The director of fundraising at the Disasters Emergency Committee has said its Indonesian earthquake appeal has now raised over £22m.
Speaking to Civil Society News yesterday, Simon Beresford, director of fundraising at the DEC, said that the organisations’ website has proven to be its most successful fundraising channel for this appeal, raising nearly £5.5m.
Beresford said the DEC was seeing the increasing importance of digital fundraising channels in its appeals.
“We’re continuing to see the importance of digital in terms of the mix of how our funding comes in once we’ve launched an appeal. Our biggest channel for fundraising has been our website, which has raised nearly £5.5m since we launched our appeal in early October.”
Beresford also said the DEC has been looking to corporate partners for help with its appeal. He said the Premier League announced their support for the appeal last week.
“The football community has been amazing. The Premier League has come on board and, we’re expecting at some point today, some signed shirts from the entire Liverpool FC first team. We’ll have to work out how we can use those to raise more money”.
When asked what the money has been going towards, Beresford said it was currently being spent on “the basics” for the survivors of the massive earthquake which struck the Indonesian province of Sulawesi on October 28.
“One of the first things we’ve done is focus on things like getting decent, temporary shelter for people. Now we’re focusing on the basics: clean drinking water, toilets in order to reduce the risk of disease and obviously things like food and medical supplies.”
Donations to the DEC have also gone towards member organisation’s providing what Beresford called: “psycho-social support for these communities,” and towards “setting up safe spaces” for more vulnerable people, particularly children.
“As you can imagine, it’s been a hugely traumatic event for people,” he said.
Beresford said as the appeal continues, further donations will go towards helping the community rebuild.
DEC appeals run for a minimum of six months, and Beresford said this could be extended for Sulawesi, should the situation on the ground require it.
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