On Thursday, September 26, Hurricane Helene made landfall in the Big Bend area of Florida as a Category 4, then made its way north, leaving a path of destruction through five more states. Only days later, Hurricane Milton sped across Florida. This historic double hit from back-to-back hurricanes has left millions of people in six states without power and some still without water. Many have lost loved ones, and others are wondering how they’ll recover. The damage to property from Hurricane Milton alone is estimated at more than $1 trillion.
We’ve updated this story to include charities working in the wake of both hurricanes and designated where they are working next to their name. If you feel called to give to help with the rescue and restoration of people in affected areas, you have two options. We’ve curated a list of charities working on the ground, ready to receive support right away. (See list below.) But you can also connect with these NCF local teams to give to funds they’ve established for distribution in their communities. To give to one of these funds, you can make a fund-to-fund transfer by logging into your Giving Fund and going to the Transfer page, where you’ll enter the fund name and number.
- Florida: The Tampa Bay Hurricane Helene Relief Fund (#5465886)
- South Georgia: The Christian Community Fund of South Georgia Fund (#2970589)
- East Tennessee: The General Benevolence Fund (#206032)
- Carolinas: The Carolinas Response Fund (#1136241)
This is a developing story. Charities will be added, and details will be updated as information becomes available.
- We encourage you to do your own research of these charities. Included on the list are some large charities that would likely know exactly what to do with a large gift. But the list also includes smaller, local charities which might have a smaller, more-focused goal that your grant can help them meet. You can follow many of these charities on social media for more up-to-the-minute information.
- We also advise that you designate your grant for Hurricane Helene Relief or Hurricane Milton Relief. Some of these organizations are responding to multiple disasters in multiple locations.
Adventures in Missions (FL, NC)
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The disaster response arm of Adventures in Missions (Adventures Relief) is working with churches and organizations in North Carolina and will be in North Carolina for two years, providing essential supplies and gutting homes to bring immediate relief ahead of long-term recovery. They are working in the Old Fort, Swannanoa, and Black Mountain communities, and are hosting groups of 35 volunteers at a time at Excel College. They are also working in Florida in the aftermath both hurricanes, providing construction, debris removal, and community outreach.
American Red Cross
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The American Red Cross has launched a massive response along the 500-mile path of destruction. With their partners, more than 900 Red Cross disaster responders are working around the clock to get help to those in need. Right now, the focus is on providing safe shelter, meals, emotional support, and relief supplies. They are working closely with local officials, government agencies, and other nonprofits to make sure people get the help they need as quickly as possible.
Americares (FL, NC)
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Americares response activities in the wake of Milton and Helene include reaching out to their partner clinics, delivering essential medicines, hygiene kits, and relief supplies, and offering emergency funding to restore health services and repair damaged facilities. Response activities include: shipping hygiene kits, antibiotics, and relief supplies to partner organizations; providing emergency funding to 13 partner organizations to repair storm damage; installing water purification systems for partner organizations; and delivering bottled water. They’re also supplying medical staff to a mobile clinic providing care to migrant farm workers and conducting mental health needs assessments and psychological first aid and debrief sessions with clinicians and first responders.
Appalachia Service Project (NC, TN, VA)
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Appalachia Service Project, which specializes in repairing and replacing homes, is at work in the region repairing roofs, walls, floors, foundations, and bathrooms, in addition to making homes accessible through porch and ramp repairs or additions.
Asheville Dream Center (NC)
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Asheville Dream Center works with churches and businesses to meet local needs and introduce people to Christ. Along with these partners, they’re now transitioning to the next phase of disaster relief, sending teams to areas that have been devastated – to muck out homes, clear debris, and clean up communities. This will take many hands and supplies. In addition to giving, you can also get involved by signing up to serve with our short-term missions teams to assist with this effort.
Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (FL, GA, NC, TN)
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Crisis-trained Billy Graham Rapid Response Team chaplains are supporting devastated people in Tampa and Perry, Florida; Valdosta, Georgia; and North Carolina’s High Country, including Boone. Chaplains are also providing a ministry of presence at a shelter in Fletcher, North Carolina, and at the Watauga County Hospital in Boone.
Camp Lurecrest (NC)
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While usually a camping ministry, Camp Lurecrest staff are responding to the disaster in their surrounding areas, among the hardest hit by Hurricane Helene. They’re hosting response crews on their property and providing logistics for local work crews. They’re responding to downed trees and providing mud removal, and they’ve donated the camp-owned barge for use by city search and rescue. Their response covers the communities of Lake Lure, Chimney Rock, and surrounding communities which include Bat Cave, Polk County, Henderson, and Rutherford
Convoy of Hope (NC, FL)
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In their continued response to Helene and Milton, Convoy of Hope has delivered or processed 3.5 million pounds of supplies. Distribution of essential relief supplies continues daily in and around Asheville, North Carolina, from its base camp there. Their work in the state will continue for the foreseeable future. They have also set up operations in Sarasota, distributing supplies at their main distribution site and at mobile distributions around the affected areas. Relief supplies were also delivered to West Palm Beach, where strong tornadoes spawned by Milton caused a lot of damage.
