(Research assistance for this article was provided by Hunter Stuart)
In the wake of Haiti's devastating earthquake a year ago, dozens of major non-profit organizations and philanthropies raised over a billion dollars in relief aid for the devastated country.
Over the past year, those groups spent hundreds of millions to provide water, sanitation, shelter, food and other assistance to millions of Haitians. And many have carefully planned their expenditures, setting aside money for long-term projects crucially needed to rebuild Haiti. But some organizations seemed vague in their plans for how to spend millions in their coffers.
In the last year, Americans gave more than $1.4 billion in relief aid to the country, but only 38 percent of that has been spent to provide recovery and rebuilding aid, according to a Chronicle of Philanthropy survey of 60 major relief organizations. (By comparison, after Hurricane Katrina, a domestic disaster, charities spent about 80 percent of the money they had raised.)
The Huffington Post contacted each of the organizations to find out how they have spent the money raised for Haiti relief as of this week and listed the results below:
Action Aid USAAmount Raised: $13 millionAmount Spent: 5.2 million (three-phase, three-year program)
Adventist Development and Relief Agency InternationalAmount Raised: $8.8 millionAmount Spent: $3.4 millionHow They're Spending It: Contributed to the building of 2,500 shelters and are planning on 500 new ones.
American Jewish World ServiceAmount Raised: $6.5 millionAmount Spent: $1.4 million (long-term, three-phase system)
Americares FoundationAmount Raised: $15.6 million (plus $40 million in in-kind donations)Amount Spent: $4 millionHow They're Spending It: Use $11 million remaining to help the country rebuild its health care system over the next 2-3 years, responding to disease outbreaks and other health emergencies, delivering medical supplies, rehabilitating hospitals, addressing disease, child health programs, providing "safe places" for girls, education programs for health care workers.
Brother's Brother FoundationAmount Raised: $800,000 (plus additional $160,000 in pledges)Amount Spent: $400,000How They're Spending It: Committed $400,000 to building three schools and $200,000 to medical facilities in Haiti that are being refurbished.
Catholic Medical Mission BoardAmount Raised: $46.5 millionAmount Spent: 95% of the aid - in cash and supplies - has been delivered to Haiti. Catholic Relief ServicesAmount Raised: $192 million for Haiti relief and reconstruction (including almost $26 million from the U.S. government)Amount Spent: $60 millionHow They're Spending It: Five-year plan for further relief and long-term reconstruction in such areas as shelter, health, water and sanitation, agriculture and education and child protection.
CAREAmount Raised: $45 million (plus $4.3 million in in-kind donations)Amount Spent: $23.2 million
Church World ServiceAmount Raised: $4,883,731.40 (cash), $594,202 (material aid donations)Amount Spent: $2,126,468.78How They Spent It: Medical boxes valued at $181,857 were distributed to local Haitian health facilities and church affiliated clinics. Additional money went towards house repair, people with disabilities, family livelihood program, Hatian paralegal services, transporting and warehousing materials.How They Plan To Spend The Rest: Funds are committed to people with disabilities ($905,192), education program for children and vocational training/livelihoods grants for survivors in Port-au-Prince ($427,720), increased food security, agriculture and home/shelter repair and expansion for quake evacuees in Haiti's rural northwest ($1,071,955), operations costs ($123,000), Haitian para-legal ($57,000)
Clinton FoundationAmount Raised: $16.4 millionAmount Spent: $11.5 million (and facilitated the delivery of $16 million dollars worth of goods donated by other organizations)How They're Spending It: $4.9 million is dedicated to future projects and grants dealing with economic development, health and sanitation, education, housing and sustainable energy.
Concern WorldwideAmount Raised: $43.3 millionAmount Spent: $23.76 millionHow they spent it: Water and sanitation, provisional relief items, shelter, health and nutrition, cash-for-work programs, managing humanitarian services at camps for displaced people, education.
Cooperative Housing FoundationAmount Raised: $1 million (public), $20.9 million (from U.S. government)Amount Spent: $18.65 millionHow They're Spending It: Immediate relief and future projects include clearing rubble, building shelters in place of homes that were destroyed, building up communities that were hurt by the earthquake and building disaster-proof homes.
