Even though Giving Tuesday has past, there are still many ways to give this holiday season!
Noozhawk is teaming up with local nonprofits to encourage you to give back to the many organizations that make Santa Barbara a place we are proud to call home.
Our Good for Santa Barbara Nonprofit Section provides all the resources you need to donate this holiday season!
In this interview, Noozhawk spoke with Brea Burkholz, Public Relations Manager at Direct Relief, to learn more about how the nonprofit is dedicated t0 improving the health and lives of people affected by poverty or emergencies – without regard to politics, religion, or ability to pay.
Direct Relief
Question: What is the name and mission of your nonprofit?
Answer: Direct Relief is a humanitarian aid organization, active in all 50 states and more than 80 countries, with a mission to improve the health and lives of people affected by poverty or emergencies – without regard to politics, religion, or ability to pay.
Question: How long has your nonprofit been in service, and who are its founders?
Answer: Since 1948, Direct Relief has worked to help people who confront enormous hardship to recover from disasters and improve the quality of their lives. The tradition of direct and targeted assistance, provided in a manner that respects and involves the people served, has been a hallmark of the organization since its founding.
In 1945, William Zimdin, an Estonian immigrant who had amassed significant wealth in prewar Europe, began sending thousands of relief parcels containing food, clothing, and medicines to relatives, friends, and former employees who were rebuilding their lives in the aftermath of World War II.
Having witnessed the impacts of unchecked power, Zimdin dedicated his life’s fortune to the oppressed, shunning the fascism that had caused him to flee Hitler’s Europe for his life. He established the William Zimdin Foundation on August 23, 1948, as a California-based non-profit corporation.
After Zimdin’s death in 1951, Dezso (Dennis) Karczag, a Hungarian immigrant and Zimdin’s close business associate, assumed management of the organization.
In 1957, the organization changed its name to the Direct Relief Foundation, and in 1982, renamed again and became known as Direct Relief International. All the while, Direct Relief continued providing postwar assistance to enable people to help themselves.
Question: What was the inspiration behind your nonprofit?
Answer: A sharp humanitarian imperative exists to assist those whose lives remain threatened by disease, poverty or disaster. It’s what guides Direct Relief’s work in areas where governments and global markets are either unable or unwilling to engage in improving the health of people who are sick or hurt.
Question: How is your nonprofit primarily funded and what are your greatest needs?
Answer: Direct Relief, which is funded entirely by private charitable contributions and does not accept government support, prioritizes operational efficiency through strategic partnerships with businesses and organizations.
The vast majority of the donations it receives and distributes consist of in-kind donations of medicine and medical supplies.
These contributions, valued at their wholesale cost, comprise the predominant share of the organization’s annual revenue, with approximately 99.5 cents out of every donated dollar going to program expenses, 0.3 cents to administration and 0.1 cents to fundraising expenses.
Direct Relief seeks to be efficient and frugal in all organizational activities, including fundraising activities.
While Direct Relief’s modest fundraising expenses average about 2 percent of its total cash revenue, its fundraising expenses are paid by the earnings from a generous bequest, meaning zero percent of donated funds support the organization’s fundraising activities.
Question: In what ways does your nonprofit utilize its funding?
Answer: Since its inception, Direct Relief has provided aid in response to emergencies and to refugee populations. Beginning with postwar refugee assistance in Eastern Europe, Direct Relief has consistently responded with targeted medical aid following major emergencies.
Today, Direct Relief provides appropriate and specifically requested medical resources to community-based institutions and organizations throughout the world and across the United States.
Just as in 1948, Direct Relief’s humanitarian assistance is provided respectfully, in partnership with local groups, and without regard to ethnicity, politic, religion, gender, or ability to pay.
Question: How do people get involved/volunteer for your nonprofit?
Answer: To learn more about Direct Relief, visit our website.
Question: What makes your nonprofit different from others?
Answer: Doctors and community health workers around the world rely on Direct Relief to equip them with the medical resources they need to care for any patient, without regard to politics, religion, or ability to pay.
In 2023, Direct Relief once again demonstrated the effectiveness of its flexible approach across all of its programmatic priorities. The organization sustained and expanded existing programs while also responding to humanitarian emergencies globally. The organization’s continuing response to the war in Ukraine – now exceeding $1 billion in humanitarian assistance – remains the largest mobilization of medical resources in Direct Relief’s history.
Direct Relief’s longstanding approach of supporting locally run facilities providing essential health services to underserved communities has enabled the organization to distribute more medicine and supplies, and strengthen fragile health systems in more places than ever before in its 75-year history.
This report provides an overview of how Direct Relief has leveraged contributions from generous individuals, companies, and foundations to improve the health and lives of people affected by poverty and emergencies in 2023.
Question: Why should donors trust your organization and are there other ways to help outside of donations?
Answer: Direct Relief’s work earns wide recognition from independent charity evaluation agencies, including a 100% fundraising efficiency rating from Forbes, a spot on Charity Navigator’s list of the “10 Best Charities Everyone’s Heard Of,” and inclusion in Fast Company’s list of “the world’s most innovative nonprofits.”
In November, Charity Navigator, America’s top independent nonprofit evaluator, awarded Direct Relief a 2023 nonprofit rating of 100% for its impact, efficiency, and transparency. This recognition marks Direct Relief’s 13th consecutive four-star rating and the first time it has been evaluated in Charity Navigator’s Impact & Results beacon, where its 100% rating contributed to an overall perfect score across the key nonprofit performance indicators Charity Navigator assesses.
Charity Navigator introduced the Impact & Results beacon to gauge the “actual impact a charity has on the lives of those it serves and determine whether it is making good use of donor resources to achieve that impact.” At the date of publication, only 2,202 or 1% of the 209,155 charities scored by Charity Navigator have earned an Impact & Results rating.
Reflecting Direct Relief’s key role in delivering humanitarian medical aid in response to disasters, Charity Navigator in 2023 named Direct Relief to its list of the best Humanitarian Relief Charities and among the charities it recommended donating to after disasters, including the Maui Wildfire, Flooding in Libya, Hurricane Idalia, Tropical Storm Hilary, and the earthquakes in Morocco, Turkey and Syria.
Click here to support Direct Relief’s mission to assist those whose lives remain threatened by disease, poverty or disaster.
Check out Noozhawk’s Guide to Giving for a full list of nonprofits to donate to this giving season.
If you would like to include your nonprofit in our Good for Santa Barbara section and Giving Guide click HERE.