In reply to Nick Moss.

Below is Mark Hofman's response.
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First, thank you for your willingness to help! I have been asked to respond to your posted question.

I apologize for any frustration we've caused.

In response to the concern you and others have expressed, we are taking steps to activate a special Hurricane/Typhoon account and will be switching the online donation page over from the general disaster fund to the Hurricane/Typhoon fund. Anything that comes in to that account between November 9 (first date of our response effort) through the next several weeks will be used for the Philippines relief effort.

We’ve stopped setting up designated accounts for each individual disaster event because the costs associated with managing those kinds of very tightly restricted accounts are excessive, and there are other more cost-effective ways to make sure we honor donor intent, making more money available for actual relief efforts.

The switch will take a day or two for reasons that are too lengthy to explain, so keep checking back.

You can also send an email to "mission.advancement@lcms.org" with the date and amount of your online gift, and the last four digits of the credit card you used, and we can add a special note in your gift record of “Philippines Relief Only”.

The approach we use to draw funds out of the typhoon/hurricane account first. If still more is needed, we will draw from the general disaster fund (if funds are available). This ensures we don't end a disaster relief cycle with unused gifts sitting in an account we cannot tap for another disaster.

The LCMS and the Mission Advancement staff adhere to the Code of Ethical Principles and Practices, and the Donor Bill of Rights, as a member of the Association of Lutheran Development Executives (ALDE). Our management of donated funds goes through an annual independent external audit to ensure we comply with donor intent whenever a gift is restricted.

Again, thanks for taking the time to inquire and for your willingness to help with this relief effort!

Mark Hofman, Executive Director
Mission Advancement