Day One Relief Fund

He ran out of money before help arrived. Day One exists so the next one doesn't.

Shawn Hendrix was already in western North Carolina when Hurricane Helene tore through it. Whole communities were cut off — no power, no water, no way out. He poured his own money into the relief effort for weeks, until there wasn't any left.

He was ready to quit. Instead he told the truth about what he was seeing and asked for help.

The crowd answered with more than half a million dollars, raised through GiveSendGo. That money became heat in subfreezing temperatures, food where the supply chain had broken, and shelter for families whose homes were gone. His ministry, Here We Grow — operating as Operation Shelter — is still rebuilding houses there today.

The crowd showed up. But only after a man on the ground had already spent everything he had.

That gap is what this fund closes.

Generosity has never been the shortage. Within days of a hurricane, a wildfire, or a flood, ordinary people open their wallets. The shortage is the wait — the distance between someone deciding to help and a dollar landing where the help is needed. Relief money has to be raised, assessed, committed, and cleared before it moves. Each step is reasonable. Together they eat the hours when small amounts of money do the most work.

The Day One Relief Fund is built the other way around. The money is committed before the storm has a name. When disaster hits, what arrives isn't a fundraising appeal — it's a decision about where to send funds that are already standing by.

What your gift does

Your gift builds the fund before it's needed. Readiness is the whole point. A fund that has to be raised after landfall is already late.

When an event qualifies, GiveSendGo Charities moves — in as little as 24 hours from validated need to funds on the ground. Shawn now serves as Field Ambassador for the fund, working alongside us in disaster zones to identify verified need, support fast granting decisions, and document where every dollar goes. Funding reaches boots on the ground, local churches, first responders, and validated individual need — including direct grants to verified campaigns right here on GiveSendGo.com.

Then the documentation goes to work. Receipts, photographs, and the words of the people who were helped become the story that brings the next crowd — replenishing the fund and carrying the long recovery after attention moves on. Because it always moves on. Western North Carolina fell out of the news cycle the week the LA wildfires broke out. The need didn't go anywhere.

Where 100% goes.

Every Day One dollar funds program: field deployment, need verification, relief delivery, granting, documentation, and impact reporting. These are program service expenses — the mechanism by which relief happens, not a cost imposed on it.

No portion of your gift funds general administration or fundraising. Your gift is tax-deductible to the full extent of the law.

Somewhere, the next storm hasn't formed yet. That's the only moment this gift can be made.

See how the fund works: https://www.dayonerelieffund.org

About GiveSendGo Charities: givesendgo.org

Read the Operation Shelter impact report: givesendgo.org/impact/operation-shelter

Join the Giver Army — $5/month keeps the fund standing: giverarmy.com

This campaign was created by GiveSendGo Charities, Inc., an independent 501(c)(3) public charity (EIN 88-3776392). Campaign funds are received and stewarded by GiveSendGo Charities, Inc. GiveSendGo.com LLC is a separate for-profit company. Advisors and donor-advised fund holders can also support Day One through the National Christian Foundation — contact us at givesendgo.org/contact.