UNMETNEEDSROUNDTABLE.ORG is a website designed to support the creation and ongoing facilitation of Unmet Needs Roundtables in response to federally or locally declared disasters in the United States. Donors are essential members of the Unmet Needs Roundtable process. By choosing to distribute their funds through the Unmet Needs Roundtable donors are able to give to disaster-survivors with confidence that their funds are going to the communities that they intend for use in ways that do not duplicate other community resources. This allows donors to report back to their communities, agencies or interested individuals regarding the effective and responsible use of their disaster disaster-assistance.
Donor individuals or agencies can appoint a representative that participates in the Unmet Needs Roundtable meetings or they can distribute funds via the agency sponsoring the Unmet Needs Roundtable. In either case, donors are provided with database reports on how their funds have been used, which human service providers have been most successful in accessing Unmet Needs Roundtable assistance for their clients, and the types of needs being funded through their assistance.
Donors that appoint a representative to participate in Roundtable meetings usually represent their own private funds or a donor organization’s funds. Donors determine their criteria and constraints for distributing assistance as they chose, with the assurance that their decisions are well informed by the communities’ needs and gaps in services as show through the Unmet Needs Roundtable process. Donors build trusted relationships with the human service provider agencies participating in the Unmet Needs Roundtable as the provider agencies provide full documentation of their clients’ disaster-cased human needs and recovery plan. Donors work together with caseworkers, often contributing ideas and other resource referrals in addition to cash assistance, to assist clients as they prioritize their unmet needs and create a realistic long-term recovery plan.
