In emergency management and disaster response, a common refrain is “all disasters start and end locally.” In the first couple of hours or even days after a disaster hits, neighbors rescue neighbors, often before first responders arrive on the scene. Author Rebecca Solnit has written eloquently about this: “When all the ordinary divides and patterns are shattered, people step up—not all, but the great preponderance—to become their brothers’ keepers. And that purposefulness and connectedness bring joy even amidst death, chaos, fear, and loss.”

Then there is the “ending locally” part. Five or 10 years after a disaster, national nonprofits are usually long gone, even as people and families continue to suffer. Those who remain, nearly always, are local community organizations.

Traditionally, when disaster recovery activities begin, external governmental and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) come to the affected area—think the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the American Red Cross, World Central Kitchen, or Convoy of Hope—along with national staff, volunteers, supplies, and financial assistance. The work these kinds of organizations do is critical in addressing immediate needs, but it is not always enough. Their assistance is time-limited, resource-dependent, and sometimes has strict requirements, creating hoops for recipients to jump through. People who are undocumented or for whom English is not their first language do not always feel comfortable approaching such mainstream organizations.

In the small village where I grew up, supporting neighbors was a natural component of rural life. In the last few years, and especially since COVID-19, there has been a significant surge in mutual aid organizations popping up in the aftermath of disasters. These organizations provide individualized and needs-based support to those affected. Grounded in the principle of caring for one’s neighbors, the organizations often deliberately lack the formal structures of a nonprofit.

Recent disasters—including COVID-19—brought the work of these groups to my attention, and I began to explore them in more detail. With each new disaster that I encounter as part of my work at the Center for Disaster Philanthropy (CDP), I see more and more communities supported through the work of emergent or existing mutual aid networks. This was particularly true with Hurricane Ida, the Kentucky tornadoes, and the Texas winter storm of 2021.

Read the full article about mutual aid by Tanya Gulliver-Garcia at Nonprofit Quarterly.