While the emotive response that drives donors to give is pure and simple, the truth is that disasters are incredibly complex. There is the scale of the suffering and the vastness of needs and challenges: security and safety concerns for both those affected and those there to help; logistics and operational constraints that require agile and expansive solutions; and capacities that buckle under the strain of underfunding and overwork.

These ever-present tensions and complexities can scare even the most well-intended philanthropists off in search of a simple library to fund. However, as the pandemic has shown us, disasters are also experiential equalizers. We all now know how it feels when a disaster enters our home, our family and our community — uninvited and unwanted, unwelcomed.

While the management of the pandemic has been a shared experience, it has affected individuals, families, towns, states and countries differently. The same is true whether the disaster is illness, fire, wind, rain or war — the impact will not be the same for all. These differences have been clearly on display with Covid-19. Essential workers bore the brunt of the pandemic, forced by circumstance to continue to put themselves and their families at risk. Women left the workforce in record numbers, faced with the genuine burden of managing increased childcare demands and work. Black, indigenous and other communities of color, already facing higher morbidity and mortality due to structural inequalities, have been impacted disproportionately.

There has never been a greater need for philanthropy to refresh its image and take on a civic responsibility to aid the country and the world toward a common prosperous future.

Despite regular protestations that "enough is enough," and "it will be different this time," all too often we hinder our progress by clinging to the comfort of age-old siloed interpretations of mission and risk-averse working modalities. I posit that we must move through the discomfort of change to transform. Through the adaptation of practices and mindset changes, we can together reimagine disaster philanthropy.
One, we must practice courageous leadership.

We need to aid those with whom we share a purpose, despite uncertainties. Our focus should be on the world we want to see. To do this, we also need to explore why that future is not our present. This requires accurate diagnoses. At times, there is little space between the perception of blaming versus diagnosing. We must accept this truth. We must strive not only to call out but also to address the weaknesses of current systems and structures and be an active part of redressing shortcomings.

Read the full article about disaster response philanthropy by Patricia McIlreavy at Forbes.