The past two decades have been marked by natural and man-made disasters that include the California wildfires, Hurricanes Maria and Sandy, the 2008 financial crisis, and 9/11. Amid the many lessons they taught the philanthropic sector about managing crises, which insights stand out amid the COVID-19 pandemic of today and how will they help when the next world-shaking event strikes?
SSIR's publisher, Michael Voss, speaks about philanthropy and its responses to crises of yesterday, today, and tomorrow with Regine Webster, vice president of the Center for Disaster Philanthropy, and Brian Howell, director of business development at Schwab Charitable. The full transcript of the episode can be read below.
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MICHAEL GORDON VOSS: Welcome to season two of Giving With Impact, an original podcast series from Stanford Social Innovation Review, developed with the support of Schwab Charitable. I’m your host, Michael Gordon Voss, publisher of SSIR.
In this series, we hope to create a collaborative space for leading voices from across the philanthropic ecosystem to engage in both aspirational and practical conversations around relevant topics at the heart of achieving more effective philanthropy.
Sadly, we have experienced many disasters, both natural and man-made in just the past two decades. The devastation wrought by the California wildfires of 2018, Hurricane Maria’s effect on Puerto Rico in 2017, or the impact of Superstorm Sandy on the East Coast in 2012, the global financial crisis of 2008 and the attacks of September 11, 2001, the Ebola crisis of 2014, or SARS in 2003. But none of these matches the scope and impact of the current COVID-19 pandemic. Not only will C-19 continue to roil our lives in our society, but we also have to think realistically and accept the likelihood that other disasters may arise while we still attempt to deal with the one at hand.
What can the philanthropic sector’s response to past disasters teach us about our current crisis and what can we do to prepare for the inevitable fact of other crises that may emerge? To begin to answer these questions and others, we’re joined today by two individuals ready to share their knowledge of the sector and the way it has, is, and will continue to address the impact of disasters on the communities who most need our support.
Regine Webster joined the Center for Disaster Philanthropy in 2010, as its founding executive director, and is, today, its vice president leading the center’s grant-making and consulting teams. She also heads up CDP’s major educational initiatives, including the annual Measuring the State of Disaster Philanthropy report and the Disaster Philanthropy Playbook. Prior to joining CDP, Regine worked for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Arabella Advisors, and the Conrad Hilton Foundation in senior disaster relief roles. A frequent blogger, presenter, and webinar panelist, Regine is committed to sharing her deep knowledge and true passion for the work.
We’re also joined by Brian Howell, director of business development at Schwab Charitable. Brian has led the Denver Schwab Community Ambassador team for most of his 22-year tenure at Charles Schwab. He proactively works with investment advisors and financial consultants to provide innovative solutions for integrating charitable planning into the wealth management process. He also sits on the board of Easter Seals Colorado.
Regine, Brian, thank you both for joining me today, as we explore the current and ongoing effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the ways that individual donors can maximize their philanthropic impact as the pandemic continues and other natural disasters occur. Let’s get started.
Regine, before we focus specifically on the current COVID-19 pandemic, can you share some insights into how the center approaches its response to disasters, natural or otherwise?
REGINE WEBSTER: Absolutely. The Center for Disaster Philanthropy was founded as a resource for philanthropy. And so that means that we’re put on this earth as a way to share insights, wise counsel, thoughts, facts, and figures with the philanthropic community about how to be most effective in their disaster giving. So even before the pandemic struck, the Center for Disaster Philanthropy was involved with hurricane recovery, wildfire recovery, tornado recovery, what have you.
Our role really is to show the philanthropic community that disasters aren’t just the day the event occurs and the 15 days past that, but rather to show them and share with them that there are vulnerabilities that exist before any event ever occurs, and long-term recovery can take decades or sometimes even more, from an event specific. So we work both through data, as well as story to share those insights to the philanthropic community.
MICHAEL: And in what ways is the current pandemic similar to other past disasters we all may have witnessed in our lifetimes, and what makes it unique?
REGINE: I fear that it is more unique than it is like other disasters. There’s no disaster that has touched all of us. And there is no disaster like this that has uniquely touched the most vulnerable in our community, be they low-income or communities of color. We can’t even cut an onion for dinner at my home without talking about COVID-19. The pandemic is really affecting every one of us.
