Hurricane Michael Relief Fund

In October 2018, GlobalGiving launched its Hurricane Michael Relief Fund to support local communities in Florida that were devastated by this Category 5 hurricane. Since the launch of the fund, you and more than 2,000 other people stepped up to raise nearly $800,000 to meet the massive need of families and community members in Florida that suddenly found themselves without homes, employment, and stability in their lives.

At the beginning of this year, we made our final grants from the Hurricane Michael Relief Fund in support of the critical work being carried out by our vetted nonprofit partners on the ground. We are now closing the fund and want to highlight some of the incredible recovery work that your generous donation has supported.

• Doorways of Northwest Florida continues to play a critical leadership role within the Community Resource Center in Bay County, Florida. The center is a multi-agency coordination effort that was established to provide centralized resources to those impacted by the storm. With your help, Doorways of Northwest Florida has been able to vastly expand its Disaster Case Management Program. With more than 1,000 registered needs cases in the Community Resource Center’s pipeline, the organization has been able to hire three additional, local Disaster Case Managers that will be an invaluable asset to families and individuals in need.
  
  
• The Boys & Girls Clubs of Bay County faced heavy damages to its buildings in Panama City, Florida, after the hurricane. After a long journey of recovery, the organization continues to repair and renovate its facilities and modify its programming to support youth that have been impacted by the storm. Thanks to your support, GlobalGiving was able to make a grant to help expand the organization’s Teen Workforce Readiness program that will serve dozens of teenagers throughout 2020.
  
  
• LEAD Coalition of Bay County is directly involving community members in the decision-making processes related to disaster recovery. The Hurricane Michael recovery process, in many ways, is moving forward without the significant input of underserved neighborhoods that have been historically disadvantaged and disproportionately impacted by Hurricane Michael. Thanks to your help, LEAD Coalition of Bay County has created a participatory model with three local communities to provide a pathway for low-income families to have a direct say in the recovery processes that will impact their everyday lives and livelihoods.
  
  
• Habitat for Humanity International is still pushing forward on the long road of home repair and home building in the Florida Panhandle region. Working through its local affiliates, like the Chipola Area Habitat for Humanity, Habitat for Humanity International has been hard at work to expand its capacity to deliver safe and secure roofs over the heads of impacted community members in Marianna, Florida. With support from your donation, the Chipola Area Habitat for Humanity now has the necessary resources on hand throughout 2020 to continue its critical home rebuilding mission.

In this new time of great uncertainty and damage caused by COVID-19, it is more important than ever to remember the communities around the world and at home that are still struggling to recover in the face of disaster. This is especially true in the Florida Panhandle region as many families and community members continue to grapple with the long-term impacts of Hurricane Michael.

Though we are now closing our fund, please consider supporting the ongoing recovery efforts being led by our trusted nonprofit partners on the ground. From everyone at GlobalGiving, thank you for choosing to support community-led recovery efforts in Florida.

With gratitude,

Chase + the GlobalGiving team

Hurricane Michael battered the Florida panhandle as the third-most intense Atlantic hurricane to ever strike the United States on Oct. 10, 2018. In Panama City alone, 85% of the existing structures were damaged. One year later, survivors continue to endure myriad challenges as they try to rebuild their lives. 

Your donation to the Hurricane Michael Relief Fund is making a difference for survivors—and fueling community-led recovery and resilience building. With your support, partners on the ground are helping children and adults heal from the psychological trauma of the storm’s aftermath, rebuilding a new Boys and Girls Club Center, and hiring a much-needed case manager navigating the tremendous unmet needs. Here is a look at how your support continues to change lives: 

• Everyone has the right to a home: There are currently 3,000 students without homes in the slowly recovering Bay County. Our nonprofit partner,Doorways of Northwest Florida, is working to provide clients with all the resources they need to transition into permanent housing, whether it’s the cost of rent or covering the expenses to replace a missing ID card.