Direct Relief (FL)
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Direct Relief is mobilizing critical resources to support the healthcare needs of communities in Florida affected by Helene and Milton. These supplies include essential medicines, antibiotics, chronic disease medications, and medical kits for trauma and emergency care. They have offered assistance to more than 50 safety net healthcare providers in the impacted areas and are continuing to mobilize critical resources to support the healthcare needs of communities in the state.
FaithWorks (GA)
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FaithWorks is an outreach ministry addressing food insecurity, homelessness, and homelessness prevention in Glynn County, Georgia, and the surrounding areas. FaithWorks is helping their neighbors who have lost food, due to power outages, and income while places of business were closed. FaithWorks will support them with food and financial assistance to pay utilities and rent, in order to keep households stable.
Feeding Tampa Bay (FL)
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Feeding Tampa Bay and their disaster-readiness team are FEMA trained and prepared to handle disaster situations. In partnership with the Tampa Bay area Emergency Operations Centers, they work directly with local emergency management operations to provide food, water, and hygiene items to the Tampa area and neighboring counties during crisis situations.
Habitat for Humanity International (Southeast)
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Habitat for Humanity International’s disaster response teams are actively supporting affiliates in the U.S. Southeast as they assess the impact of the hurricanes, bringing primarily long-term recovery to disaster-stricken communities after the immediate response. Designate grants for Hurricane Helene/Hurricane Milton relief.
Hearts with Hands (NC)
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Hearts with Hands is working with their partners and coordinating with local emergency management agencies to distribute supplies in the Asheville Swannanoa, and greater Western North Carolina area. Distributions include water, non-perishable food boxes, hygiene kits, diapers, and more. They are also operating a mobile kitchen.
MAP International (Medicine for All People) (GA, FL, NC, SC, TN)
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MAP International, based in Brunswick, Georgia, provides medical aid to more than 100 countries each year around the world in times of disaster. They are responding to their partners’ requests for disaster health kits as well as sending medicine and health supplies to rural clinics located in some of the hardest hit areas. MAP headquarters and distribution center is located in Glynn County, Georgia, where Hurricane Helene also caused widespread damage and disruption. As a result, MAP is also working with local outreaches in its own community.
Matthew 25 Ministries (FL, NC)
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Matthew 25 has deployed their disaster response team to Florida with mobile laundry units and shower trailers. The team is distributing essential supplies, personal care kits, baby products, cleaning supplies, and first aid and safety kits, and providing charging stations for mobile devices. In North Carolina, they are airlifting and sending truckloads of food, water, hydration drinks, baby formula, and diapers into the affected area.
Mercy Chefs (FL, NC)
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Mercy Chefs has established their base of relief operations in Newberry, Florida, delivering hot, chef-prepared meals to hard-hit areas like Crystal River, Cedar Key, and Perry, and is en route to the Tampa area to establish a kitchen there. A response team was dispatched to Asheville, North Carolina, to serve those left stranded and without basic necessities due to severe flooding. To date, Mercy Chefs has distributed more than 130,000 meals in affected areas.
Metropolitan Ministries (FL)
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Metropolitan Ministries, which serves the Hillsborough, Hernando, Manatee, Pasco, Pinellas, and Polk counties of the Tampa Bay area, is working with their 65 neighborhood partners to provide safe shelter, hot meals, and other essential supplies to area residents.
Mountain 2 Sea Ministries (GA, NC, FL)
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Mountain 2 Sea is continuing to serve in three states, working with more than 20 churches to provide pre-stage generators so they can provide for their communities.
Operation Blessing (FL, NC)
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Operation Blessing is working in Florida, delivering disaster relief supplies and coordinating volunteer efforts. They have also established a base in Asheville, North Carolina, providing debris removal, home repair, and microenterprise assistance.
Pittman Park United Methodist Church
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Since Hurricane Helene devastated their community, Pittman Park United Methodist Church’s goal has been to provide comfort, nourishment, and a helping hand to those in their community working to rebuild their lives after the storm. They are partnering with other local organizations to provide critical relief, focusing their efforts on creating spaces where people can refresh and recharge, offering access to air conditioning, hot showers, and charging stations for phones and electronic devices. They’ve also served more than 1,200 hot meals and snacks to date. In addition, they’ve distributed 540 boxes of food and have made ice and 24/7 access to water readily available. More than 1,000 citizens of Bulloch County have been supported by the church’s efforts.