You know, there’s this triple threat or triple elements to the COVID-19 crisis, be it the public health impacts, social and economic. And all three of those are quite troubling in, you know, what the future may or may not look like for, again, those vulnerable communities, low-income communities and communities of color. So it’s really incumbent upon us to bring, attention to philanthropy about where, when and why to be tactical and where, when and why to be strategic within the life cycle of this particular event.
I’ll highlight in terms of funding flows, that, this pandemic has absolutely spurred the generosity of both the American people and American philanthropic network, but it’s also brought forth the generosity of the entire world, and you can identify just billions of dollars in donations that have gone to this pandemic. Those dollars have come in quite quickly. And that’s one way I would say this pandemic is similar to other disasters, in that there is a rush at the onset of the event to provide funding for the future.
Brian, as Regine already mentioned, it’s likely we’ll be seeing the impact of COVID-19 for some time. And we have seen the effect of the flow of philanthropic dollars. But how can philanthropists help address the long-term needs of those effected now and in the future?
BRIAN HOWELL: Well thanks, Michael. You know, I think we all could agree, COVID-19’s had an enormous impact on all of our lives. Given what Regine was just sharing with us, donors really want to be thinking about where to give and also what to give to make the biggest difference. So we’ve partnered with the CDP to put together, a comprehensive list of charities helping with COVID-19 relief across many support areas, including food and shelter, medical support, mental health, supply delivery, and logistics, small business assistance. And to date, I mean, we’ve seen a tremendous support of those effected by COVID-19 at Schwab Charitable. I’m happy to report that since mid-February and through, I think it was June 12th, the number of grants directed to the charities recommended by the CDP for COVID-19 relief have risen more than 200 percent. Now, that list of non-profits by the way, it’s available on our website, SchwabCharitable.org.
It’s also important for donors to think about what to give, in order to maximize the charitable impact that they can have currently and over the long-term. So at Schwab Charitable, we’re encouraged by the charitable giving incentives that were included in the CARES Act, which create a charitable deduction for up to $300 in cash gifts by taxpayers who don’t itemize. And also they increased… this is a big one… they increased the itemized deduction limit for cash gifts from 60 percent of adjusted gross income to 100 percent in 2020. That’s specific to the CARES Act because of everything that’s happening in this COVID era.
Although the CARES Act doesn’t apply to donor-advised funds specifically, we hope it will encourage broad giving. And there are many strategies, of course, for giving to donor-advised funds that still apply with the CARES Act in place, such as donating appreciated non-cash assets.
Now, when donors contribute non-cash assets held for more than one year, they not only receive a tax deduction, but generally they don’t pay capital gains tax on the sale of those assets. Now, this increases the amount available for charity by up to 20 percent. That’s a big deal for charities when you use this strategy compared to selling the assets and then donating the proceeds.
National donor-advised funds, such as Schwab Charitable, are uniquely positioned to help charitable organizations accept appreciated assets. Because many of those charities struggle to accept non-cash assets directly, more complex assets, such as restricted stock, real estate, private business interests, these can be particularly cumbersome as you can imagine. Another thing to keep in mind is that the 2017 tax law eliminated or capped, even, many deductions, but the charitable deduction remains intact. So it’s one of the best ways really to reduce income tax for individuals who itemize deductions.
Now under the 2017 tax law, individuals who might otherwise take the standard deduction can concentrate contributions… you’ll sometimes hear this called bunching… into a single year. And what that does, it can allow them to take advantage of the charitable deduction every few years, and then benefit from the increased standard deduction in other years. Now, in this way donors can fund more than one year of giving in advance and provide consistent support to charities and communities over time, even during market downturns.
MICHAEL: Brian, thank you for that. Regine, you know, to keep coming back to this question about the long-term, how will the strategy at CDP adapt as we continue to see changes in the COVID-19 pandemic?
