Charities across Southern California are anxious that their own funding could fall perilously low while America's attention, and charitable giving, is focused on the ravaged Gulf Coast.
Already there are signs that the unprecedented generosity directed at victims of Hurricane Katrina is having an effect on nonprofit groups that rely on private donations to survive.
In Riverside County, several staffers at the Red Cross chapter were recently let go because funding had been steeply declining.
A lavish fundraiser for a cultural arts center set to take place at a Simi Valley horse ranch Sept. 18 was canceled due to poor ticket sales.
And officials at the United Way of Greater Los Angeles are worried that the focus on Katrina could hurt corporate and individual giving just as their biggest fundraising push of the year gets underway.
"It's important that people realize that the nonprofits that are here are providing resources for a critical safety net that would not otherwise be there," said Elise Buik, the group's president and chief executive. "We have 90,000 homeless right here in Los Angeles County."
Donations to help hurricane survivors are pouring in at record rates, analysts say, outpacing giving after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and the Southeast Asian tsunami.
As of Thursday, the American Red Cross had received $503 million in gifts and pledges for hurricane relief, the charity's website reported.
Donations to United Way of America are "in the millions," said Sheila Consaul, the nonprofit's spokeswoman. The money is coming in so fast that the organization hasn't yet gotten around to tallying it, Consaul said.
"We're definitely getting an overwhelming response," she said.
Numerous other individual and corporate funds have been established to help the more than 500,000 displaced by the disaster.
Nonprofit officials call the response commendable. But at the same time, they are anxious that people will neglect myriad other causes and issues funded solely by private donors that provide services for the needy.
"People are saying things like, 'I can't do it this year; check with me next year, Ray,' " said Raymond Cruz, who heads the fundraising arm of the Simi Valley Cultural Arts Center.
Ticket sales for the center's annual JazzVino fundraiser have been so slow that his committee decided to cancel the affair rather than just break even, he said.
