It S A Mountain So Big You Can T See The Top

Sheik Hamad Bin Khalifa Al Thani, the emir of Qatar, was so moved during a recent trip to New York City, that he donated $3 million on the spot to help with relief efforts. The latest tally of donations now exceeds $850 million, and the figure is widely expected to top $1 billion by year’s end.

Attracting the money was easy. But experts say getting the funds to the people who need them will be anything but. The unprecedented amount of money that has been raised, the collection of charity and relief groups involved and the number of victims injured, killed or displaced in the Sept. 11 attacks make the job of helping a huge task. Bureaucratic struggles between the city and state–and the upcoming change in New York City’s administration–are making the process even tougher.

“It’s like a mountain so big you can’t see the top of it,” says Nancy Anthony, executive director of the Oklahoma City Community Foundation, which coordinated the distribution of millions of dollars in aid to the victims of the 1995 bombing of Alfred P. Murrah Building in Oklahoma City.

In that attack, 168 people were killed and more than $40 million was raised to help victims. Years later, Anthony’s organization is still giving aid to 80 of those affected. But those numbers pale in comparison to the thousands killed in the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks and the crash of the hijacked airplane. Anthony estimates at least 50,000 families could require aid. Long-term cases could easily extend for a decade or longer.

Larry Jones, president of the Oklahoma-based Feed the Children, says he met with other participating agencies once a week after the Oklahoma City bombing. “We would get together and they’d bring in all the requests and we would decide who would do what,” says Jones. “But you can’t sit [all of the New York] agencies around a table. This is the mother of all problems.”

Nearly 190 funds are registered in New York alone, offering everything from short-term loans to long-term counseling. The State Attorney General’s office and organizations like the Nonprofit Coordinating Committee of New York have spent weeks gathering and sharing information to try to prevent overlap in the type of assistance they offer and to make sure they reach all of the victims. But there is no central database with information on all the charity and relief groups. Most coordination among aid groups has been informal, with those that provide similar services or target a specific population working together to avoid duplication. Families of firefighters and police officers have had multiple funds created specifically for them, for example, but the groups try to provide a range of aid–from covering funeral expenses to paying college tuitions for children left behind.

The sheer number of people affected by the tragedy makes the process of locating, evaluating and helping victims a daunting task. An estimated 40,000 people who worked at or near the World Trade Center or the Pentagon have lost their jobs. More than 5,600 families who have lost loved ones are eligible for benefits, but many of them are reluctant to apply for the death certificates required since just 442 of those missing in the World Trade Center have yet been confirmed dead. Agencies say only “a fraction” of eligible beneficiaries have taken steps to get aid. “Many are just paralyzed right now,” says Darren Dopp, spokesman for the New York State Attorney General’s office. “They haven’t even explored their options yet. They can’t bring themselves to do it, it’s too difficult.”

After initially quibbling over responsibilities, State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer and New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani have now joined forces to help speed up the process. The pair announced that they would share oversight of aid distribution, with Giuliani working directly with victims while Spitzer oversees the agencies that have received donations. New York City’s mayoral election is scheduled for November. What will happen once a new mayor takes office? No one is even speculating.

Meanwhile, agencies are taking informal measures to communicate and coordinate with other groups. The Nonprofit Coordinating Committee of New York, which does not distribute money but helps to coordinate the efforts of those that do, has included a special section its website (www.npccny.org) that serves as a sort of bulletin board for charity and relief groups. Information is collected and posted on resources needed or available among groups, as well as general information on donations.

In an illustration of the outpouring of donations, one entry under the “Resources Needed” section is from The Homeless Organization for America, which asks for additional space to store the overflow of food and supplies it has received. NPCCNY President Jon Small says traffic on the committee’s Web site has quadrupled in the past month. “With this enormous outpouring of assistance, there are a lot of questions,” says Small. “How does a market get made so that the ‘buyers’ can find those with the resources? That’s what we’re trying to do with this Website. We have been very concerned that that be done in a thoughtful and organized way.”

The State Attorney General’s office has also spent the past month gathering data on the registered groups participating in the relief effort. This week, the office launched the “WTC Relief Info” site (www.wtcrelief.info/Charities/Information/pages/home.html), which includes a list of the charities with links to more information. Victims are offered additional instructions on short-term financial aid. The site notes that the office is still in the process of developing a comprehensive database that would allow donors and victims to search for charitable and relief groups by the type of aid offered. “It makes sense to have in one location a coherent list of the specific goals of each of the charities so there’s neither overlapping nor a void where there’s an urgent need,” says Spitzer.

A second, and more controversial, database would contain information on those who receive aid. But in order to collect the data, Spitzer must first gain permission not only from the nearly 150 agencies, but from the victims themselves. That may be a difficult, if not impossible, task. The Red Cross has already refused to participate, claiming it would violate the organization’s long-standing policy of keeping victims’ names and details confidential. “This is not about creating a class of welfare individuals who need to be scrutinized, interrogated or looked upon as someone who is at risk for double dipping,” says Dr. Bernadine Healy, president of the American Red Cross.“God love them if they apply for money from somewhere else too.”

