July 22, 2004 | Read Time: 2 minutes
The American Red Cross plans to solicit proposals from nonprofit organizations nationwide for a $50-million program to help people affected by the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
The effort will draw upon funds from the Red Cross’s Liberty Disaster Fund, which was established after the attacks and received donations of more than $1-billion. In the months following September 11, members of Congress and charity watchdog groups criticized the Red Cross’s management of the fund, saying not enough money was being spent on helping survivors and families of victims.
During the next two years, the Red Cross will seek proposals from charities that are helping young people who witnessed the attacks, promoting the mental and physical health of people in areas where the attacks occurred, and providing services to emergency or recovery workers.
The Red Cross has hired Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, an organization in New York that develops and manages giving programs, to oversee the September 11th Recovery Grants program.
While Rockefeller will create the guidelines for grant requests and make the initial assessment of proposals, the Red Cross will make the final decisions on the awards, which will range in size from $25,000 to about $1-million.
As an example of the type of programs the Red Cross is looking for, the group pointed to a recent grant to the Mount Sinai Medical Center’s program to provide health care to workers and volunteers who participated in the rescue and recovery efforts at the World Trade Center.
Grants will be made to charities nationwide, but “it’s likely that there will be more grants in the New York City area, given that there are more victims here,” said Melissa A. Berman, president of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors. Rockefeller expects to start requesting proposals at the end of this month, she said.
More information is available at the Red Cross’s Web site, http://www.redcross.org/general/0,1082,0_152_1392,00.html.
