Why people believe it
Goods feel real. You can picture the blanket or the case of water reaching someone who needs it, while a donation feels abstract. After a disaster people want to do something right away, and a collection drive at work or school makes giving physical and social.
What’s true
Goods can help when they are asked for. FEMA says donated items can be useful if relief organizations have requested them, the donor confirms someone is ready to receive them and the items are new, clean, sorted and labeled. And cash isn’t better for every purpose. A Campbell Collaboration review of cash in humanitarian emergencies found that food handouts raised calorie intake more than cash did.
What’s false
That goods are the best way to help. FEMA’s guidance opens with the heading “Cash is Best.” Money given to trusted relief organizations is usually the fastest and most effective help, it says, because they know what is needed, can buy in bulk and, when possible, buy from local businesses, which helps the local economy recover. The National Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster asks people not to send or bring unsolicited donations at all. Shipping goods is expensive, and used clothing, household items and mixed food pull volunteers away from helping survivors so they can sort, pack, store and hand out things that may not meet anyone’s needs.
The research points the same way. The Campbell review found that unconditional cash transfers cost less per person to deliver than vouchers, which cost less than handing out food, and that cash programs generated more than $2 of benefit for local markets for every $1 given. Cash also did more than food to improve the variety of people’s diets.
The deeper problem is that a box of goods carries the donor’s guess about what survivors need. Money lets the people on the ground, and often the survivors themselves, decide.
What to ask instead
What have the organizations already working there asked for? Do they take money, and do they buy locally? See the Disaster Response Guide, the Intervention Database entry on cash transfers and the case of rebuilding Haiti.