Historically, donations of gifts-in-kind saturate communities affected by a major disaster or those which receive significant media attention. Normally, the mechanism to coordinate acceptance of goods and their distribution is not in place. If agencies have plans for acceptance of goods, they may be overwhelmed before they are able to implement their plans. Plans are often not coordinated between communities and with State government. Some states have plans which address how state government will handle gifts-in-kind donations and how to control their distribution.
SEMA continues to work with members of the Governor's Disaster Recovery Partnership to develop a comprehensive State Donations Management Plan for gifts-in-kind which will be formulated using FEMA guidelines. Various State and voluntary agencies accept the plan and agree to participate in the plan during an earthquake or other major disaster operation. These agencies would add annexes to the State Donations Management Plan indicating acceptable gifts-in-kind.