A Charitable Rush, With Little Direction

Disasters, particularly those epic enough to earn round-the-clock news coverage, are a fast way to get donors to open their wallets. So it was no surprise when nonprofit groups, starting with the American Red Cross and moving down to small charities, scrambled to raise money to help the victims of the Japanese earthquake and tsunami.

But wealthy Japan is not impoverished Haiti. And many groups are raising money without really knowing how it will be spent — or even if it will be needed.

The Japanese Red Cross, for example, has said repeatedly since the day after the earthquake that it does not want or need outside assistance. But that has not stopped the American Red Cross from raising $34 million through Tuesday afternoon in the name of Japan’s disaster victims.

Roger K. Lowe, a spokesman for the American Red Cross, said his group had sent $10 million to Japan on Tuesday, and had spoken with the Japanese group, which had expressed gratitude for the support.

He also shared a note sent by the Red Cross’s international governing body in Switzerland, a missive that was sent out to the American and other national Red Cross organizations and read in part: “At present, the Japanese society is not launching a national or international appeal, but expressions of solidarity in the form of unearmarked financial contributions would be gratefully received.”

The American Red Cross keeps 9 percent of any money it raises, which means that as of Tuesday afternoon, it had raised more than $3 million for itself through the Japan campaign. It also plans to cover the costs of the shelters it opened in California and Hawaii when there were warnings that a tsunami might hit there, estimated at somewhat less than $100,000.

Mr. Lowe said more money would be sent to Japan as it was collected.

Few charitable organizations are actually at work in Japan yet. Reports filed by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs show that the Japanese government so far has accepted help from only 15 of the 102 countries that have volunteered aid, and from small teams with special expertise from a handful of nonprofit groups.

“The only things Japan has really asked for at this point is some specialized search-and-rescue teams with dogs, some specialized medical help and some communications equipment, as well as the bulk shipment of goods, which is largely about country-to-country assistance,” said Saundra Schimmelpfennig, a former international aid worker who writes the blog Good Intentions Are Not Enough, aimed at educating donors about providing support for emergencies and development abroad.

“They are working almost exclusively with other governments, not with international charities,” she said.

That means many of the groups raising money in Japan’s name are still uncertain to whom or to where the money will go.

“We’re still working to identify N.G.O.’s and finalize agreements,” said Mari Kuraishi, referring to nongovernmental organizations. Ms. Kuraishi is the president of GlobalGiving, an online organization that had raised roughly $1 million for Japan as of Tuesday afternoon.

Some of the money GlobalGiving is raising is supporting the International Medical Corps, which has a team in Japan working to assess medical needs and prepare critical supplies for disbursement. Some GlobalGiving money will also go to Save the Children, which is formally involved in the effort.

Typical of the more obscure nonprofit appeals springing up in the wake of the earthquake is the newly formed Japan Earthquake Tsunami Children’s Fund announced on Tuesday by Kids in Distressed Situations.

KIDS, as the group calls itself, supplies clothing, toys, books and other basic necessities for underprivileged children and children affected by disasters. In the case of Japan, the organization said it was soliciting corporations and donors for products like new children’s underwear, blankets and toys.

Asked how money raised for the fund would be used, Dr. Janice Weinman, president of KIDS, wrote in an e-mail that it would pay for “shipping of the product and for warehousing it until the Japanese ports open.”

Holden Karnofsky, a founder of GiveWell, a Web site that researches charities, said he was struck by how quickly many nonprofit groups had moved to create ads using keywords like “Japan,” “earthquake,” “disaster,” and “help” to improve the chances of their ads showing up on Google when the words were used in search queries.

“Charities are aggressively soliciting donations around this disaster, and I don’t believe these donations necessarily are going to be used for relief or recovery in Japan because they aren’t needed for that,” Mr. Karnofsky said. “The Japanese government has made it clear it has the resources it needs for this disaster.”

Robert Ottenhoff, president and chief executive of GuideStar, a Web site that provides charity tax forms and other resources for donors, said donors themselves were to blame for the fund-raising frenzy.

People who really want to support charitable organizations and good works, Mr. Ottenhoff said, should base it on a desire to support something they already understand and believe in.

Since this article was originally published, the Japanese Red Cross has begun taking donations to support relief work in the earthquake-stricken region of Japan. You can also find another list of organizations raising money that will go directly to Japanese non-governmental organizations here.