Private disaster donations for hurricane victims setting record pace

Private fund-raising for Hurricane Katrina victims – from bake sales, to carwashes, to football games – has topped a half billion dollars and is outpacing U.S. donations for tsunami relief.

The American Red Cross has raised more than $409 million, abetted by corporations, Texas businessman T. Boone Pickens as well as schoolchildren emptying their penny jars. Half of the total has arrived online.

“It’s going gangbusters,” says Devorah Goldburg, the group’s spokeswoman. She says the amount is more than double what was raised in a similar time period after Asia’s disaster at Christmas.

The intensity is expected to continue as schools hold fund-raisers, former presidents Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush plead for donations and entertainers host a TV benefit concert, “Shelter From the Storm,” Friday.

Next month, talk radio host Rush Limbaugh will appear on a show on Broadway to raise money for hurricane relief.

Today more than 40 different education groups meet with Education Secretary Margaret Spelling to brainstorm ways schools can both help displaced students and teach the value of good citizenship.

The Salvation Army, which raised $20 million after the tsunami, has already pulled in at least $51 million for Katrina victims.

“People are responding at a record pace,” says Major George Hood, national community relations secretary. He notes the tsunami, however, occurred right after the Christmas season, and many people had already contributed to the charity.

Hood says fund-raising for Katrina is occurring faster than after 9/11, when the Salvation Army raised $90 million for victims over an extended period. Many online donations have come from abroad, including the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and Europe.

Catholic Charities received 20,000 online donations in the past two days, spokeswoman Shelley Borysiewicz says. She says it usually gets 6,000 such donations in a year. The group has raised more than $5 million, most of it online. She says the total doesn’t include special collections taken in churches.