In the wake of a great deal of bad news, nonprofit organizations and supporters are mobilizing on FirstGiving to raise money online for Haiti relief efforts.

HOW TO HELP

Raise money online: create a fundraising page for a registered nonprofit organization working to meet the needs of Haitians.*

• Doctors Without Borders 01/15/10: Doctors without Borders has received so many donations, they are reaching the limit of what they can spend on relief efforts in Haiti.  To raise money online, please consider one of the organizations below.
• Compassion International 01/27/10: Recovery efforts are in full swing and communications channels are beginning to function a bit more reliably. Haiti staff continue to use the parking lot of our office building as an operational base until the office’s safety can be fully evaluated.
  01/20/10: All funds raised in response to the Haiti earthquake will be used immediately to reequip Compassion’s local support structure and to provide for the immediate needs of Compassion-assisted children and families. Any funds raised in excess will be stewarded by Compassion for additional and future disaster relief efforts.
• International Child Care 01/27/10: Grace Hospital is trying to keep up the work that’s always been done there, to take on the new challenges posed by this tragedy, and to keep guiding the staff and the community back to healthy, both physically and emotionally. It is devastating, but our ICC Haiti staff members, like the Haitian people as a whole, have the spirit and the attitude that can, with your help, get through these times and make life even better for those whom we serve.
• International Rescue Committee 01/27/10: The IRC has committed to raising $15 million for emergency needs in Haiti over the next year and an additional $15 million for long-term rehabilitation.
  01/14/10: IRC specialists are veteran first-responders who set up immediate and effective emergency programs around the world during violent conflicts and natural disasters. The IRC is also supporting members of the Haitian American community, which is in the process of organizing a major response. Many of them are refugees who were resettled by the IRC.
• Living Water International 01/15/10: Earthquakes destroy water systems. Pipelines break, electrical distribution systems fail, and hand-dug wells–already questionable water sources–are rendered useless or become contaminated with cholera, typhoid, and other waterborne diseases. In response to the Haiti earthquake, Living Water International is setting a goal to repair 500 incapacitated handpumps in Haiti during 2010, which will serve at least 250,000 people.
• Medical Emergeny Relief International (Merlin USA): 01/27/10: Because of the severity of the disaster Merlin’s fundraising target has been revised upwards to $7m to cover the cost of our immediate charity response, and we are hoping to raise half of this from private sources. We are appealing to trusts, foundations, companies and individuals to help us reach our target as quickly as possible and save as many lives as possible in this tiny Caribbean nation.
  01/18/09: Merlin’s specialist Emergency Response Team arrived in Haiti on Saturday, and have immediately set to work identifying the most pressing medical needs and coordinating with those on the ground.

• MercyCorps 01/27/10:Mercy Corps is focusing on the immediate humanitarian needs on the ground — water, food, temporary shelter supplies and much more. As the most basic needs are met, Mercy Corps’ response team will transition from relief to long-term rebuilding and recovery efforts.
  01/13/10: MercyCorps is deploying an emergency response team to Haiti.
• Partners in Health 01/27/10: PIH is collaborating with the US military to assist in scaling up surgical services and distribution of relief in Haiti. Since the weekend, the PIH medical team at the central University Hospital in Port-au-Prince (HUEH), as well as other PIH facilities in the Central Plateau and Artibonite, have been airlifting patients in need of advanced surgical care to the USNS Comfort, harbored off the coast of Port-au-Prince.
  01/15/10: is working in Haiti to provide medical care to those in need. Medical director, Dr. Joia Mukherjee, and senior physician, Dr. David Walton flew to Haiti via the Dominican Republic and are working to coordinate the relief efforts among the team.
• Samaritan’s Purse 01/27/10: Samaritan’s Purse teams bringing relief to earthquake victims in Haiti are beginning to work in remote areas outside Port-au-Prince where the need is tremendous, but no help has yet arrived.
  01/15/10: The first Samaritan’s Purse cargo plane arrived in Haiti Wednesday with emergency relief supplies for victims of the massive earthquake that rocked the country on Tuesday. The initial shipment included shelter material, hygiene kits, and water purification kits, as well as members of our disaster response team.
• Save the Children 01/27/10: Fourteen days after the 7.0 earthquake hit Port-au-Prince, Save the Children continues to deliver lifesaving supplies and has launched local radio broadcasts to support newborn and infant health.
  01/13/10: Save the Children is assisting children and families affected by the devastating earthquakes of Tuesday, January 12. With offices in Port-au-Prince, Save the Children is sending teams out by motorbike in Port-au-Prince and is flying in additional staff to help support the emergency response.
• World Vision 01/27/10: World Vision has opened two children’s centers at the San Jose Recovery Center and the Good Samaritan Hospital in the Haiti-Dominican Republic border town of Jimani. The centers, called Child-Friendly Spaces, are designed to provide children with a safe and structured place to go during crises.
  01/14/10: World Vision will send out 18 metric tons of relief supplies today for immediate distribution to quake survivors. Meanwhile, the humanitarian situation in Port-au-Prince remains dire, and additional donations are urgently needed.

*Please note: FirstGiving does not endorse the work of any one organization over another; we simply ensure that money raised online goes directly to the nonprofit organization.  All nonprofits on FirstGiving are IRS-registered 501 c 3 organizations.  For more information about a particular organization, please visit their website directly, or visit Charity Navigator.

See what other people are doing, and make a donation:

• Wesley “Today at Lunch Rev. Kirbyjon Caldwell issued a challenge to everyone in the room to reach out and help the people of Haiti. To that end, please help by “sponsoring” me in this weekend’s Aramco Houston Half Marathon.”
• Danielle: “I know that we all watch the news and listen to the radio on our way to work, and the thought of helping these people has hopefully crossed everyone’s mind. Now is your opportunity to make good on those thoughts.”
• Students at Fletcher School: “The first 72 hours of response to a disaster like this are critical. While many of us would be willing to drop everything and fly to Haiti tomorrow, relief agencies are in need of cash, and quickly. This where the Fletcher community can make a big impact. Over the next 72 hours we would like to raise $1000.”
• Rafael: “The WFP is asking the international community for urgent help to assist Haiti, a country where 1.8 million people were already food insecure before the earthquake.”
• Beth: “Now is a great time to support the work of MercyCorps as they provide disaster relief to Haitians near Port-au-Prince and throughout the country. If you’ve already donated to this cause, kudos and thank you! And if you’ve been meaning to but haven’t yet; I invite you to take this opportunity to give.”

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***If your organization is involved in Haiti Disaster relief efforts, we want to publicize what you are doing. For more information about guest blogging and ways to share your stories on FirstGiving, please email us at: haitirelief@firstgiving.com.