By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net

Over $250m in fundraising for Hurricane Dorian reconstruction is still awaiting to be confirmed with the Disaster Reconstruction Authority only receiving $1.14m to date.

Katherine Forbes-Smith, managing director of the DRA, told a webinar: “Fundraising is a big deal for us. Everybody knows about the infamous pledge conference where people felt that we collected $1.77bn in cash, which never happened, but our development office is actively trying to secure the fundraising. It has been a very challenging and difficult time, particularly as COVID-19 has not helped us, but we are still working on fundraising.”

Thus far, the DRA has confirmed $5,84m in active grants with another $3.16m in the proposal stage and $3.16m to be confirmed.

“A lot of this fundraising work is on technical assistance, equity financing and gifts in kind,” said Ms Forbes-Smith. “Out of this fundraising mix, some $1.14m has been confirmed, with another $800,000 in the proposal stage and just over $250m to be explored or confirmed.”

She added: “I always tell people it doesn’t matter how much money a donor wants to donate, they have some priorities and special interests where they want their money spent and for us it’s always a challenge also to align those projects and interests with what the DRA and the government’s priorities are.”