AARP Foundation Sets Up Hurricane Relief Fund

Recognizing the immediate and long-term challenges that those affected by Hurricane Florence will face in coming weeks and months — particularly vulnerable older adults — AARP Foundation has created a relief fund to support them.

AARP and AARP Foundation will match contributions up to a total of $500,000 and AARP Foundation will direct 100 percent of all funds raised to organizations that are providing relief and assistance to disaster victims in the affected areas. The rain and flooding that accompanied the storm as it moved inland has caused significant damage throughout North and South Carolina and other regions of the mid-Atlantic.

When Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria, three of the most costly storms in U.S. hurricane history, hit in 2017, AARP members and others responded by donating $3.2 million to support relief efforts across the storms’ paths. Those contributions also were matched by AARP and AARP Foundation.

In May, AARP CEO Jo Ann Jenkins and AARP Foundation President Lisa Marsh Ryerson visited Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands to see how donations helped.