Donations to Haiti may break charity records

In just over a week Americans have given more than $305 million to help Haitians recover from the recent earthquake in Port-au-Prince. The numbers are being tracked by the independent charity watchdog Charity Navigator.

In the same number of days immediately after the 2005 tsunami in Sri Lanka, Americans gave less than half that amount, while around $450 million was collected the week after Hurricane Katrina hit Louisiana. With the highly publicized “Hope for Haiti” telethon due to be broadcast tonight, donations to Haiti could beat all records for giving. Ken Berger is the president and CEO of Charity Navigator; he analyzes the phenomenon of mass giving after major natural disasters and how we can maximize the effectiveness of the money we donate.