Fundraising for Japanese tsunami relief totaled a stunning $6.5 billion and helped about 930,000 people in the affected area. This was in the one year after a magnitude 9.0 earthquake 80 miles offshore set off killer tsunami waves on March 11, 2011 that slammed into the north coast off Honshu. The impact was deadly, leaving behind a death toll that has crept up to 16,000, with another 3,500 people still listed as missing.
More than 129,000 buildings were destroyed. Japan, a developed nation with a good infrastructure and social support networks, had no way to handle the scale of the disaster and recover on its own. The global community stepped in with a massive aid operation to prevent the country from falling apart.
Americans sent in $312 million via the Red Cross Society to help 316,000 survivors. The Red Cross in Japan was able to leverage these donations into temporary housing and health services. One permanent and four makeshift hospitals were set up to provide health care for 87,000 people.
Apart from the huge amount of cash and aid in kind, the U. S. Government set in motion Operation Tomodachi, which ended up as the biggest such relief effort ever. The U. S. Sent an armada of 140 aircraft and 20 ships. The armed forces had 20,000 members helping Japan with rescue operations, aid distribution and rebuilding.
Private organizations took in money through any means possible and funneled it through to aid workers and affected people on the ground. CARE collected over $5 million and reached 37,658 people. Global Giving collected nearly half a million in micro-donations from over 31,600 donors, many of whom paid using mobile phones, PayPal and credit cards.
The volume of online micro-donations was bigger than ever before because of the desperate need for Japanese tsunami relief. It was first deployed as a serious fundraising tool after the Haiti quake and showed how effective it can be in Japan. It is now clear that mobile phones, twitter and a variety of other online mediums can be used for large-scale disaster fundraising.
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