Help wanted: As catastrophes mount, are donors 'donated out'?

Published: 2005-10-20

ST. PAUL, Minn. (CNS) -- "I'm kind of donated out right now." Fred Whebbe, who was heading into Mass at the Cathedral of St. Paul one morning in mid-October, gave voice to what has been on the minds of some Americans in the past few weeks. The fact that hundreds of thousands of lives have been destroyed by a tsunami, an earthquake and several hurricanes in the last several months is emotionally overwhelming, donors say, and it is hard to keep pace with a checkbook. Nonprofit charities have noticed the slowdown. "We do expect a short-term dip," said Mark Melia, director of annual giving and support at Catholic Relief Services in Baltimore, which is busy providing aid to victims of the Oct. 8 earthquake in Pakistan as well as Hurricane Stan in Guatemala. With major disasters piled on top of each other, "you're seeing the same images, ... and that's what I think is overwhelming," he said. "But I don't think it's even just overwhelming from an 'I already gave' perspective. It's also overwhelming, emotionally, to process all of that."

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