Donors not giving as much to Japan

Microsoft, Boeing and Starbucks are contributing a total of $5 million toward relief efforts in Japan following the country’s earthquake, tsunami and nuclear power disasters. But overall, charitable donations are not as significant as they were during Haiti’s earthquake.

Donations for Japan have reached nearly $25 million in the five days after the devastation.

That’s one-tenth of the amount contributed during other large disasters, according to The NonProfit Times.

In the five days after Haiti’s earthquake in January of 2010, about $228 million had been raised, with $24 coming in through Red Cross donations in the first week. Five days after Hurricane Katrina hit the Louisiana coast, about $248 million had been raised.

The Center on Philanthropy started tracking disaster giving after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. Two weeks after those attacks, the first point in which donations were calculated, about $607 million in donations was raised.

A spokesman for the American Red Cross speculated that donations might be different for Japan and Haiti because Japan is a well-developed nation and was not as needy before the disasters.

AP/Photo by Toshiharu Kato