Relief & Recovery

CFT’s Long-Term Approach

CFT holds a Relief & Recovery Fund to support medium- to long-term community needs in response to disasters and tragedies. Donors interested in supporting longer-term recovery and rebuilding efforts following a disaster can make online donations to the fund or recommend a donor-advised grant to support the fund. The following are CFT’s guidelines for funding disaster and tragedy recovery:

• Support organizations with long histories in the affected community and community-centric approaches.  Many national and international organizations have worked in affected areas for decades, developing well-established relationships with local communities and community-based organizations. Supporting such groups helps ensure donations achieve maximum impact on the ground.
• Support underfunded sectors. The sector-specific areas of protection, advocacy and transparency, and provision of psychosocial support are critical to the success of any recovery strategy but they are often significantly underfunded. CFT supports these underfunded sectors to improve the potential for long-term recovery and healing in the wake of tragedy.
• Make multi-year commitments to rebuild public goods and community. Sustained support in the wake of a major event is vital. Donations that encourage close collaboration among local and federal governments and community-based organizations are especially effective. This helps to rebuild physical structures and/or social fabric.
• Support risk reduction and preparedness efforts. Advance preparation can help mitigate loss in future events. For disaster preparedness in particular, this includes support for alert and communication systems, disaster-proof construction, agricultural planning and operational contingency planning.

When making your gift online, please note in your comments if you would like to direct your long-term relief funds to a particular disaster (Dallas Tornado Relief, Hurricane Harvey, California Wildfires, Border Crisis, etc.) and we will see that they are spent in that area. 

We work often in concert with Center for Disaster Philanthropy. For further discussion of these recommendations, please do not hesitate to contact our Philanthropy Department staff through our Chief Philanthropy Officer: Wende Burton, office 214.750.4227 or grants@cftexas.org. 

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