September 11 Charities Face Challenges Beyond the Ordinary

Six months after the devastating terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon,

the scores of new charities that sprang up to meet the needs of victims are showing varying degrees of success.

The goals of these new organizations are wide ranging, including providing health-care coverage and college scholarships to children who lost parents, and finding appropriate ways to memorialize those who died.

Unlike most new charities, which start with little public attention, the September 11 groups have had to struggle with being in the limelight as they have sought to establish their missions and organize their day-to-day operations.

Some of the new organizations have had harsh words for established charities, accusing disaster-relief groups of ineptitude in dealing with victims and their families. At the same time, some new charities themselves have been the target of criticism by the public and the news media, including claims that their motives have turned from a desire to help to a pursuit for financial gain.

Many of the groups’ founders are still coping with their own personal grief over losing a family member or a close friend in the attacks. While throwing themselves into a nonprofit venture has helped some people ease their pain, it has also created additional stress and complications as organizers have found themselves fielding hundreds of phone calls and e-mail queries from distraught family members, as well as facing intense scrutiny from the public and the news media.

Still, the groups say, their connection to September 11 has given them a platform that most start-up charities lack. Contributions large and small, mostly unsolicited, have poured into their coffers. Hundreds of volunteers, including corporate executives, high-school students, and many others, have donated countless hours to offering financial and legal advice and answering telephones and responding to e-mail messages. Members of Congress have made themselves available for meetings.

Some of the new groups, particularly small ones with short-term missions, have faced relatively few trouble spots. One small charity, Flag of Remembrance, was given $50,000 from a single donor to create a memorial flag using the images of those who died in the terrorist assaults. The group was started by two mothers in New York State who together ran a part-time graphic-design business. They have put their business on hold for the next several months while they work to complete the project.

The biggest challenge, says Sherry Kronenfeld, one of the founders, has been collecting the images of the more than 3,000 who died — their goal is to get a picture of every person who perished. “We don’t have to raise money, or give it out,” says Ms. Kronenfeld. “Our only purpose is to honor and pay tribute to the people who lost their lives. Every minute we spend on this project feels good.”

But for some of the new groups, particularly advocacy organizations, the high-profile entree into the nonprofit world has been rocky. Advocacy groups representing victims’ families, such as Families of September 11 and Give Your Voice, have come under fire for complaining that the guidelines governing the multimillion-dollar federal victims’ compensation fund are unfair and that many families will receive little or no financial compensation. The groups have been deluged with negative e-mail messages accusing them of greed, and at least one charity — Families of September 11 — has seen a decrease in contributions since the controversy erupted in January.

“It’s really gotten very ugly,” says Stephen Push, who runs Families of September 11.

Indeed, many charities that are formed following major tragedies often find themselves confronting challenges they did not anticipate, says Nancy B. Anthony, executive director of the Oklahoma City Community Foundation, which played a key role in coordinating nonprofit efforts after the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in 1995.

“Money, especially, brings out the worst in people,” Ms. Anthony says. “It attracts attention and criticism; it’s the currency by which we express our feelings.”

Sustaining a charity over the long term is probably the biggest challenge the September 11 groups face, Ms. Anthony says.

“Right now it appears to be easy because there’s so much visibility for these organizations, but there will be something else that comes along that will take that visibility, so they will have to find a way to continue to tell their story,” she says. Otherwise, she adds, the groups will have trouble attracting money and volunteers.

Many of the groups are still depending on volunteers to do the work. But they will need to hire paid staff once the number of volunteers dwindles, as it surely will, Ms. Anthony adds.

“Very often there is a desire to memorialize someone,” Ms. Anthony says. “But if there is not fundamental understanding of the issue you’re trying to address, the passion will eventually burn out and you’re left with a somewhat inexperienced group of people tackling something they aren’t equipped to tackle.”

In fact, she adds, none of the 12 to 15 Oklahoma City groups that were formed by rookies to the nonprofit world as a memorial to a victim or to benefit survivors and victims’ families operated longer than two years — they were either discontinued or rolled into her community foundation or another nonprofit group.

Leaders of the September 11 charities say they are aware of the challenges ahead. Many have sought advice from Ms. Anthony and other charity officials in Oklahoma City and elsewhere.

“We realize this is more difficult than it sounds,” says Doug MacMillan, executive director of the Todd M. Beamer Foundation, a charity started by the widow of one of the passengers who died on United Airlines Flight 93, which crashed in rural Pennsylvania. “But we’re trying to surround ourselves with knowledgeable people. We want people to look back in 20 years and say, ‘Wow, they did exactly what they said they were going to do.’”

