, celebrities have announced large donations or money-collection efforts. A Facebook fundraiser for the New South Wales Rural Fire Service that was started by Australian comedian Celeste Barber has amassed US$34 million (1 billion baht). It is the largest fundraiser ever on the platform.
Fire brigades have received money from Nicole Kidman and her husband, Keith Urban, as well as from Metallica and Kylie Jenner. Leonardo DiCaprio donated to wildlife organisations. Writers are auctioning off signed books, musicians are hosting concerts, and athletes like Serena Williams have pledged to direct their winnings to bushfire relief.
Since September, the fires have incinerated an area about the size of West Virginia and at least 25 people have died. Ecologists have estimated that 1 billion animals have perished, with some species threatened to the point of extinction. At least 3,000 homes have been ravaged in dozens of towns, and the economic damage from the fires could be as much as $3.5 billion.
“We don’t normally get phone calls from people who want to give $1 million and beyond,” said Belinda Dimovski, the director of engagement at the Australian Red Cross.
She said the organisation, which is providing disaster relief, had raised about $67 million from individuals, groups and companies since July 1. By comparison, it raised about $7.5 million during a drought appeal last year.
The New South Wales Rural Fire Service has also seen a dramatic jump in giving, as the world has watched the courageous actions of Australian volunteers called on to fight monstrous blazes.
In the period between mid-2017 and mid-2018, the fire service raised $525,000, and the largest single donation was about $17,000. Now, it is flush with the tens of millions of dollars it has received from the Facebook fundraiser and other sources.
In the Facebook effort, Ms Barber’s goal was to raise about $20,000 for a trust that helps fire brigades in New South Wales with equipment.
“Please help anyway you can. This is terrifying,” she wrote in the appeal.
As the funds have swelled to 1,700 times the original target, questions have been raised about whether the more than 1 million individual donors knew that they were contributing to a single state’s fire service.
Legal experts said it would most likely be up to the Rural Fire Service, rather than Ms Barber, to decide whether to distribute money to other organisations.
It is a “nice challenge”, said the Rural Fire Service Commissioner, Shane Fitzsimmons. He added that the organisation was considering sending money to funds benefiting victims of the blazes and to fire services in other states.
“We will need to target the money to where people intended it to go,” he said.
The donations received so far could be enough to fund state-supported fire services for decades.
“This money comes with expectations,” said Michael Eburn, an associate professor at the Australian National University who specialises in emergency management law.
The federal government has announced a $1.4 billion national wildfire recovery fund, and has offered a list of established charities holding bushfire appeals. The state of Victoria has asked the public to donate to groups that provide “practical” relief.
Australians affected by the fires said they were heartened to know that people had been moved to help.
But some who have lost homes say they have received minimal compensation so far from government agencies and nonprofit organisations, though the federal government says it has been processing claims at record speeds.
Informing potential donors about the causes they are considering and directing their assistance to the intended recipients are the biggest challenges in crisis relief, said Maurie Stack, chairman of the Stacks Law Firm, which deals with charity law.