Red Cross donations more than double over weekend

american red cross sandy

The American Red Cross continues to see an outpouring of donations in the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy.

As of early Monday, the Red Cross had raked in nearly $85 million in donations -- more than double the nearly $35 million it had raised through Friday morning, the aid organization said.

About $23 million was contributed during NBC's benefit concert and hour-long telethon on Friday. Stars, including Bruce Springsteen, Jon Bon Jovi, Christina Aguilera, Jon Stewart and Jimmy Fallon, made appearances during the event.

Companies that have pledged $1 million or more to the Red Cross and other nonprofit aid organizations include JPMorgan Chase (JPM), Walt Disney (DIS), News Corp (NWS), Kohl's (KSS), Morgan Stanley (MS), Mercedes-Benz USA, and Enterprise Holdings Foundation.

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Overall, businesses have announced donations totaling $62 million, according to the Chamber of Commerce's Corporate Aid Tracker.

Instead of giving cash, Walmart (WMT) donated 60 pallets of food and drinks, more than 2,000 board games and nearly 6,000 cases of cleaning supplies to people in New York State who were impacted by the storm, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced Sunday.

Superstorm leaves trail of damage
Superstorm leaves trail of damage

PepsiCo (PEP) delivered more than 100,000 cases of drinks and snacks to New York state and said it will donate an additional 22 truck loads of supplies within the next week.

With the money it has received, the Red Cross has been operating shelters and offering food, water and relief supplies to areas struck hard by Sandy. To date, the agency has set up 472 shelters in more than 10 states, providing 54,000 overnight stays to storm victims since the hurricane hit. It has delivered more than 1 million meals and has handed out more than 60,000 relief items, including hygiene kits, clean-up kits, shovels and rakes.

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The $85 million that the Red Cross has raised beats the mere $8 million raised over the entire recovery period for Hurricane Isaac, which struck the Gulf Coast earlier this year, according to Neal Litvack, chief development officer at the Red Cross.

But there's still a long way to go until donations reach the levels raised during disasters like the earthquake and tsunami that rocked Japan last year and the earthquake that struck Haiti in 2010. During the entire recovery periods for those events, the Red Cross raised a total of about $302 million for Japan, and $475 million for Haiti.

Among the other nonprofit organizations raising money for relief efforts, the Salvation Army has received a little over $3 million in donations made online or by phone. Feeding America has brought in contributions totaling about $1 million, which it said will go to food banks in impacted areas.

How to help

If you'd like to donate to the Red Cross online, go to www.redcross.org. You can also mail a check to: the American Red Cross, P.O. Box 37243, Washington, D.C., 20013. To donate by phone, call 1-800-RED-CROSS or give up to $10 by texting the word "REDCROSS" to 90999.

Visit CNN's Impact Your World for more information about the best ways to help hurricane victims, as well as how to volunteer for cleanup efforts.

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