BLOOMINGTON, Ind.— More than three-quarters of Indiana’s local government officials (LGOs) report that their local government relies on nonprofits, at least in part, in responding to emergencies, such as meeting the immediate or long-term needs of residents, coordinating volunteers, raising philanthropic support, or participating in emergency response teams. However, LGOs rank local nonprofits—as well as local businesses, churches, and local residents—significantly less prepared for disasters than government and other essential institutions.
These and other findings are the subject of the newly released report, Indiana Local Government Officials and Major Disasters: Assessing Preparedness and Reliance on Nonprofits, from the Indiana University O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs and the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy.
The report is based on data from a 2020 survey by the Indiana Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations (IACIR) of Indiana LGOs on issues affecting local governments and residents in Indiana.
“It’s critical that communities are prepared for major disasters since failed emergency management—inadequate prevention, mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery—can threaten lives and can impose enormous costs,” said Kirsten Grønbjerg, Ph.D., Distinguished Professor at the O’Neill School and Efroymson Chair in Philanthropy (2001-2020) at the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy at IUPUI, who directs the Indiana Nonprofits Project. “Effective preparedness will be even more important if projections of more frequent and serious disasters linked to climate change come true.”
More than a third of Indiana counties have experienced at least one major disaster declaration by the Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA) during the last three years, not counting the COVID-19 Pandemic, which was declared a major disaster for all Indiana counties on April 3, 2020.
About a third (29 to 33 percent) of LGOs say their local government relies on nonprofits extensively or almost exclusively for each of the five disaster response activities, confirming the importance of local nonprofits during disasters. However, only 30 percent of LGOs say that nonprofits are well or very well prepared to deal with the impact of serious disasters. Grønbjerg notes that the COVID-19 pandemic likely increased the awareness of the critical role that nonprofits play in local communities but also revealed the challenges involved in responding to this very different and prolonged disaster.
Other findings show that LGOs, who view current community conditions as most problematic or who are the most pessimistic about the direction their community is heading, also tend to rate various institutions as least well prepared to deal with the impact of major disasters. “If disasters do become more frequent and severe, these finding suggest we will see greater disparity in preparedness among Indiana’s communities,” Grønbjerg said.
About the report
This is the eleventh report in a series on nonprofit-government relations in Indiana from the Indiana Nonprofits Project: Scope and Community Dimensions. The data for these briefings come from periodic surveys by the Indiana Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations (IACIR) on issues affecting local governments and residents in Indiana. Other briefings have examined government contracts with nonprofits, 2-1-1 services, payments in lieu of taxes (PILOTs), working relations with nonprofits, and trust in nonprofits.
These analyses are a joint effort of the O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University Bloomington, the Indiana Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations (IACIR), and the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy at IUPUI. The co-authors of the briefing include project director Kirsten Grønbjerg and research assistant and Indiana University undergraduate student Elizabeth McAvoy.
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