Has the Center investigated the role of nonprofits in such national disasters as 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina?
Yes. After 9/11 we held an Emerging Issues Seminar. And, we brought together folks that were involved in New York and Washington and also in the Oklahoma disaster. We also brought together Red Cross, United Way, and other major charities to discuss lessons learned. We held another Emerging Issues Seminar on Hurricane Katrina in December 2005. Right after the Katrina disaster, we surveyed nonprofits in New Orleans in collaboration with the Louisiana Association of Nonprofit Organizations. The results were widely cited by the media and used by local organizations to illustrate the devastation nonprofits suffered in the storm-struck areas. Now we have an Allstate Foundation grant to synthesize the research and to feed it back to the nonprofit community as it plans for rebuilding. What we’ve learned in these big disasters is that everybody provides food, water, and shelter in the immediate aftermath. But by day two or day three, there’s got to be a way for the nonprofits to get resources a
