Who Gets Your Donation?

By Julie Rawe With Reporting by Sora Song/New York City

Americans, always generous to victims of tragedy, may have outdone themselves this time. In less than three weeks, they hurled nearly $600 million in cash, checks and pledges at more than 100 charitable funds for those whose lives were shattered on Sept. 11. The total is far more than any other relief effort in history--enough to give about $97,000 to the family of each of the 6,193 dead or missing. Collecting money in this crisis, it turns out, is easy. The hard part is figuring out where it should go. Relief agencies ranging from the United Way to dozens of upstarts are struggling to deal with a disaster in which the loss was in people and jobs rather than homes and possessions.

Among those leading the way in speed and creativity is the Red Cross. Besides providing food and shelter, the group has earmarked $100 million in cash grants for victims' families to cover living expenses for three months. The grants were suggested by bond-trading firm Cantor Fitzgerald, which lost some 730 employees when the Twin Towers collapsed. By Friday the Red Cross had given nearly $4 million to an initial group of 214 families, who got as much as $30,000 each. Families submit a one-page application, and the Red Cross checks employment and travel records to confirm that their loved ones were lost in the attacks. Checks are cut the same day.

The United Way has directed much of its contributions to victims' assistance groups and other middlemen, to whom it has so far handed $6 million. The charity says it is forgoing its usual 13% from donations to cover administrative costs. One grant recipient, Safe Horizon, laid out $700,000 last week helping people like an elderly New York couple who by government standards did not qualify as dependents of their missing daughter but could not make an Oct. 1 mortgage payment without her help. Meanwhile, the United Way is developing a strategy to meet such long-term needs as job training and health care. "There's a real difference between getting money out quickly and getting it out intelligently," says Ani Hurwitz, a consultant for the $133 million Sept. 11 Fund.

The families of some victims are getting far less than others. Charities dedicated to fallen rescue workers have received some $46 million in donations that will supplement what families of New York City police and fire fighters will get from the government--$150,000 in federal funds, $25,000 from the mayor's office, a full-salary pension and health insurance for spouses for life. In contrast, families of kitchen workers at Windows on the World will get $15,000 in life insurance and union health benefits through November.

New York attorney general Eliot Spitzer aims to coordinate charity efforts by creating a database to monitor how much individuals receive and for what purpose. The Red Cross has balked at the idea of releasing what it calls confidential information, and with $200 million in Sept. 11 pledges, the agency says it isn't much concerned about double-dipping. Proponents of the database respond that anyone who takes more than his share leaves less for those who may be in greater need.

--By Julie Rawe. With reporting by Sora Song/New York City