Here’s a look at how some of the groups that were formed in response to September 11 got their start, how they are faring, and what they hope to accomplish:

Todd M. Beamer Foundation, Cranbury, N.J.

Todd M. Beamer will no doubt be remembered by millions of Americans as the passenger aboard United Airlines Flight 93 who uttered the words “Let’s roll,” as he and several others apparently prepared to tackle the four hijackers who had taken over the plane.

Mr. Beamer’s widow, Lisa Beamer, and Mr. MacMillan, his best friend, are hoping to use that now-famous phrase to raise thousands of dollars for the charity established in his name, to pay for long-term health-insurance coverage, as well as other services, for thousands of children who lost a parent in the September attacks.

While the charity’s bid to license the phrase “Let’s roll” has generated publicity and raised some eyebrows, Mr. MacMillan says that “every dime we raise is coming back to the foundation, so it’s a way that we can raise significant amounts of money.”

Beyond the financial aspect, Mr. MacMillan says, licensing the phrase is especially important on a moral level because he does not want to see hawkers of T-shirts and other September 11 memorabilia profiting from the tragedy.

Mr. MacMillan, who belongs to the same church that Mr. Beamer attended, says he did not think twice about quitting his job selling medical equipment to take the helm of the new charity, even though he has yet to draw a salary.

“Todd and I were very close,” Mr. MacMillan says. “I just felt this calling to not let his death be in vain. When I talked about it with Lisa, our thoughts were the same — let’s find the good in this horrible event and do something for the children.”

So far, the Beamer Foundation has taken in more than $1.2-million, primarily through small donations it has received through the mail, Mr. MacMillan says. Among the donors were a girl who mailed in 11 pennies, taped to a piece of paper, and an elderly British woman who sent a £5 note and a wish to repay the kindness that American GI’s had shown her during World War II.

Many others have donated their time and professional expertise, including a lawyer who handled the group’s paperwork seeking tax-exempt status and William Beatty, a vice president at Goldman Sachs who took a year’s leave from work to serve on the board of directors as treasurer. Another lawyer called and offered to handle the licensing of “Let’s roll.”

And, a group of musicians, including Chaka Khan, LeAnn Rimes, and Wynonna Judd, is recording a compact disk, to be titled “Let’s Roll,” to benefit the charity.

Mr. MacMillan says it took “about 30 seconds” to assemble a board of directors, which includes himself, Lisa Beamer, and Mr. Beatty, as well as a youth minister, a lawyer, and an Internet-technology professional — all friends of Mr. Beamer.

“The gifts that we all have just came together logically to round out the board,” Mr. MacMillan says.

Still, he admits that the charity has far to go if it is to realize its many ambitions. In addition to its plans to provide health-care coverage for thousands of children affected by September 11, the group is also considering paying for mental-health services and education for children, as well as financial-planning services for their families.

It also plans to provide assistance to families who are affected by future acts of terrorism. And it wants to continue to support the numerous charities that Mr. Beamer contributed to, including Athletes in Action, a charity started by a college baseball teammate of Mr. Beamer.

“We realize that we need to raise hundreds of millions of dollars to be effective,” Mr. MacMillan says.

The group plans to meet with the American Red Cross and other organizations that have collected hundreds of millions of dollars in donations for victims’ families. The Beamer Foundation wants to be sure that its assistance will not overlap with the plans of those groups, Mr. MacMillan says. It also has said it will not begin disbursing funds for at least another year, so that it has time to properly determine how its money can best be put to use.

Not everything has been handed to the Beamer Foundation. The charity recently hired its first paid employee — an office manager. And, like many other new charities, it has had to buy office equipment because suppliers had already been besieged by requests for donations from World Trade Center companies whose offices were destroyed. “We’ve been told there are just too many needs,” Mr. MacMillan says.

Still, he adds, donations and goods will continue to flow into the organization, and the group continues to look for new ways to tap into the lingering good will. It is considering organizing a series of fund-raising events, including a golf outing, on the West Coast, where Flight 93 was bound.

For his part, Mr. MacMillan says he will eventually begin to draw a salary, though he hasn’t determined exactly when. He also plans to spend most of his time on the road courting corporate executives and continuing to promote the charity.

“We have a poignant story,” he says. “We have the desire of people who want to help. But we also know we can’t just sit back and hope the American public will say, ‘Let’s raise a couple of hundred million dollars for the Beamer Foundation.’”

Families of September 11, Great Falls, Va.

