The Christchurch Earthquake Response

Written by lee, No comments

As Christchurch commences the long road of rebuilding and recovering from the devastating earthquake on 22 February 2011 we at Givealittle, along with many others, have been humbled by the incredible and swift response to help our Cantabrian neighbours.

We are proud that our online tools at have helped many create their own fundraising response to support a range of organisations continue to assist in Christchurch. Every action is worth mention and acknowledgment but with over 40 individual pages created I’ll just highlight a few.

Telecom stepped up early in the initial Givealittle response and supported the New Zealand Red Cross Appeal at Givealittle with sponsorship that allowed us to ensure 100% of donations to this fund go directly to the Red Cross. With over $200,000 given to this fund alone, we are grateful to Telecom for their support.

Individuals and businesses took up the challenge to assist the Salvation Army’s fundraising efforts including the team at Bell Gully who donated nearly $40,000.

The Student Volunteer Army captured the heart of New Zealand when they hit the streets after the September earthquake and they were back in force in February. Working around the clock to assist the residents of Christchurch these incredible volunteers also received donation support to support their operations.

In a fantastic display of collaboration led by SAFE, Animal Aid was founded to provide a central resource for six Christchurch based organisations caring for animals post the quake.

An incredible effort was demonstrated by the team behind the Christchurch Recovery Map website. A global reachig team of digital volunteers created this resource and manned the effort providing essential information to over 100,000 Cantabrians until official channels were established and adequately resourced. Well done guys!

And to all who donated, created a fundraising page, volunteered their time, shared their homes and worked around the clock – you are all stars!