• Tackling inequality in recovery:LEAD Coalition of Bay County, Inc. is bringing together community leaders from three low income communities to map out families’ unmet needs, many of whom feel they have fallen through the cracks of the disaster recovery assistance system. Through mapping projects and neighborhood forums, LEAD is engaging Hurricane Michael survivors as active participants in their recovery.

• Animals to the rescue: Fences, houses, and barns in the path of the hurricane were ripped apart, and as a result, numerous animals were lost or abandoned. Although Heartland Rescue Ranch incurred damage from Hurricane Michael, they were rescuing and caring for animals since the early days of the storm. Now, Amy and her team are addressing the mental health needs of children and adults in the aftermath of the storm through therapeutic interactions with rescued animals. 

We are also thrilled to share that Yvonne Petrasovits, the leader of our recovery partner Doorways of Northwest Florida, has been selected as a member of GlobalGiving’s 2020-2021 Disaster Feedback Fellowship. She will join a cohort of peers working with disaster-affected communities around the world for workshops and conventions in Washington D.C. and San Juan, Puerto Rico in February 2020.

As families in the Panhandle face the long road ahead towards rebuilding their communities, we are immensely grateful for your generous support for each of these programs. Thank you for your decision to fund community-led disaster response efforts after Hurricane Michael with your cash donation—the smart way to give after a disaster. You can continue to follow the progress of our partners as they help their communities fully recover by visiting our website. 

With gratitude,

Andrea + the GlobalGiving Team

Despite designation as a Category 5 storm, the 60 lives claimed in the chaos, and the destruction of homes and critical infrastructure, Hurricane Michael faded quickly out of the headlines last hurricane season. Nevertheless, thanks to the donations of over 1,600 generous individuals, GlobalGiving and its nonprofit partners are continuing to support communities on the road to recovery long after the short-lived media attention.  

Our local nonprofit partners remain dedicated to moving the recovery process forward despite challenges. The situation in the post-hurricane Florida panhandle remains dire; people are living out of their cars, there is a population exodus out of small towns, and school enrollments are facing steep drop offs. 

Nine months after the hurricane, your donation continues to rebuild homes, schools, community structures, and lives. 

July Recovery Partner Spotlight: All Hands All Hearts Volunteers 

AHAH volunteers have been racking up thousands of hours in clearing monumental amounts of debris, clearing dangerous mold, and rebuilding more than 169 damaged homes and community structures. AHAH’s ongoing efforts have touched 701 people’s lives!

Despite the heat and humidity, the organization is currently working hard to ensure that the Boys and Girls Club of Panama City, which offered teens homework support, sports, and computer literacy programs before the storm, is fully repaired and ready for the start of the school year.

Although nine months have passed since the disaster struck, volunteer organizations like AHAH still play a critical role in Hurricane Michael’s recovery work. The benefits of this persistent, on the ground support include free time for parents to be able to take their kids to school, and peace of mind in knowing there are people dedicated to rebuilding a home that is safe and livable once again .  

“Our staff and volunteers are committed to supporting recovery for the long haul.” 

Also helping affected communities to rebuild after the hurricane, is Habitat for Humanity.  To date, Habitat has performed 4,806 interventions.  This includes damage assessments, debris removal, clean up assistance, and emergency repairs. Local Habitat teams have been helping families find temporary housing, organizing home assessments, and guiding people through the complicated insurance claims and FEMA application process. 

The commitment to holistic recovery shows through Habitat’s interactions with the affected communities:

“Habitat helped Bay County resident Cleedie May and her family navigate the complex terrain of insurance and contract work. When it was clear there would be gaps between costs and insurance payment, Habitat fixed the walls, windows, roof and flooring despite the funding challenge. Cleedie Mae expressed her gratitude many times over and said “what a blessing” Habitat has been for her family.”

By June 2020, Habitat’s goal is to build 13 new homes, conduct 57 repairs, and complete 46 rehabs through fortified construction methods.

Your generosity and support of this fund has translated into real tangible progress.  Thank you for standing with the people of Panhandle. We will continue to share stories from the field as Florida communities recover.

