How This Community Foundation Created a New Model for Disaster Relief

A series of severe tornadoes carved a 32‑mile path of destruction across eastern Nebraska on April 26, 2024, damaging or destroying nearly 1,000 homes and leaving many elderly, rural, and vulnerable residents without housing, food, or essential services. Within hours, the Omaha Community Foundation was thrust into a central role, raising $1.3 million in donations and coordinating what would become one of the region’s most organized long‑term recovery efforts. 

Instead of relying on the slow, fragmented systems that often follow disasters, the Omaha Community Foundation quickly convened local partners to build a coordinated recovery model. Over 18 months, the effort streamlined survivors’ access to FEMA aid, philanthropic support, insurance help, and other essential services.

Together, the partners created a three‑pillar plan called the “Blueprint for Resilient Recovery” that the foundation hopes can be replicated by community foundations and their partners nationwide as the frequency of costly extreme weather events increases each year and as reductions in federal disaster funding require greater reliance on philanthropy. 

The first pillar of the plan focused on bringing together a broad network of agencies, neighborhood leaders, mental‑health providers, construction experts, volunteer groups, and donation managers to coordinate assessments, case management, and service delivery.

The second pillar of the plan — funded in part by a $1.2 million FEMA grant — was expanding the disaster case-management work force. Case managers verified damage and served as the primary point of contact for affected households. This verification was critical because FEMA would not release individual assistance without local verification. The Omaha Community Foundation identified people who could serve as case managers and helped them get training from the United Methodist Committee on Relief — a global humanitarian aid organization created by the United Methodist Church. The training included topics such as insurance literacy, FEMA processes, and damage assessment. These disaster case managers have assisted in nearly 300 cases. 

The third plan component was the Neighbor Recovery Fund, a community bank created by eight major funders pooling $1.6 million. Instead of applying to multiple relief programs, survivors could work with their case manager or call 211 to access all available resources through a single unified application. A cross‑agency review panel met every Friday to make decisions, and funding was usually distributed within days of those decisions. More than $864,000 was  distributed to 46 families for unmet needs.

As climate-fueled disasters strain federal aid and expose gaps in traditional relief systems, the Omaha Community Foundation’s response to the 2024 tornadoes offers a model for how philanthropy can drive faster, more equitable long-term recovery. By convening a broad coalition, expanding trained disaster case management, and centralizing donations through a unified recovery fund, the foundation helped survivors navigate FEMA, insurance, and unmet needs more efficiently than most post-disaster efforts. The initiative highlights how community foundations, when engaged before disaster strikes, can fill leadership and funding voids left by uncertain federal support and build durable recovery systems that can be redeployed when future crises hit.

“As a community foundation, our role in disaster recovery is to align resources with the most urgent needs and with the nonprofit partners best positioned to respond,” said Donna Kush, CEO of Omaha Community Foundation.

A Tough Environment

As the role of philanthropy grows in disaster relief, the Center for Disaster Philanthropy, a grant maker and donor advisory group, reports that donors are increasingly shifting from short-term relief toward long-term, community-led recovery strategies.

Community foundations are uniquely positioned to address the sometimes yearslong disruptions to health care, education, employment, housing, and other areas that can result from a disaster, said April Geruso, director of advisory services at the Center for Disaster Philanthropy. 

“But proximity only pays off if foundations are engaged before disaster strikes — creating resilient communities and systems in blue sky days and preparing for how best to coordinate and support, not just react,” she said. 

The Omaha Community Foundation began refining its rapid-response funding approach during the pandemic when it identified a critical role for philanthropy after immediate relief faded, said Laura Contreras, a senior program manager. That experience informed the launch of its Community Resilience Fund in 2021 and guided its response when the 2024 tornadoes hit, prompting the foundation to step into a leadership role and begin coordinating local partners before a formal recovery structure was in place, she said. 

The Douglas County Emergency Management Agency was among the first groups that the community foundation contacted. The agency oversaw 2024 response efforts in neighborhoods like Elkhorn, where more than 900 homes were damaged and nearly 200 homes destroyed by tornadoes. It helped donors and community partners better understand how FEMA processes and federal disaster assistance work and what was required to qualify for assistance. 

“I’d say managing expectations was the most important thing because people come to the table with this false perception of what happens after a disaster, and we can manage those expectations because we’ve been through these events so many times,” said Whitney Shipley, director of the Douglas County Emergency Management Agency. 

Shipley and her team made clear that FEMA funds were limited and restricted to uninsured losses, she said. They also emphasized that FEMA assistance alone would not be sufficient for a full recovery and that philanthropic partners would be essential, she added. That clarity about FEMA’s role underscored the need for philanthropic support and a trusted organization to manage donations, a role the Omaha Community Foundation was well positioned to fill by ensuring funds were handled transparently and used solely for tornado recovery.

“And now that framework is there in perpetuity,” Shipley said.. 

The effort the Omaha Community Foundation has put into developing a coordinated recovery plan that can be revived for future disasters has provided a sense of relief to small, local nonprofits like the Christian Outreach Program — Elkhorn (COPE) which offers food, clothing, and housing assistance to people in western Douglas County. When the tornadoes tore through Douglas County, the group found itself on the front lines and quickly mobilized to help meet residents’ immediate needs, said executive director Nancy Lary. An Omaha Community Foundation staff member familiar with COPE’s work helped bring the organization into early coordination efforts. 

COPE joined the coalition and was trained in standardized disaster case-management procedures, a process that strengthened its own readiness. The organization now has a documentation method it can quickly reactivate in future crises, a change that has transformed how it prepares for emergencies, Lary said. 

“The training is absolutely key, and that it’s standardized across our agencies, that made a huge difference, and we’re still leaning on it,” she said. 

As disasters grow more frequent and costly, the Nebraska experience suggests that the most effective recovery efforts will be those rooted locally, coordinated early, and built to last — turning tragedy into an opportunity to strengthen the systems communities rely on when they need them most.