Spitzer promises that the information would be shared solely among agencies to ensure that victims get the help they need and to prevent fraud. His goal, he says, is to get the money into the right hands. That’s a goal everybody shares–they’re just not sure how to go about it.

title: " It S A Mountain So Big You Can T See The Top " ShowToc: true date: “2023-01-16” author: “Weldon Johnson”

Sheik Hamad Bin Khalifa Al Thani, the emir of Qatar, was so moved during a recent trip to New York City, that he donated $3 million on the spot to help with relief efforts. The latest tally of donations now exceeds $850 million, and the figure is widely expected to top $1 billion by year’s end.

Attracting the money was easy. But experts say getting the funds to the people who need them will be anything but. The unprecedented amount of money that has been raised, the collection of charity and relief groups involved and the number of victims injured, killed or displaced in the Sept. 11 attacks make the job of helping a huge task. Bureaucratic struggles between the city and state–and the upcoming change in New York City’s administration–are making the process even tougher.

“It’s like a mountain so big you can’t see the top of it,” says Nancy Anthony, executive director of the Oklahoma City Community Foundation, which coordinated the distribution of millions of dollars in aid to the victims of the 1995 bombing of Alfred P. Murrah Building in Oklahoma City.

In that attack, 168 people were killed and more than $40 million was raised to help victims. Years later, Anthony’s organization is still giving aid to 80 of those affected. But those numbers pale in comparison to the thousands killed in the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks and the crash of the hijacked airplane. Anthony estimates at least 50,000 families could require aid. Long-term cases could easily extend for a decade or longer.

Larry Jones, president of the Oklahoma-based Feed the Children, says he met with other participating agencies once a week after the Oklahoma City bombing. “We would get together and they’d bring in all the requests and we would decide who would do what,” says Jones. “But you can’t sit [all of the New York] agencies around a table. This is the mother of all problems.”

Nearly 190 funds are registered in New York alone, offering everything from short-term loans to long-term counseling. The State Attorney General’s office and organizations like the Nonprofit Coordinating Committee of New York have spent weeks gathering and sharing information to try to prevent overlap in the type of assistance they offer and to make sure they reach all of the victims. But there is no central database with information on all the charity and relief groups. Most coordination among aid groups has been informal, with those that provide similar services or target a specific population working together to avoid duplication. Families of firefighters and police officers have had multiple funds created specifically for them, for example, but the groups try to provide a range of aid–from covering funeral expenses to paying college tuitions for children left behind.

The sheer number of people affected by the tragedy makes the process of locating, evaluating and helping victims a daunting task. An estimated 40,000 people who worked at or near the World Trade Center or the Pentagon have lost their jobs. More than 5,600 families who have lost loved ones are eligible for benefits, but many of them are reluctant to apply for the death certificates required since just 442 of those missing in the World Trade Center have yet been confirmed dead. Agencies say only “a fraction” of eligible beneficiaries have taken steps to get aid. “Many are just paralyzed right now,” says Darren Dopp, spokesman for the New York State Attorney General’s office. “They haven’t even explored their options yet. They can’t bring themselves to do it, it’s too difficult.”

After initially quibbling over responsibilities, State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer and New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani have now joined forces to help speed up the process. The pair announced that they would share oversight of aid distribution, with Giuliani working directly with victims while Spitzer oversees the agencies that have received donations. New York City’s mayoral election is scheduled for November. What will happen once a new mayor takes office? No one is even speculating.

Meanwhile, agencies are taking informal measures to communicate and coordinate with other groups. The Nonprofit Coordinating Committee of New York, which does not distribute money but helps to coordinate the efforts of those that do, has included a special section its website (www.npccny.org) that serves as a sort of bulletin board for charity and relief groups. Information is collected and posted on resources needed or available among groups, as well as general information on donations.

In an illustration of the outpouring of donations, one entry under the “Resources Needed” section is from The Homeless Organization for America, which asks for additional space to store the overflow of food and supplies it has received. NPCCNY President Jon Small says traffic on the committee’s Web site has quadrupled in the past month. “With this enormous outpouring of assistance, there are a lot of questions,” says Small. “How does a market get made so that the ‘buyers’ can find those with the resources? That’s what we’re trying to do with this Website. We have been very concerned that that be done in a thoughtful and organized way.”

The State Attorney General’s office has also spent the past month gathering data on the registered groups participating in the relief effort. This week, the office launched the “WTC Relief Info” site (www.wtcrelief.info/Charities/Information/pages/home.html), which includes a list of the charities with links to more information. Victims are offered additional instructions on short-term financial aid. The site notes that the office is still in the process of developing a comprehensive database that would allow donors and victims to search for charitable and relief groups by the type of aid offered. “It makes sense to have in one location a coherent list of the specific goals of each of the charities so there’s neither overlapping nor a void where there’s an urgent need,” says Spitzer.

A second, and more controversial, database would contain information on those who receive aid. But in order to collect the data, Spitzer must first gain permission not only from the nearly 150 agencies, but from the victims themselves. That may be a difficult, if not impossible, task. The Red Cross has already refused to participate, claiming it would violate the organization’s long-standing policy of keeping victims’ names and details confidential. “This is not about creating a class of welfare individuals who need to be scrutinized, interrogated or looked upon as someone who is at risk for double dipping,” says Dr. Bernadine Healy, president of the American Red Cross.“God love them if they apply for money from somewhere else too.”

Spitzer promises that the information would be shared solely among agencies to ensure that victims get the help they need and to prevent fraud. His goal, he says, is to get the money into the right hands. That’s a goal everybody shares–they’re just not sure how to go about it.