In January of 2010, Haiti was hit by a catastrophic earthquake that killed hundreds of thousands of people and left a million or more suddenly homeless. Within days, over $200 million had been donated to the relief effort; within a year, the total amount raised or pledged exceeded $5 billion. A year later, the relief effort has made a tangible difference, but has also hit major snags including a cholera outbreak. The situation in Haiti remains dire.
In the year since the disaster, we've been reviewing the information put out by the major disaster relief organizations, and rating the clarity and transparency of this information. While we don't yet have strong views on the
quality of services provided in the relief effort, we hope that by donating to more transparent organizations, donors can contribute to incentives for more transparency and clarity in general.
The table below summarizes our findings, with links to more detailed writeups on each organization. More details on how we found, examined and rated organizations are available at our
process page for this cause. At this point we feel that Doctors Without Borders, Partners in Health and Direct Relief International stand out for their above-average transparency.
Details of how we define transparency are available at
process page for this cause.
We also reviewed the following organizations, but excluded them from the above table - and from our transparency ratings - because they appear to primarily regrant funds to other organizations (more on these organizations at our
process page for this cause).
More information:
Sources
- Associated Press. Haiti gives conflicting counts for quake deaths. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35334751/ns/world_news-haiti_earthquake/ (accessed January 11, 2011). Archived by WebCite® at http://www.webcitation.org/5vfoM0dng
- Chronicle of Philanthropy. Donations to Aid Haiti Exceed $210-Million, Chronicle Tally Finds. http://philanthropy.com/article/Donations-to-Aid-Haiti-Exceed/63628/ (accessed January 11, 2011). Archived by WebCite® at http://www.webcitation.org/5vfoLrlfU
- United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Haiti: One year later.http://ochaonline.un.org/OCHAHome/WhereWeWork/Haiti/HaitiEarthquakeResponse/tabid/7331/language/en-US/Default.aspx (accessed January 11, 2011). Archived by WebCite® at http://www.webcitation.org/5vfDnYdk2.
(accessed January 11, 2011).