Chapter 15 Donations and Volunteer Management

• Library: Homeland Security and Emergency Management: A Legal Guide for State and Local Governments (ABA) (2018 Ed.)

CHAPTER 15 Donations and Volunteer Management Brenda M. Bergeron¹

"The best way to not feel hopeless is to get up and do something. Don't wait for good things to happen to you. If you go out and make some good things happen, you will fill the world with hope, you will fill yourself with hope."

—Barack Obama

...But don't necessarily self-deploy!

When disaster strikes, people want to help, either in person or by sending donations. Properly managed, this is a good thing, providing an outlet for the public expression of concern and bringing much needed assistance and resources. Poorly managed, spontaneous volunteers and uncontrolled donations can become an additional burden to the survivors. Advance planning, including written pre-identification of the parties responsible for the various functions associated with donations and volunteer management, will establish a structure and process that can be used in any emergency, however large or small.

FIRST RULE OF DONATIONS MANAGEMENT: ENCOURAGE MONETARY CONTRIBUTIONS

As the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) states in its guide to helping others, the most effective donation is a monetary donation to a recognized disaster relief organization.² It is imperative that public messaging encourages donations of cash rather than goods in the immediate wake of a disaster. The Connecticut Division of Emergency Management and Homeland Security, for example, has a Memorandum of Agreement with United Way 2-1-1 for that nongovernmental organization to provide a variety of services in a disaster, including acting as an information clearinghouse in support of the state's volunteer and donations management system.

Monetary donations allow the community to assess its needs and request specific resources following a pre-established process. The country operates under the National Incident Management System (NIMS),³ including the National Response Framework, and states, counties, and municipalities operate under their own emergency response plans.⁴ Emergency Support Functions (ESFs) help to organize subject matter experts and resources to provide quick and appropriate support to response efforts. At all levels of government, planning by ESF 6 Mass Care and ESF 7 Resource Support working groups may include a Donations Management Annex or other planning document that outlines the process by which donations will be solicited. For example, the Ohio Emergency Management Agency has a Donations Management Support Plan appended to its ESF 7 Annex.⁵ This plan outlines the key partners and their roles and responsibilities related to donations management.

In other jurisdictions, the state may have established a statutory mechanism for accepting monetary donations. Connecticut recently enacted legislation creating the Connecticut Coordinated Assistance and Recovery Endowment foundation (CT CARE), to assist in the coordination of emergency recovery.⁶

MANAGING DONATED GOODS

The management of donated goods will benefit from the application of the following NIMS principles related to resource management:⁷

> Planning. Local, county, and state—public and private—agencies should work together in advance of an emergency to develop plans for identifying, managing, ordering, and employing resources.
> Use of agreements. Standing written agreements can be used to document who will be responsible for what activities; pre-identify potential sources of the services and supplies that may be needed in an emergency, and maintain contracts if possible.⁸
> Resource identification and ordering. Standardized methods should be used to identify, order, mobilize, and track the resources required to support response and recovery functions.
> Resource categorization. Resources should be categorized by size, capacity, capability, skill required, additional equipment required, or other means of making maximum appropriate use of the resource.
> Effective management. The procedures used to perform key resource management tasks should have been practiced and validated.

No matter how clear the public messaging, some people will send unsolicited goods to the location of a disaster. In other situations, specific donated goods may be solicited. In any event, a state or other jurisdiction that provides a well-publicized way that people can help out will be more likely to receive donations that are needed and appreciated. The Kansas Division of Emergency Management⁹ advises potential donors to use a checklist that includes the following:

> First, confirm there is a need;
> Donate through the organization of your choice;
>Remember, cash contributions are often the best donation;
> Do not create a second disaster by donating items that are not needed;
> Wait. Many times donations are not needed until later in the recovery stage of the disaster.

At the national, state, and local levels, volunteer agencies are organized through the Voluntary Organizations Active in Disasters, or VOAD, system.¹⁰ The VOAD serves as a nonprofit, nonpartisan forum where organizations share knowledge and resources throughout the disaster cycle—preparation, response, recovery, and mitigation—to help disaster survivors and their communities.¹¹ VOAD member organizations include the Red Cross, United Way, and many faith-based organizations. Nationally, many of these organizations take on as their mission a specific aspect of response and recovery. For example, Adventist Community Services (ACS) identifies one of its major missions as donations management. Among the services offered by ACS are:

> Warehouse operations—a service in which volunteers sort, package, and store donated goods for distribution;
> Community collection centers—locations where goods are collected to assist communities affected by disasters;
> Donations management consultants—ACS subject matter experts in

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