My wife and I were disaster preparedness volunteers with a local police department for several years. However, 50 volunteers, plus 50 firefighters, plus our local police, would not be able to respond effectively to support 100,000 residents in a major disaster. What was needed was a much larger organization, with strong neighborhood participation. Also, volunteerism fades after a few months. Witness the neighborhood watch program which burns out after a few months.
What was needed was fulltime, paid organizers to keep the system operational.
Our solution was to approach this as a viable business model.
That means the dirty word - profit.
We invite sponsor/partners to join us as silent business partners. These investors put up $100,000 to sponsor the creation and ongoing support of 20 safety clubs under the NeighborHaven model, consisting of 2,000 adjacent families. An organizer is recruited and trained by us, who not only trains volunteer teams and organizes NeighborHaven events such as "evacuate to a park for a picnic" which involves, walkie-talkies, ham radios and coordination with local authorities, to train the whole group to work together, but also for the organizer to recommend local businesses, as needed, where those businesses have agreed to pay us a referral fee. Those fees allow us to keep paying the organizer year after year, but also to pay back our partner with 100% of their original investment, each year.
This becomes an excellent return on investment while helping to create safer, friendlier, disaster prepared neighborhoods that can respond well on their own without burdening local authorities in the event of a disaster.