Harvey Relief: Public Charity Commitments (Table 1.3)

Biblical. That's the word that best describes the rainfall visited on Houston and southeastern Texas by Harvey, the Category 4 hurricane that slammed into Texas on August 25. The storm meandered over the region for four days, dumping up to forty inches of rain in many places and over fifty in some, becoming the wettest tropical storm ever to hit the contiguous United States.

The catastrophic flooding that followed displaced nearly 40,000 people, prompted more than 17,000 rescues, and damaged over 200,000 homes (of which 12,700 were destroyed). The storm also caused at least 70 deaths and as much as $180 billion in damage, making it one of the deadliest and costliest hurricanes in U.S. history.

Support for relief and recovery efforts began to pour in within forty-eight hours and continued at an impressive clip for the next ten days. Here at the Foundation Center, our colleagues Andrew Grabois and Grace Sato have been tracking the corporate response, and thanks to their efforts, we're able to provide some good detail on more than $9 million in public charity pledges/commitments (see Table 1.3 below). We've also tracked nearly $189 million in corporate pledges/commitments of cash and product donations (Table 1.1), more than $58 million in foundation contributions (including $10 million from the United Arab Emirates) (Table 1.2), and over $43 million from celebrities, sports figures, and wealthy individuals (Table 1.4) — for a total, as of September 9, of almost $3000 million ($299,934,500) pledged or committed to Harvey relief and recovery by private individuals and the private sector. Impressive.

We realize we haven't captured every dollar committed to relief and recovery efforts — and are aware that a lot of individual contributions have flowed into J.J. Watt's Houston Flood Relief Fund that may not be represented in our tables — but we do think this is as comprehensive accounting as you're likely to find. We encourage you to send us additional information as you encounter it and/or corrections to the information posted below. You can email that info (and any questions you might have) to Mitch at mfn@foundationcenter.org.)

As we're posting this, powerful Hurricane Irma, which has already flattened Barbuda and caused serious damage to Antigua, St. Martin/St. Maarten, and parts of the British Virgin Islands, has the Florida Keys and south Florida in its sights. Our thoughts are with everyone in the region who was not able to evacuate (or chose to ride the storm out in place). We'll be back on Monday with updates as the damage reports start to roll in.

[We're continuing to update the table as commitments are announced. Please scroll to the bottom of the post for ongoing updates; see also Foundation Center's Measuring the State of Disaster Philanthropy site for Harvey-related grants. We're also posting commitments designated specifically for Hurricane Irma relief and for Hurricane Maria and the Mexico City earthquake].

Table 1.1 (Corp.) | Table 1.2 (Fdns) | Table 1.3 (PCs)| Table 1.4 (Inds)

Table 4: Public Charities

Grantmaker	Type	Recipient	Amount	Notes
American Jewish Committee	Public Charity	Multiple Recipients	$34,000
Baptist Health Foundation of San Antonio	Public Charity	Texas Baptist Men, Salvation Army	$100,000
Barbara Bush Houston Literacy Foundation	Public Charity	Unknown Recipient(s)	$1,000,000	For impacted public libraries, teachers, and students in Houston
CHS Caregivers Fund	Public Charity	Diocese of Rockville Centre Hurricane Harvey Fund	$100,000
Direct Relief International	Public Charity	Unknown Recipient	$200,000	Also entire current inventories worth $100 million made available
Henry Schein, Inc.	Public Charity	Multiple Recipients	$500,000	Cash, in-kind and employee match
Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo, Inc.	Public Charity	Unknown Recipient(s)	$2,000,000
Laura Bush Foundation for America's Libraries	Public Charity	Unknown Recipient(s)	$1,000,000	For rebuilding school libraries that have been damaged during this year's hurricane season
Leukemia and Lymphoma Society	Public Charity	Unknown Recipient(s)	$1,000,000	Up to $1 million in direct support to help blood cancer patients in affected communities
NFL Foundation, Inc.	Public Charity	United Way of Greater Houston Flood Relief Fund	$1,000,000	Matching Houston Texans donation
PETCO Foundation	Public Charity	Unknown Recipient(s)	$2,300,000	All For Saving Lives fund raising campaign in Petco stores and online through September 10
PetSmart Charities, Inc.	Public Charity	Multiple Recipients	$2,000,000	To animal welfare agencies; also pet food and supplies
Scholarship America, Inc.	Public Charity	Unknown Recipient(s)	$200,000	For college students affected by Harvey
		TOTAL:	$11,134,000

 

September 15, 2017

Scholarship America, Inc. announces a $200,000 donation to unknown recipient(s) in support of college students affected by Harvey.

Updated public charity total: $9,634,000

September 27, 2017

The Barbara Bush Houston Literacy Foundation announces a $1,000,000 donation for impacted public libraries, teachers and students in Houston.

The Laura Bush Foundation for America's Libraries announces a $500,000 donation for rebuilding school libraries.

Updated public charity total: $11,134,000