Cross InternationalAmount Raised: $6.8 million, $146.1 million (relief goods)Amount Spent: $4.1 million, $143.5 million (relief goods)How They're Spending It: Several long-term projects including housing construction, rebuilding schools and orphanages, fighting cholera and providing water.
Direct ReliefAmount Raised: $64 million ($6.5 million and $57.2 million in in-kind donations)Amount Spent: $54 millionHow They're Spending It: 85 percent has been allocated to specific programs. Re-granted over $800,000 to 23 Haitian nonprofits, provided medical supplies since the cholera outbreak, provided aid to more than 50 Haitian health facilities.How They Plan To Spend The Rest: Long-term recovery, including continued cholera prevention and treatment, prosthetics and orthotics assistance, hurricane preparedness and medical aid distribution.
Doctors Without Borders (Medecins Sans Frontieres)Amount Raised: $138 millionAmount Spent: $104 million (as of October 2010)
Feed the ChildrenAmount Raised: $1.2 million (plus $18.6 million in in-kind-donations)Amount Spent: 100 percent
Fonkoze USAAmount Raised: $2.5 millionAmount Spent: $2.3 millionHow They're Spending It: Restoring the infrastructure of a Haitian-based foundation that gives micro-loans, primarily to women.
Food for the PoorAmount Raised: $20.7 millionAmount Spent: 100 percent (Also sent 1,459 containers to Haiti)
Habitat for HumanityAmount Raised: $16.8 million (private), $8.2 million (U.S. government funding)Amount Spent: $10.3 million (private), $2.6 million (U.S. government funding)How They're Spending It: Assembling and distributing emergency shelter kits, conducting structural damage assessments, construction of transitional shelters, construction and repairs of permanent houses.How They Plan To Spend The Rest: Upgradable shelters, permanent houses, repairs, structural damage assessment and training.
Handicap InternationalAmount Raised: $21,075,910Amount Spent: $14,564,580How They're Spending It: Healthcare and rehabilitation: $4,759,000. Aid and support for people with disabilities and vulnerable sections of the population: $1,677,540. Rehabilitation and construction: $2,788,380. Management and distribution of humanitarian aid: $5,339,660.
Heifer InternationalAmount Raised: $1.85 millionAmount Spent: $1 millionHow They're Spending It: The donations are part of a multi-year $6.5-million program to help increase the food security and income of more than 12,000 families through improved agricultural productivity, sound watershed management and market development.
HelpAge USAAmount Raised: $1.4 millionAmount Spent: 100 percent
IMA World HealthAmount Raised: $397,771 (as of October 2010), $325,977 (in in-kind gifts) Amount Spent: $384,087 (and provided a total of over $2.2 million worth of medicines and supplies)How They're Spending It: Continued presence in Haiti and involvement with a national program of the Hatian Ministry of Health. InterActionAmount Raised: $1.2 billionAmount Spent: $530 millionHow They're Spending It: InterAction is a coalition of nearly 200 NGOs, about half of which are working in Haiti on a range of projects, from coping with the cholera epidemic to building homes and running camps for people displaced by the earthquake.
International Relief & DevelopmentAmount Raised: $7.6 million (including $16M in in-kind donations)Amount Spent: $4.2 millionHow They're Spending It: To purchase basic humanitarian aid for the people of Haiti, support IRD's shelter and sanitation programs and help cover airfreight and shipping costs to deliver commodities to Port-au-Prince.
International Medical CorpsAmount Raised: $42.5 millionAmount Spent: $29.6 millionHow They're Spending It: Over the next two years focusing on medical care, mental health care, clean water/sanitation/hygiene promotion and other critical services, as well as expanding their network of cholera treatment centers.
International Rescue CommitteeAmount Raised: $17 millionAmount Spent: $7.8 million. How They're Spending It: $6.6 million of the remaining funds are specific to grants. The remaining $2.6 will be spent on various relief projects in the coming year, such as extending water, sanitation and hygene promotion to schools and communities, working with displaced children and a cash for work program.
