Money has been pouring into western North Carolina in unprecedented amounts since Tropical Storm Helene from individual donors, corporations and foundations throughout the U.S.

At least $205 million has been raised or made available through disaster relief funds, benefit concerts and fundraisers, Asheville Watchdog found. Nonprofits in the region have raised millions more to provide food, housing and grants to storm victims and businesses.

Dogwood Health Trust, created with proceeds from the sale of Mission Health in 2019, has contributed the most. Dogwood announced a third round of Helene relief funding Thursday, bringing its commitment to $70 million.

Individual and corporate donations have come in through traditional means, such as contributions to foundations and agencies assisting in the recovery, but also through direct appeals to the public on crowdfunding platforms. GoFundMe campaigns started by individuals, businesses and artists in North Carolina have raised more than $40 million, nearly half of that going to fundraisers in Buncombe County, a company spokesman said.

“The outpouring from across North Carolina, across the country, has been overwhelming and also just unprecedented in terms of past disasters,” said Jennifer Tolle Whiteside, president and CEO of the North Carolina Community Foundation in Raleigh.

The foundation’s Disaster Relief Fund for long-term recovery has raised $12 million, already doubling the amount collected after the last hurricane, Florence, in 2018, she said.

“We are beyond grateful for the incredible outpouring of support that we’ve received,” said Mary Nesbitt, chief development officer of MANNA FoodBank, which lost two warehouses and all contents in Helene. “In the midst of a catastrophe of this magnitude, it has been so inspiring to see the goodness of humanity and all the ways that people have reached out to try to help.”

But even as some nonprofits set fundraising records, many fear it won’t be enough. They worry that disaster donations could jeopardize end-of-the-year giving that so many rely on for annual operations and that the generosity could dry up as attention on the storm fades.

“There’s this real reality of potential donor fatigue,” said Jessie Figueroa, resource development director for Homeward Bound of WNC. “Even the donors that we normally can rely on to contribute towards that end of year campaign, did they already give elsewhere in the community and kind of exhaust their philanthropy budget?”

Donations from every state

Charitable giving typically ramps up after a natural disaster, particularly in the early days. Helene tugged on the purse strings of philanthropists and corporations far and wide with its devastation vast and unexpected in a part of the country assumed to be safe from extreme weather.

“I think that people thinking of Asheville and western North Carolina as kind of a climate-safe area were really motivated to give,” said Lindsay Hearn, spokeswoman for the Community Foundation of Western North Carolina, which has received more than $27 million for its disaster response fund and began providing grants to frontline nonprofits 10 days after the storm.

The foundation has received donations “from every state in the country,” Hearn said.

Donors included two siblings in Charlotte, Elle and Thomas, who set up a lemonade stand and through contributions from neighbors sent $850 to the foundation.

Because of the region’s tourism draw, people outside of North Carolina have felt a connection and desire to help.

“So many of the donors I talked to,” Nesbitt said, “say things like, ‘We would come every year when I was growing up and go to the Biltmore House. We used to go spend time in the summer at Chimney Rock and Lake Lure.’”

Determining a total for how much has been raised is nearly impossible. Benefit concerts and fundraisers are being held across the country, and no single entity is overseeing storm relief philanthropy.

Many of the region’s most prominent nonprofits are not sharing their fundraising totals and likely will not until next year.  Donations can be traced through tax returns, but those will not be filed for months.

“It is almost impossible for anyone to be able to figure out how much money has gone into the region specifically for this purpose, and that we may never know exactly,” said Sarah Mann Willcox, executive director of the North Carolina Network of Grantmakers. Tax returns are “so late compared to when we’re trying to understand the impact on the ground.”

Responding and rebuilding 

MANNA’s swift transition to a new headquarters also allowed the nonprofit to provide office space for Asheville Area Habitat for Humanity and temporarily hire some of its employees who otherwise would have been displaced, Nesbitt said.