Two weeks after the terrorist attacks, as shock turned to grief, Stephen Push suddenly awoke in the middle of the night, jolted by the horrid reality of his wife’s death — she had been on the plane that crashed into the Pentagon.

The hot-line grief counselor who answered his late-night telephone call asked Mr. Push if he felt suicidal. When Mr. Push responded no, the counselor told him to call back in the morning.

For Carie and Danielle Lemack, whose mother died on one of the planes that hit the World Trade Center, the turning point came when the Red Cross informed them that the charity was assisting only victims and family members of those who had died on the ground, not on the planes — a policy the charity later reversed.

Other families that responded to a well-intended but misguided offer by the Salvation Army to pay their household bills found that payments were made late — or not at all — as the swamped charity fell behind on the paperwork. “We still have people getting eviction notices,” says Carie Lemack.

Such experiences were among many frustrations and indignities that the families of those who died on that day have had to endure as they sought help from government agencies and nonprofit organizations, only to be stymied by bureaucratic red tape and overwhelmed charity volunteers, say Mr. Push and Ms. Lemack. Victims and family members had to spend days on the phone to determine which organizations could best serve their needs, were bounced around from charity to charity, and were confronted with mountains of paperwork when they sought to file claims for assistance.

In October, Mr. Push, the Lemack sisters, and a handful of other family members formed Families of September 11. The group’s top priority is advocating better, more organized services for survivors and family members of those killed in the attacks.

“A real obvious change would be to have a universal claim form,” Mr. Push says.

The group, which says it now represents 500 families in 34 states and six foreign countries, also is seeking to get families more involved in making decisions — from the way funds are parceled out to the kind of information that should be made available on a national database created to assist the families — by taking their concerns to public officials and legislators, and by serving on committees established since the attacks to deal with such issues.

“We are not interested in providing the kinds of services that established charities already provide,” Mr. Push says. “What we want is to help those charities become more organized, to help them understand what the families’ needs are.” Charities need to realize that families of victims want to be more involved in making decisions about disaster relief and other issues that arise from such tragedies, he says.

“In a disaster like this, from an emotional point of view, one of the most difficult things to deal with is that feeling of helplessness,” he says, “and being treated like a passive recipient of aid only promotes that feeling of helplessness.”

The group continues to press for a more generous federal compensation package for victims’ families by meeting with members of Congress and Bush administration officials, and by explaining their positions to the news media, despite continued criticism from the public. Although it was widely reported that families would receive an average of $1.6-million in compensation, Families of September 11 says many survivors stand to receive far less, or nothing at all, once other forms of compensation, such as life insurance and Social Security payments, are taken into account.

Beyond those immediate concerns, Mr. Push says, the group is also pressing members of Congress to make changes in public policy, aviation security, and immigration policies to help prevent terrorist attacks and improve the nation’s response to terrorism. It intends to closely monitor the trial of Zacarias Moussaoui, who faces federal criminal charges in connection with the September 11 attacks. And it wants a Congressional investigation to determine what made it possible for the 19 hijackers to carry out their deadly assaults.

Mr. Push says he realizes the charity will have to raise much more than the $230,000 it has collected if it hopes to accomplish its long-term goals. The bulk of that sum came from a single corporate contribution. But, Mr. Push acknowledges, it will probably cost the group more than that each year just to operate.

“To have an office and an administrative person on staff, to pay basic expenses, we know our budget is going to have to be well into the six figures at least,” he says.

Yet the group has only begun to turn its attention to fund raising.

The charity’s two most active volunteers — Mr. Push and Carie Lemack — have spent most of their time thus far trying to draw attention to their concerns. The charity is run out of Mr. Push’s home, and it has yet to hire a paid staff member.

Ms. Lemack plans to return to graduate school in the fall and scale back her involvement with the group. Mr. Push, meanwhile, says he has no plans to ever draw a salary from the charity and says he has spent close to $20,000 in contributions to and out-of-pocket expenses for the group. He has retired from his job as a public-relations executive and is living on the income from his savings.

While Families of September 11 was able to receive its tax-exempt status quickly — thanks to the pro bono services of a lawyer and an IRS program expediting the process for September 11 charities — the group’s real work is only just beginning, Mr. Push says. The group is currently looking at options to help it raise more money, including applying for grants, or possibly hiring a fund-raising organization. It also plans to hire a full-time administrator and find office space in the Washington area within the year.

“We understand that once you cross the threshold from being a totally voluntary organization with no real budget to being any kind of an official organization, there are a whole lot of costs and responsibilities you take on, and you have to make a commitment to bring in a certain amount of money each year,” Mr. Push says.