Salvation Army of the Carolinas
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The Salvation Army of the Carolinas is working to help meet survivors’ most urgent needs for food, clothing, shelter, and medical services.
Salvation Army of Georgia
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The Salvation Army of Georgia has deployed emergency disaster services teams across the state – to Augusta, Savannah, Elberton, and another 11 counties. They’ve deployed three incident management teams to the most heavily affected regions: Coffee (Douglas) and Bacon (Alma) Counties, Lowndes (Valdosta) County, and Toombs (Vidalia) County. Essential relief services, including meals, water, snacks, comfort kits, clean-up kits, and emotional and spiritual support are being provided to residents grappling with widespread outages. Salvation Army canteens (18 mobile feeding units) are in operation, supporting these efforts.
Samaritan’s Purse (FL, NC)
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Samaritan’s Purse is responding in five locations impacted by Hurricane Helene. In Florida, they established a base to serve hurting homeowners in Perry and surrounding areas and are also responding to flooding in greater Tampa. They’re responding in the mountains of Watauga County, North Carolina, to assist two area hospitals – Charles A. Cannon, Jr. Memorial in Avery County and Watauga Medical Center. At their sites across North Carolina, they’re doing tree work, mudding out homes, removing debris, and tarping roofs in the following counties: Buncombe County (which includes Asheville), Black Mountain, Mitchell, Montreat, Swannanoa, and Yancey. Heavy equipment is being used to clear private driveways and private roads, and they’re is also coordinating airlifts to some of these locations – delivering basic necessities to those isolated after the storm.
Second Harvest Food Bank, Coastal Georgia
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Second Harvest of Coastal Georgia serves the community of southeast Georgia by providing fresh and frozen food to partner agencies. The Southeast Branch of Second Harvest is supplying food in cooperation with Heart With Hands, Georgia Emergency Management Association, World Central Kitchen, and various local churches through mobile pantries and distribution points to some of the counties hardest hit by Helene.
Send Relief (FL, GA, NC, SC, TN, VA)
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Send Relief is mobilizing to bring vital resources to affected areas in Florida by Milton and Helene. Boxes enough food to provide 64 meals, as well as disaster relief supplies, are being prepared to be delivered to those in need. A tractor-trailer filled with generators and roofing materials is being assembled to help residents secure their homes. Volunteers are providing meals across five kitchens in partnership with The Salvation Army and American Red Cross, with the capacity to serve up to 30,000 people a day. They have established recovery and feeding sites in all affected states, and local teams are doing chainsaw work, flood recovery, and tarping roofs.
Southern Baptist Disaster Relief (FL, GA, NC, SC, TN, VA)
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Southern Baptist Disaster Relief is working across more than 20 response sites, supplying meals, water, temporary roofing, and flood recovery supplies. In Florida, recovery and feeding sites are active in Perry and Live Oak, Florida, and local teams are doing chainsaw work. In Georgia, meals, shower and laundry trailers, and chainsaw teams are being provided at at least 7 sites. In Western North Carolina, Tennessee, South Carolina, and Virginia, they are operating recovery and feeding sites and assessing flood damage.
Team Rubicon (FL, GA)
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Team Rubicon, a veteran-led disaster response charity, has deployed volunteers to the areas in Florida and Georgia hardest hit by hurricane Helene. They’re working closely with city and state emergency management agencies to identify unmet needs and to help hurricane survivors with everything from expedient home repairs like tarping roofs and mucking flooding houses to removing storm debris and more.
United Cajun Navy (FL)
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Ahead of Hurricane Milton, United Cajun Navy is staging its boats, high-water vehicles, and aircraft, as well as volunteers trained to do swift water rescue and search and rescue, to respond for any request for immediate assistance. In Florida since Helene’s landfall, they’re assisting with cleanup efforts, trimming limbs from homes, patching holes in roofs, and mucking out flooded homes.
Water Mission (NC)
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Water Mission is a Christian engineering nonprofit with expertise in safe water. They are rushing to serve the hardest-hit areas in Western North Carolina, starting in Boone, where millions are without power and water. Their disaster area response team is working with local communities to provide generators to restore power and seeking solutions for safe water for the community as quickly as possible.
World Vision (FL, GA, NC)
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World Vision’s disaster management team is partnering with local churches in Florida, Georgia, and North Carolina. Fourteen trucks arrived in impacted communities, including hard-hit Asheville, North Carolina, on Saturday, October 5. They are providing critical emergency aid, like generators, clean water, cleaning supplies, personal care items, hygiene kits, clothing, and much more.
The Taiwanese leaders of World Vision Taiwan sent a solar-powered water filtration system they had used after a recent typhoon, and it has been deployed at Western Carolina Rescue Ministries, providing 1,900 gallons of water a day for 120 people receiving emergency housing there.
Top photo (Newland, North Carolina): Water Mission
