NOTE: In past groups I've been involved with we'd send our volunteer hours and donation receipts to the person organizing these efforts. This is something I would absolutely love to keep track of and update weekly in the sidebar of the mutual aid and donating comm for us all to see a quantified amount of objective good we are doing for our communities and others. So please send me censored receipts redacting all personal information and hours volunteered! <3
Alright, libs, here we go again with some organizations providing relief for the victims of Hurricane Laura in the Louisiana and Texas area that you can donate to and volunteer with, along with tips on digging into financial statements of non-profits to ensure your money will actually be used to help others and not going solely to the pockets of greedy executives. As laid out in the mutual aid and donating comm mod call post, for all non-profits I slap my stamp of approval on and regurgitate to you all here, I am including links to their financial records for you all to look at and make your own decisions as to whether or not to donate. As someone with a background in accounting and finance (Yeah yeah, flame me in the comments for this if you want. Post hog, liberals.), here are some basic, high-level things I look for in the "Financial Audit" and "Form 990" reports before giving my own sign off:
Financial Statements Review
- Ensure that executive salaries are not egregious. I know we all hate CEOs including myself, I get it, but they exist and I'm not here to debate their morality in this post. I'm here to make sure your donations aren't going towards overly egregious executive compensation that essentially takes food out of the mouths of the hungry and wastes your hard earned dollars. In the case of the Houston Food Bank, $1.7M in executive salaries for a large scale organization that racked up $167M in food distribution related expenditures last year alone is very reasonable compared to other non-profits that I've seen, in my professional opinion. You can see in their Form 990 that the CEO only receives a salary of approximately $400K, which is slightly high but admittedly much lower than I was anticipating. This information can be found in Part VII of the Form 990.
- Ensure the majority of expenditures went towards food distribution and expenses related to that. Keep in mind that food banks are essentially distribution centers and have their own set of logistical, advertising, and community engagement expenditures in procuring goods to distribute from the food bank to local soup kitchens, homeless shelters, and food pantries in surrounding communities. This information can generally be found on the income statements of Financial Audit reports.
- Ensure there is a reasonable ratio of revenue from contributions to expenditures in food distribution. Pretty straight forward. Can be found on both the Form 990 and the Financial Audit reports.
- Ensure that local organizations are actually being provided assistance by sifting through the Schedule 1 on the Form 990. Just look at all the local organizations receiving assistance, the longer the list the better. Not all reports will have this section but you can generally find the types of organizations that local food banks provide assistance to on their websites. You'll see plenty of elementary schools, programs aimed at giving kids lunches for over the weekend when they aren't in school, elderly programs, local food pantries, etc. Even more straight forward than point 3.
As always, please consider donating directly to Feeding America. For every dollar donated they are able to secure approximately 10 meals by working directly with major manufacturers, retailers, and farmers. I've looked into their financials and they spend hella... bread... on food procurement (Fuck you, that pun was sick). Feeding America and its partners are already on the ground working with local food banks in Louisiana and Texas along with other organizations such as the American Red Cross and the FEMA National Response Coordination Center to provide people with the resources they need. I realize I'm coming across as a shill for Feeding America, but I do have food drive experience with them so I'll shill all I want. I dare you to flame me in the comments. Post hog.
Texas
Houston Food Bank (Member of Feeding America)
Donate Funds
Donate Food
Volunteer
Financials
Southeast Texas Food Bank (Member of Feeding America)
Donate Funds
Host a Food Drive
Volunteer
Financials
Food Bank of the Rio Grande Valley, Inc. (Member of Feeding America)
Donate Funds
Donate Food
Volunteer
Financials
Coastal Bend Food Bank (Member of Feeding America)
Donate Funds
Volunteer
Financials
Food Bank of the Golden Crescent (Member of Feeding America)
Donate Funds
Volunteer
Financials
San Antonio Food Bank (Member of Feeding America)
Donate Funds
Volunteer
Financials
East Texas Food Bank (Member of Feeding America)
Donate Funds
Volunteer
Financials
Louisiana
Community Foundation of Southwest Louisiana Hurricane Relief Fund - Previous post here
Donate Funds
Financials
Second Harvest Food Bank of Greater New Orleans and Acadiana (Member of Feeding America)
Donate Funds
Volunteer
Financials
Food Bank of Northeast Louisiana (Member of Feeding America)
Donate Funds
Donate Food
Volunteer
Financials
Food Bank of Northwest Louisiana (Member of Feeding America)
Donate Funds
Volunteer
Financials
Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank (Member of Feeding America)
Donate Funds
Donate Food
Volunteer
Financials
The Food Bank of Central Louisiana (Member of Feeding America)
Donate Funds
Donate Food
Volunteer
Financials
General
American Red Cross - I shouldn't have to provide links or anything for this one. There is probably a center in your town or a town nearby. Contact your local Red Cross to determine if they are taking appointments for blood donations as a result of COVID and to get information on involvement with volunteering with local blood drives. I may be militantly atheist but stepping foot in my local Methodist church that hosts blood drives and helping call people on the recurring blood donation list, checking people in, and giving them snacks afterwards didn't set me ablaze. Donating blood warms the soul, libs.
does anyone know how desperate these states need volunteers? i'm assuming very desperate - i live in the midwest but i'd definitely look into going down there for a weekend and helping out if there's a need for my help
I'd highly encourage anyone interested in volunteering to go to the contact page of any of those websites and make calls asking about their need for volunteers. I'm sure the help would be greatly appreciated. <3
great idea, will do!