These are people who otherwise don't get a lot of attention for their giving, or anything else, have a lot of money and are using it philanthropically. One of the challenges of compiling the list is that a lot of people don't want to talk about it.
I would assume that he would want to do something to demonstrate that he was being socially responsible through his giving ...
It does seem like they should have been straightforward about it.
The scale of this disaster is so big, that there is certainly going to be a lot of effort by the charities to call attention to long-term needs. So I would expect that giving will go in waves for quite a long period of time.
People are very frustrated when they see the slowness of the response (to the hurricane). People figure they can give a gift very quickly. The slowness of the response is part of what triggered this outpouring of donations.
After you see the pictures on the television I think that just motivated so many people to give. They just saw they had a responsibility to do something.
The outlook for 2006 is shakier, if the economy falters,
Giving is very directly tied to the economy. People's willingness to give as much as they possibly can is tied to whether they feel secure about their jobs and the fact that they are going to have to pay more in gas prices.
a very remarkable outpouring, but compared to the amount of need . . . there's still a fund-raising challenge ahead.
As people see the extent of the damage, they're likely to keep giving in big ways.