Islamic Relief USAAmount Raised: $2.5 million (plus in-kind donations)Amount Spent: $942,509How They're Spending It: In the process of accepting applications for various initiatives from Islamic Relief Worldwide mission in Haiti; trying to find solutions to address chronic development challenges on the ground.
Lions Club International FoundationAmount Raised: $6.1 millionAmount Spent: $1.5 millionHow They're Spending It: Long-term approach to pick up where other organizations leave off and "fill the gap"; eye clinic and ongoing projects involving housing are in the works.
Lutheran World ReliefAmount Raised: $7.2 million (plus $2.2 million of material goods)Amount Spent: $3.3 millionHow They're Spending It: Five-year plan to improve agriculture, improve sanitation and hygiene, provide micro-loans for small business entrepreneurs and train communities on disaster risk reduction.
Medical Teams InternationalAmount Raised: $14 million (cash and supplies) Amount Spent: $10.6 millionHow They're Spending It: Mobilized volunteers, distributed medicines and supplies for over 250,000 people, trained local doctors, cared for over 40,000 cholera patients, delivered more than $800,000 since the cholera epidemic.How They Plan To Spend The Rest: Provide prosthetics to those who lost their limbs in the earthquake, care for thousands of orphans and vulnerable children and send medical volunteers to help people living in the tent camps, continue to work on reducing and preventing outbreaks of cholera in affected areas and help pastors and churches improve the long-term health needs in their communities.
Mennonite Central CommitteeAmount Raised: $14 million (as of Nov. 17, 2010)Amount Spent: $3.6 million (as of Dec. 17, 2010)How They're Spending It: Mid-term and long-term projects dealing with shelter & housing, food, education, human rights, emergency assistance, health, trauma healing; operational costs.
Mercy CorpsAmount Raised: $17.4 millionAmount Spent: $5.8 million
Oxfam AmericaAmount Raised: $98 million (plus $7.2 million for cholera response)Amount Spent: $68 million (too early to determine cholera spending)How They're Spending It: Cholera program benefiting 1.3 million focuses on clean water, sanitation services, and hygiene education; helping 209,000 people get access to food or economic opportunities; helped 94,000 people get shelter
Pan American Development FoundationAmount Raised: $2.2 millionAmount Spent: $2.2 millionHow They're Spending It: Rebuilding neighborhoods, returning people to safe homes, restoring livelihoods.
Partners in HealthAmount Raised: $89 millionAmount Spent: $39.16 millionHow They're Spending It: All of the money is programmed and committed to support a $125 million, three-year recovery plan.
American Red CrossAmount Raised: $479 million Amount Spent: $245 million
The Salvation ArmyAmount Raised: $32.6 millionAmount Spent: $16.3 millionHow They're Spending It: Long-term recovery projects.
Save The ChildrenAmount Raised: $87 million Amount Spent: $52 million How They're Spending It: Shelter, water and sanitation, education, improving livelihoods, child protection, health, nutrition, and food. Save the Children is still waiting to raise an additional $88 million to reach their funding target of $175 million.
US Fund for UNICEFAmount Raised: $70 millionAmount Spent: 62%
Unitarian Universalist Service CommitteeAmount Raised: $1,956,129 (plus $500,000 matching grant on a 3-for-1 basis)Amount Spent so far: $580,011How They're Spending It: Implementing a new volunteer program, constructing homes, working with our partner the Papaye Peasant Movement, building a sustainable future in the agricultural sector, establishing a safe haven for girls orphaned by the earthquake, developing programs in renewable energies, training Haitians in trauma stabilization techniques, food preparation training.
World VisionAmount Raised: $194 millionAmount Spent: $107 millionHow They're Spending It: Provided household supplies, 229,763 households received food aid in the first three months, transitional shelters provided for over 600 families, cash-for-work programs, education, disaster mitigation, etc.How They Plan To Spend The Rest: Committed to a five-year response to the quake; continued work with transitional shelter needs, economic development, disaster risk reduction/mitigation and education, as well as long-term community development work.
Read more to learn about how Haiti's fragile recovery is threatened by broken promises and political uncertainty.