Disaster Accountability Project saves lives and reduces suffering by maximizing the effectiveness, efficiency, and equity of disaster preparedness, response, relief, and recovery through oversight, transparency, advocacy, and public education.

In 2007, Ben Smilowitz witnessed firsthand the failed response to Hurricane Katrina while managing high-volume Red Cross Client Service Centers in Coastal Mississippi.

Despite the power and resources of the United States, basic human needs exceeded the resources made available to survivors, resulting in significant unnecessary loss of life and suffering.

Ben knew that if the public realized the extent of service gaps at relief sites, many would question how billions of donated dollars were spent and demand accountability and action.

He decided there that if there was not a group to demand public accountability and provide an open line for survivors, emergency workers, and volunteers to report gaps during disasters, he would start it.

In 2007, at the end of his first year of law school, Ben started Disaster Accountability Project.

In 2008, Ben and DAP received a competitive Echoing Green fellowship awarded to cutting-edge social entrepreneurial ventures.

In January 2010, after the devastating earthquake in Haiti, DAP launched its Relief Oversight Initiative to improve the efficiency and coordination of humanitarian/aid and relief efforts through greater transparency and public available factual data about the activities of groups responding to disasters.

Immediately after the earthquake, it was clear that the public would donate generously, and with the hundreds of organizations soliciting donations, the biggest question was “Where do I donate?” The public was inundated with heart-breaking appeals to emotion and generic anecdotes, basing their donations on brand recognition instead of factual data. Some organizations were raising millions of dollars intended to save lives, simply to skim overhead and pass the remaining funds to other groups. One year later, DAP found nearly half of the dollars donated for Haiti relief were sitting in banks unspent, despite worsening conditions and a cholera epidemic killing thousands.