Responding Post Sandy: Philanthropic Relief & Recovery

Beginning immediately after Superstorm Sandy struck New Jersey, The Council of New Jersey Grantmakers has been working intensively to share information, resources, best practice strategies, and news relating to New Jersey’s relief and recovery efforts. They have been working closely with their philanthropic members in New Jersey and their philanthropic colleagues from around the nation who have experience in disaster philanthropy, as well as working cooperatively with the Governor’s Office on Recovery, FEMA, NJ State Police Office of Emergency Management, NJ Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster, NJ’s Long Term Recovery Group Leaders, and NJ’s leading nonprofit organizations.

These dedicated pages on our website detail a wealth of information relating to NJ’s Relief and Recovery effort along with NJ’s philanthropic response, best practice guides, nonprofits on the ground, latest news articles and announcements, and the audio recordings of the Council’s weekly Educational Disaster Response conference call series. In addition, the Council of NJ Grantmakers launched a number of Post-Sandy activities to assist and educate NJ’s philanthropic community, among them are:

• Post-Sandy Listserve: specifically for funders wanting to share information, news related to their own initiatives and/or NJ’s recovery and rebuilding process. If you are a funder (either in NJ or out-of-state) and are interested in joining this listserve, please send a request to Elizabeth Murphy at elizabethmurphy@cnjg.org.


• Educational Relief & Recovery Conference Call Series: Beginning one week after Sandy struck New Jersey, and continuing through March 25, 2013, these calls provided an opportunity for grantmakers to hear from a wide range of experts including: national leaders in the field of disaster philanthropy, FEMA and HUD officials, renowned psychologists working in the field of Disaster Trauma and PTSD, local housing and mental health nonprofit leaders, city and state planners, and a host of other stakeholders. The calls were recorded and the audio files are available here.


• Coastal Communities Site Visit Tours:CNJG offered its members a rare opportunity to tour several of the disaster-affected communities in Monmouth and Ocean Counties and to hear from those on-the-ground working on relief, recovery and rebuilding. The specific sites included communities in Northern Ocean County and Southern Monmouth County. Throughout the day, twelve guest speakers representing all areas of the effort, including individuals from FEMA, local and state government, Long Term Recovery Group leaders, city and state planners, environmental professionals, social services personnel, and faith-based leaders, among others spoke to a group of 60 philanthropic leaders.
  
  Building upon the first successful Coastal Communities Site Visit Tour, the Council offered a similar program focusing on communities in northern New Jersey – specifically the hard hit areas in Essex, Hudson and Bergen Counties. This was an opportunity to hear directly from those on-the-ground working on relief, recovery and rebuilding efforts. In addition to hearing from a wide range of local officials, Long Term Recovery Group Leaders, urban planners, and environmental experts, the site visit included a tour of a PSEG sub-power station which was flooded.