Disaster Relief and Assistance
Through the Outreach Committee, St. Michael’s targets financial support to meet the immediate needs of people around the world experiencing an emergency or disaster.
Outreach donations have supported Episcopal Relief and Development (ERD), which provides disaster response, advocacy, economic assistance, hunger alleviation, and long-term anti-poverty programs. Given their on-the-ground presence and partnerships in many parts of the world, St. Michael’s has directed special collections for natural disasters through ERD.
We have supported the work of World Central Kitchen, which has served over 300 million chef-prepared meals – immediately available to communities impacted by natural disasters and during humanitarian crises.
We have also provided donations to Doctors Without Borders, an organization providing urgently needed humanitarian aid in moments of crisis and conflict.
In addition, we provide relief funding to other vetted entities throughout the year as world events unfold, using the process described below.
- Regularly reviewing disasters impacting large numbers of people whose need for food and shelter is immediate, unmet, and threatening lives.
- Identifying one or more organization with “boots on the ground” who are equipped to deliver food and provide shelter immediately to a situation.
- Vetting organizations using Charity Navigator (and other unbiased evaluation sites) and by review of the organization’s specific plans of response.
- Nominating and approving a donation amount and organization.
- Sending funds with a letter directing specific disaster relief and assistance uses.
In the past year, St Michael’s has supported emergency/disaster relief to provide:
- Food in parts of Kentucky torn apart by tornadoes (December 2022).
- Food to Ukrainian refugees in Poland, Romania, and Hungary (March 2023).
- Aid to earthquake victims in Syria and Turkey (March 2023)
- Support for the Maui Fire victims (August 2023).
- Food to families on both sides of the Palestinian/Israeli conflict (October 2023).
Contact: Linda Kelleher
