EF5 Tornado in Tuscaloosa County, AL

Beginning on April 25th, the southeast region experienced the deadliest series of tornadoes in US history. Over the course of three consecutive days residents in Arkansas, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Missouri, Texas, Georgia, Louisiana, North Carolina, Virginia and Alabama incurred the wrath of an environment impacted by global warming. A steady increase of greenhouse gasses in the earth’s atmosphere (partly due to neighboring oil spills), coupled with  the  earth’s rising temperature breeds the right environment for...

One year Later: Tides Relief and Reconstruction for Sustainable Haiti

In the first year since the catastrophic January 12, 2010 earthquake, funds at Tides designated for Haiti total more than $1.4 million. This includes grants from Tides donors totaling $1,093,400 and donations to the Tides Relief and Reconstruction Fund of approximately $375,000. After a year, the impact of the earthquake is still felt everywhere in Haiti and there is still a long way to go to alleviate suffering.

Approaching our grantmaking through a lens of human rights, justice and...

Oil and Anguish: Alaska, Nigeria, and the Gulf Coast

Within a week of the Exxon Oil spill in 1989, currents and winds pushed the slick 90 miles from the site of the tanker, out of Prince William Sound into the Gulf of Alaska. It eventually reached nearly 600 miles away from the wreck contaminating 1,500 miles of shoreline – about the length of California's coast and was described as the "largest oil spill to date in U.S. waters." In June of 1989 I was dispatched to Cordova, Alaska in my new role as an advisor to a donor. Eleven million gallons of oil had spewed ...

Gulf Coast Crisis: A Call for Action from the Philanthropic Community

A shrimp boat drags booms to gather oil in the waters of Chandeleur Sound, Louisiana, on May 5. Photo Credit: AP

The foundation community – and the public at large – can do little to prevent the devastation of the Gulf of Mexico, its coastline and its communities as a result of BP's Deepwater Horizon blowout. Tremendous damage has been done, and more will be done over the next days, weeks, and months.  We stand in sympathy and outrage as human life, marine life and ecosystems are destroyed and...