With continued gratitude,

Andrea + the GlobalGiving Team

With support from GlobalGivers like you, who've raised more than $750,000 for our Hurricane Michael Relief Fund, our nonprofit partners have been able to help affected communities along Florida's Panhandle make great strides recovering and rebuilding after the storm.

Habitat for Humanity's local chapters in Bay County and Chipola supported early relief efforts in the immediate aftermath of the hurricane, performing damage assessments and damage repairs, removing debris, and distributing tools and construction materials to homeowners. Now they're partnering with moderate-to-low income hurricane-affected households to build new homes and perform critical home repairs over the next year and a half.

Thanks to backing from this relief fund, Hearts & Hands Disaster Recovery’s teams will be able to help at least 10 households return to their homes in 2019. Their program is designed to fill in the gaps for people whose homes were uninsured or underinsured when Michael struck, and are not able to recover on their own.

After helping the people of their home state recover from Hurricane Florence in early September, teams of veterans from the North Carolina Military Veterans Hall of Fame traveled to Florida to join emergency relief efforts after Hurricane Michael just a few weeks later. In the following months, their teams have been making the trip back to the Panhandle from North Carolina every two weeks to help families rebuild their hurricane-damaged homes, and are continuing to distribute clothing, food, water filtration kits, and construction supplies to families in need.

The Florida Response Program volunteers from All Hands and Hearts have worked on 68 hurricane-damaged homes to date, and are now helping to repair the heavily damaged Boys and Girls Club of Bay County, which has been closed for safety concerns since the storm.

The generosity you and so many others have shown by supporting this relief fund has helped make this vital recovery work possible. Thank you for standing with the people of the Florida Panhandle after a storm that cost so many people so much. We'll be back in your inbox in the coming months with more stories of progress.

With gratitude,
Will + the GlobalGiving Team

The strongest storm to make landfall in this year’s Atlantic hurricane season, Hurricane Michael ripped through the Florida Panhandle with 155 mph winds, torrential rains, and massive storm surges that devastated coastal communities. The record-setting storm knocked out power for 1.2 million customers across the region, caused billions of dollars worth of property damage, and claimed 60 lives. Communities directly Michael’s path, like Mexico Beach and Panama City, suffered catastrophic damage that will likely take years to recover from.

In response to the devastation, more than 1,600 GlobalGivers like yourself generously donated more than $225,000 to fund community-led relief and recovery efforts. And thanks to that support, our vetted nonprofit partners have been working hard to assist affected communities:

• In the days leading up to Michael’s landfall, volunteers at the Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida in Orlando began piecing together disaster relief boxes of canned meats, fruits, vegetables, and shelf-stable milk that could meet the needs of a family of four for a week. In the storm’s aftermath, they’ve trucked these boxes across the storm-devastated region, making sure that families have steady access to food while supermarkets are largely unavailable.
• Fuel Relief Fund brought their expertise in distributing vital free fuel supplies to ensure that first responders, hospitals, local police and fire departments, nursing homes, and everyday residents in communities recovering from Hurricane Michael’s destruction were able to fuel their vehicles and generators.
• Teams of veteran volunteers from the North Carolina Military Veterans Hall of Fame traveled from their home state, where they’ve been assisting residents recovering from Hurricane Florence just weeks prior, to the Florida Panhandle to help some of the communities hardest hit by Michael, like Mexico Beach and Panama City. They’ve been distributing essentials like food, clothing, blankets, and hygiene supplies to residents in affected areas, as well as helping clear debris and salvage possessions for homeowners so that repairs can get underway.

As immediate relief efforts transition into long-term recovery work, we’ll continue to update you on the progress of our nonprofit partners and the communities where they work and the impact of your donation. And we’d like to especially thank you, not just for the fact that you’ve generously supported our Hurricane Michael Relief Fund, but for how you’ve supported it—by making the smart decision to give cash. Donating money after a disaster allows for quicker and more efficient deployment of resources and supports, rather than disrupts, local economies.

Warmly,
Will Frechette + the GlobalGiving Team