Habitat’s Asheville ReStore and administrative offices near Biltmore Village sustained significant damage in the storm. Habitat is raising money to rebuild and, in the words of its web site, “regain our operational footing.”

Habitat CEO Andy Barnett could not be reached for comment despite several messages.

Brother Wolf Animal Rescue suffered about $1 million in losses when its shelter complex, mobile medical clinic and vehicles were submerged in 15 feet of water, said Leah Craig Chumbley, executive director. All animals had been evacuated, but the shelter had to relocate to temporary quarters and is raising money to buy land and rebuild.

Chumbley called the response amazing. “The whole country, and really the world, was looking at what was happening in western North Carolina, and because of that, we received support from all over the country,” she said.

Brother Wolf is nearing its $3 million fund-raising goal. A group of donors jump-started the campaign, providing $1.5 million in matching funds.

“That’s huge for us,” Chumbley said. “The largest match, to my knowledge, that Brother Wolf has ever run is $100,000.”

Donations also have poured into agencies providing housing and homelessness services.

BeLoved Asheville, a nonprofit that provides food, housing and health care to the underprivileged, has received and distributed new recreational vehicles, tiny homes, toys, bicycles and more, according to social media posts. Attempts to reach the organization’s leaders were unsuccessful. 

A recorded phone message on BeLoved’s line said it was unable to respond to messages “due to the tremendous outpouring of love and support … We are receiving hundreds of calls a day.”

Homeward Bound, a nonprofit that works to prevent and end homelessness, saw about a 225 percent increase in donations in September and October over the same period in 2023, said Figueroa, the resource development director.

“While we are so grateful for this influx of support in such a short period of time, we remain uncertain how this will impact our normal fundraising patterns to meet the annual need,” Figueroa wrote in an email to The Watchdog. “We also anticipate the community will now have a higher need for more housing programs for those at-risk of becoming homeless and those displaced from their housing as a result of the storm.”

Long-term need

Helene may have generated an unprecedented charitable response, but it also generated an unprecedented need – for housing, food and jobs. 

“Our greatest need at MANNA FoodBank and so many other organizations is to keep this crisis in the public eye for the long haul because, as you know, the holidays pass, other crises happen, the mass media may need to turn their attention in other directions,” Nesbitt said. ”I get calls from donors, and they’re wonderful people, but they think we’re now moving out of the crisis.” 

MANNA had already been serving record numbers before the storm because of “the ever widening gap between cost of living and income in western North Carolina,” Nesbitt said. “Now, with the loss of so many livelihoods, people’s properties … we have so many more people turning to us. … so many for the first time in their lives.

“This is going to be such a long road to recovery,” Nesbitt said. “We anticipate that elevated need to continue for years to come.”

For the many artists whose work and workplaces were damaged or destroyed, some grants have helped with immediate needs. But “they also need places to present and produce,” said Stephanie Moore, executive director of the nonprofit Center for Craft.

“The cultural organizations in Asheville have received very little emergency relief,” she said. “Many grants were designated for for-profit businesses only and completely neglected the cultural sector, so, if stages and community art centers are destroyed, where does an artist connect to an audience? And if tourism is down or slow to return and galleries close, will there be opportunities to show/sell/produce?”

Willcox, executive director of the North Carolina Network of Grantmakers,   representing foundations, corporate giving offices and donor-advised funds, said, “I want to sing the song about what an amazing response philanthropy has given. … I’m also very aware that the last thing we want to imply is that they are getting enough money because they’re not.”

Willcox said that “philanthropy doesn’t have the kind of dollars to cover the gaps that are happening.”

“You could liquidate every foundation in North Carolina,” she said, “and not get close to what western North Carolina will need.”

Asheville Watchdog is a nonprofit news team producing stories that matter to Asheville and Buncombe County. Sally Kestin is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter. Email skestin@avlwatchdog.org. The Watchdog’s reporting is made possible by donations from the community. To show your support for this vital public service go to avlwatchdog.org/support-our-publication/.

Related