REGINE: I’d say that our strategy to-date has been to build on what our organization already does. We made one small departure, in that we typically make awards and grants for recovery exclusively. In the case of the pandemic, we felt like it was critical for us to put grant dollars out into the non-profit community, both here domestically and globally, as soon as possible. So we’ve to-date granted 41 grants that total over $10.1 million, and in the coming weeks, we’ll be allocating another $5 to $6 million for the crisis, again, just with reflection and respect for what the needs on the ground are as we speak currently.
CDP was created with a dedication to supporting vulnerable communities that are affected by disaster, and we are emphasizing in this current pandemic equitable recovery. We are looking at marginalized communities, communities of color, low-income communities that are going to have, a systemic lack of access to financial resources and resources to care for their own family, their own unit.
We take a three-pronged approach to looking at where to allocate dollars. We look at the geographic framing. So we’ve allocated dollars, both domestically, as well as globally. We’re looking quite carefully right now at Latin America and the Caribbean, as we see the numbers start to spike. Just today, Brazil and Peru had considerable spikes, and so we’re, again, giving great amount of care to where we can be supportive there.
We take an issue-based approach, as well, looking at food security, water, sanitation, and hygiene, economic development, housing, education. And in this instance, with the pandemic, we are targeting each of those critical issue areas to ensure that financial resources get out into the community to address them. We know that food insecurity has spiked tremendously in the United States, and so some of our grant dollars have gone, or will go to summer feeding programs, food banks, large, national food banks, and smaller, more grassroots local organizations, as well, just as an example.
We also look at a population framing. We’re doing our best to make sure that low-income communities are amended for funding and for grant support, and that communities of color are also in that same consideration. There’s been a fair amount of press about the Native American communities and their lack of access to resources across the board, and we’re looking carefully to see if that’s something that we could support.
So I’ve spoken at length in response to your question about financial resources, but I also want to reflect back on the other ways that the Center for Disaster Philanthropy is poised to support philanthropy. Part of it is through the work that Brian already described, where we’re able to identify non-profit organizations that are doing what we believe to be exceptional work. And another part of it is simply being an educational resource for philanthropy, either through our blogs, or through our disaster profiles, or our issue insights that really unpack what a pandemic is, what it means from a definitional perspective, as well as what it means, to be in the middle of a pandemic, and what it means to close a pandemic.
And we also work in close partnership with Candid, formerly Foundation Center, to track, monitor, and analyze the dollars that are going toward this pandemic.
MICHAEL: So, Brian, let me turn to you for a second. So that’s an important point. You know, we’ve been talking about the dollars that are associated with philanthropic efforts tied to COVID-19, but as we think about the ways that donors can provide support for the long-term, what else should they be keeping in mind as they seek to make a difference?
BRIAN: Well, first, we suggest that the donors continue to support non-profits that they’ve supported in the past, even those not currently on the front lines of the pandemic. This crisis is so widespread and so deep, none of us alive today has seen anything like it. It’s important to remember that all of those non-profits that you were serving before are being impacted now and will continue to need funding over the longer term. Many non-profits were not able to engage in fundraising events planned during the first half of the year, and it’s likely that’s going to be happening over the near future, as well.
So due to the market downturn, these non-profits are going to have a difficult time making up for that lost revenue, of course. It’s best to check in with them to see what they need, consider giving more money earlier this year to support their efforts.
Second, during such uncertain times, let’s also do our best to make grants unrestricted. Trust that the non-profit knows where the need is greatest and it can then marshal funding to help those who need it most.
Third, we encourage giving to your local community foundation COVID-19 funds, right? They’re going to maximize your local impact. These funds exist across the country and they can direct dollars wherever the greatest needs are.
Fourth and finally, be sure to support your local food banks. The need has never been greater, and if you’ve seen them, nor the lines longer.
MICHAEL: Brian, thanks for those practical suggestions. And I especially wanted to note the one you made about unrestricted funding. And at SSIR, we’ve just been anecdotally seeing and hearing from a lot of the large foundations and other philanthropic organizations that they’ve been making a concentrated effort to shift more money into unrestricted funding and general operating support.
Regine, as I mentioned in the introduction, as we all focus on the effects of COVID-19 across the globe, and both the current and future needs related to the pandemic, we also need to remember that natural disasters will continue to occur. So what do you envision that that situation might look like, and how will CDP handle those many layers of need?
