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Where to Turn When Disaster Strikes
July 23, 2019
Where to Turn When Disaster Strikes
In September 2017, Hurricane Irma struck the Florida Keys, inflicting damage across the 120-mile island chain between Miami and Cuba. The Category 4 storm impacted over 75,000 residents of the Keys; devastating homes, roadways and businesses and leaving thousands homeless, jobless or both.
Irma also impacted the United Way of the Florida Keys staff at a time of critical community need, leaving an already small staff even smaller. Their office manager had evacuated and the CEO’s home was devastated, forcing their families to leave the community. Leah Stockton entered her role as the new CEO 63 days after Irma hit.
Still receiving paper applications and reports using spreadsheets for their round of Community Investment funding, staff spent hours organizing and compiling information even before disaster relief funding came in. It worked, but when the community turned to United Way of the Florida Keys for relief and funding became available from federal sources, they quickly realized they needed a more efficient way to track and manage data.
United Way of the Florida Keys quickly reached out to Seabrooks. A week later their board approved bringing on Seabrooks as the newest member of their team. Within two weeks their first application offering Hurricane Irma Relief Funding was live in e-CImpact.
Host Leah Stockton, President/CEO from United Way of the Florida Keys will share their disaster relief experience with Hurricane Irma and how e-CImpact created a continuous and innovative space for grant-making and data collection to support impact through community investment.
