Disaster Fatigue

Donations to the Red Cross and other international organizations can be tough to come by when the whole world is falling apart, or at least that's the sentiment of this story that talks about donor fatigue in the wake of so many disasters taking place these days. Are Americans growing unsympathetic to the plight of others? Hardly.

The NYYRC cannot be accused of being cold-hearted. We organized fundraisers that gave thousands of dollars to victims of the Asian tsunami of 2004 and Hurricane Katrina.

This recent downward trend in donating cash has more to do with fiscal belt-tightening at home and the nature of the governments in Burma and China (never big on help from outsiders, lest they actually be in someone else's debt) than some perceived lack of good will by Americans. We consistently provide more aid, publicly and privately, than any nation on Earth, and that has been true for quite some time now.