REGINE: Well, before I dive into how the CDP will handle those layers of need, let me just speak to the kind of bigger, broader question.
I would say that the potential that we here in the United States and globally are going to be facing multiple disasters at any given time, is quite real. We are anticipating a very active Atlantic hurricane season, and, in fact, even before the first week of the Atlantic hurricane season was over, we already had three tropical storms, which means we had made it up to the letter C, for Cristobal. And that’s worrisome. We also know that the wildfire season is predicted to be I believe, as bad as it was last year on the United States West Coast. And we’ve seen already active cyclonic activity in Asia. So I think we need to be planning and have the knowledge that we are going to have these disasters on multiple fronts.
I will say that in looking at governmental bodies, either from FEMA’s perspective or USAID’s OFDA, which is the Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance, they are being quite attentive to the fact that we’re going to be looking at, disasters on multiple fronts, and they are planning for that. And, in fact, both USAID and FEMA have really solid resources on both of their websites to share.
In thinking about how operational NGOs are going to be responding to the crisis, I think we’re going to see changes, and, in fact, we’re already seeing changes. Many of the organizations that undertake operational response, so the people who are literally on the ground, cleaning and clearing rubble, or cleaning mold out of the house, or ensuring that refugee camps have adequate access to water, sanitation and hygiene, they are already making changes and have been making changes to their operational response, either by educating their staff or educating their clients on social distancing, or procuring more PPE, personal protective equipment, or changing the way their voluntary-led response operations are conducted.
In some situations, just to give an example, a muck-and-gut, which is what happens after a flood or a hurricane event, a water event, where a team of volunteers might go into a home to do mold remediation, you know, that work will need to change. Typically, those types of muck-and-gut activities are supported by 20-plus volunteers for a given house. In light of COVID-19, volunteer teams are now shifting down to much smaller teams, and, again, really prioritizing personal safety, as well as social distancing.
Turning now to the Center for Disaster Philanthropy, and how we’ll handle those layers of need, I’ll say two things. One is we are staffed to accommodate multiple disasters. On our entire team, we have individuals that have philanthropic expertise, disaster response operation expertise, both domestically and internationally. We have really solid grant-makers on our team and people that have deep invested knowledge in many geographic areas, including the Midwest of the United States, the South, Texas, California, the Caribbean, Africa, Asia.
And the thing two is to say that, given that we are a relatively small and nimble organization, we are able to mount funds to reflect both the strategic and tactical approaches that are going to be necessary to navigate these disasters on multiple fronts.
MICHAEL: Regine, thank you for that. And I think that says an important point, that we’re talking about both strategic and tactical changes or responses that’ll need to be generated.
Brian, Regine already mentioned that CDP is a good source for information and resources, but where else can donors turn for additional resources as they think through their support of both the current pandemic and supporting those who might be affected by future disasters?
BRIAN: In addition to the list of charities offering valuable support that the CDP has helped us compile, Schwab Charitable website also has resources for directing support locally. This includes a link to the Council on Foundation search tool for community foundations working in regions across the US and the National Center for Family Philanthropy’s tool, identifying COVID-19 relief funds offered by community foundations. And given the likelihood that natural disasters will continue to occur, as Regine just mentioned, we’ve also worked with the CDP to share tips on our website, SchwabCharitable.org, support each phase of the disaster, including continuing to give after the first 90 days of the disaster.
MICHAEL: Well, with that, Regine, Brian, thank you, both, for your time today. I know discussing current and future disaster can feel a bit daunting and disheartening, but, hopefully, by being better prepared, together we can help donors be more effective and efficient in supporting communities in need.
MICHAEL: Thank you for listening. We hope you’ve enjoyed this episode. Please consider leaving us a review on Apple podcast, or your favorite listening app that helps others discover the show. We encourage you to listen to other episodes in this series, as well as other podcasts from SSIR. This podcast series is made possible with the support of Schwab Charitable, who played an important role in the selection of topics and speakers. For important disclosures and a transcript of this episode, visit SchwabCharitable.org/ImpactPodcast.