On a personal level, Mr. Push says, focusing on Families of September 11 has helped get him through the last six months. “I can definitely function better when I have something to distract me from my grief,” he says. But, he adds, the charity is much more than a distraction, and he intends for it to continue for many years.

“Unfortunately, I don’t think we’ve seen the last of terrorism,” he says.

Twin Towers Orphan Fund, Bakersfield, Calif.

As W. Knox Richardson watched the horrific acts of September 11 unfold from his home office in Bakersfield, Calif., he had the same thought as millions of other Americans: I have to do something.

Within hours, Mr. Richardson had begun exchanging e-mail messages with other public-relations professionals. Two days later, the group announced the formation of the Twin Towers Orphan Fund to pay for education, health care, and mental-health services for children who lost one or both parents in the attacks.

Unlike the many nonprofit groups that have been established in the wake of the disaster, the Twin Towers Orphan Fund is not an independent charity, but rather a program of a Bakersfield social-services organization called Garden Pathways.

Mr. Richardson says he and his colleagues chose to fold their project into a larger organization for practical reasons: At the time that the effort was established, the IRS had not yet announced its program to put September 11 charities on a “fast track” to receive tax exemption.

“There was a lot of momentum behind what we were doing, and we wanted to move forward as quickly as possible,” Mr. Richardson says. “We knew that if we hooked up with an existing group we could have instant tax-exempt status and also have instant infrastructure.”

Mr. Richardson’s sister, a fund-raising professional in the Bakersfield area, supplied him with a list of nonprofit organizations whose missions meshed with the goals of the Twin Towers Orphan Fund. Garden Pathways, a local charity best known for its family mentor program, agreed to take on the program.

As part of the agreement, Garden Pathways provides administrative, financial, legal, and accounting services — as well as its board of directors — to the fund, while public-relations volunteers, including Mr. Richardson, handle fund raising, publicity, donor relations, the program’s Web site, and the task of determining who is eligible to be placed on the child registry.

While the arrangement has worked well thus far, Mr. Richardson says he is aware of the potential for clashes if the charity’s board does not see eye to eye with the volunteers who organized the program.

In fact, he adds, the board and the volunteers are currently working to determine which families should be eligible for mental-health services that the program plans to provide. While the volunteers say their intention is to provide the services to families regardless of financial need, Garden Pathways board members contend that as of 2003, families might be legally obligated to show they need financial assistance to obtain those services.

“Obviously, we will have to go along with whatever is legally correct,” Mr. Richardson says.

So far, the Twin Towers Orphan Fund has raised $3.2-million, much of it through independent fund-raising events and marketing ventures generated by volunteers in the public-relations field. Among them: Bridal Guide magazine raised $119,500 through a charity auction of wedding gowns; and BoRics, a chain of more than 350 hair salons, donated all of its profits from one day, totaling $105,168, to the group.

“People have been coming to us,” Mr. Richardson says.

Half of the money raised has already been placed into a financial-services account, which OppenheimerFunds has agreed to manage at no cost. Eventually, up to 800 long-term tax-deferred education savings accounts in the names of children who are registered with the fund will be opened. The remaining $1.6-million will be held in trust by the Twin Towers Orphan Fund to finance additional education accounts for children who register after January 31 this year and for new mental and physical health-care programs.

Because the charity has pledged that all donations to the fund will go into the accounts for the children, it is looking for other ways to pay for the costs associated with the program — most of which have been borne by the volunteers so far. On the group’s Web site, donors who contribute to the education fund are asked to consider making an additional small donation to help cover administrative costs.

Although the pledge has proved popular with donors, it has made raising additional funds difficult, Mr. Richardson says. Corporations that the group has approached have balked at the idea of giving money to pay for overhead.

“If we could start over, we would still make the same pledge, but we would promote the opportunity to give to administration and overhead much earlier,” Mr. Richardson says.

At the same time, says David Mills, executive director of Garden Pathways, the pledge to give all donations to the project has forced the charity and the volunteers to keep costs as low as possible. “We’ve really tried to do this in a frugal way,” he says.

Mr. Richardson communicates with donors, families, and others primarily through the project’s Web site, which he says cuts down on phone bills, postage, and other expenses. For example, donors can use an online tax-receipt form on the charity’s site, which cuts down on the group’s use of paper.

So far, the group has raised and spent about $30,000 on administration. A holiday card sale brought in $15,000, and additional funds have been raised through the Web site. Mr. Richardson has spent $7,000 of his own money to help pay for day-to-day expenses.

