Pace of giving slows for Haiti relief effort

? In the three weeks since a catastrophic earthquake hit Haiti, the American public has donated more than $644 million for relief efforts — yet already there’s concern that the generosity will fade even as dire needs persist.

As of Wednesday, according to a running tally by the Chronicle of Philanthropy, private donations to major organizations engaged in Haiti relief totaled $644 million — roughly on pace with some other big disasters of the recent past.

Patrick Rooney, executive director of Indiana University’s Center on Philanthropy, said the three-week total surpassed the pace for the 2004 Asian tsunami, ran slightly behind the pace after the 9/11 terror attacks and was well behind the flow of donations after Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans in 2005.

Long-term, donations in response to those disasters kept growing for many months — reaching $1.9 billion for the tsunami, $2.8 billion for 9/11 and more than $5 billion for Katrina and other Gulf Coast hurricanes, according to the philanthropy center’s calculations.