Although Mr. Richardson and Mr. Mills say they would like the charity to hire a full-time staff member to run the program and help it to expand, those plans will depend on whether they are successful in raising additional administrative support — $100,000 per year.

Other challenges exist as well. Many of the 60 or so volunteers who were involved in creating the program and raising money and awareness for it have scaled back or ended their involvement, leaving a small core of about a half-dozen, including Mr. Richardson and his companion, Michele Weaver, a Web designer, to run it.

Meanwhile, Mr. Richardson, a former dot-com executive whose Internet marketing company folded last summer, says he feels fortunate that he has had the financial resources — and the time — to run the program until now.

However, he says, he is now looking to return to the business world and will have to eventually curtail the amount of time he spends on the Twin Towers Orphan Fund.

“The good thing is that we’ve set this program up so that at the very least it can run as a volunteer effort,” he says. “But I do believe that somebody is going to recognize what we’re doing and come and pick up the cost and sponsor the fund.”

He adds, “In the heat of the moment, we all agreed that this was a good idea. I still believe that.”

Windows of Hope Family Relief Fund, New York

It started as a simple fund-raising idea: Get restaurants across the country to donate 10 percent of their evening profits from October 11 — a month after the terrorist attacks — to help the families of victims who worked in the food-service industry. The money could be turned over to an existing charity, thought Darlene Dwyer, a public-relations consultant in the food and wine industry and one of the event’s organizers.

What Ms. Dwyer and other organizers of the nationwide fund-raising event didn’t count on was that 4,000 restaurants would join in, and that they would take in nearly $15-million.

“The families were totally amazed,” says Ms. Dwyer, who has also worked as a fund raiser and marketing consultant for arts groups. “They couldn’t believe so many people cared about them.”

With contributions pouring in, the event’s organizers — which included Michael Lomonaco, former executive chef of Windows on the World, which was destroyed when the North Tower of the World Trade Center collapsed — decided to establish the Windows of Hope Family Relief Fund, to provide financial and other assistance to the more than 100 families that were identified. “We realized that there wasn’t anything like this fund within the restaurant industry,” says Ms. Dwyer, who is now the charity’s executive director.

The reason that Windows of Hope chose to establish itself as a separate charity, rather than become part of a community foundation or another established nonprofit organization is simple, Ms. Dwyer says. “We didn’t think about it. We just knew we were filling a need that wasn’t being met.”

So far, Ms. Dwyer says, things have gone well for the new charity. Since October, Windows of Hope has been housed in the Park Avenue offices of Bloomberg, the financial news company owned by the city’s new mayor, at no cost to the charity. “They called me one day asking if I needed office space, and I said, ‘Do I ever,’” Ms. Dwyer says. “We’re trying not to overstay our welcome, but they keep telling us we’re fine.” In addition to providing the office, Bloomberg has also allowed employees to volunteer with the fund, entering data into the computer and providing financial advice.

By November, the charity had already distributed $2-million, including $10,000 to each family for emergency aid, and additional funds to cover health-insurance costs for some recipients. It is preparing to distribute an additional $1-million that it received from a single donor with the stipulation that the money be disbursed quickly.

To determine how that donation and additional funds should be parceled out, Windows of Hope has been working closely with Community Service Society, a charity that has provided social services to needy New York families for 150 years. Caseworkers from Community Service Society have spent the last several months meeting with beneficiary families identified by Windows of Hope, and are helping the fund assess each family’s needs. Their salaries are being paid by the New York Times Neediest Cases Fund.

“It’s a relatively small group of families we’re dealing with, but we’re trying to cover everything,” Ms. Dwyer says. “We want to make sure they have everything they’re entitled to.”

In addition to emergency assistance, Windows of Hope has also pledged to pay health-insurance fees for each family for five years, and to create a scholarship fund for children and adults of victims’ families who are interested in pursuing education opportunities.

The group already has two paid staff members, including Ms. Dwyer, who began drawing a salary in December. And chefs, restaurants, and other organizations continue to hold fund-raising events to benefit Windows of Hope.

“Corporate donations, too, are still coming strong,” Ms. Dwyer says.

Windows of Hope plans to be around for at least two decades to administer its scholarship funds. “We just had two children born this month, so we’ll want to see them through,” Ms. Dwyer says. But the group is still not sure how much longer it will need to actively raise money. Ms. Dwyer says she hopes to get a better sense of the charity’s future direction once the caseworkers have submitted their reports on the families.

“The mission of the fund has always been to help the families become independent again and get back on their feet,” she says. “We went in headfirst, but we’ve had amazing results.”