The essays in this collection grew out of the 14th Emerging Issues in Philanthropy Seminar, "Charities' Response to Disasters: Expectations and Realities," held on December 2, 2005. Authors discuss the strengths and weaknesses of charities responses to the Gulf Coast hurricanes, lessons learned from previous disastersthe September 11th attacks and the Asian Tsunamiand how well those lessons were applied. Authors note the need to have realistic expectations of charities' role in disaster relief and rebuilding, given the resources of the charitiesparticularly small local secular and faith-based agenciesand their inability to control the content or amount of voluntary assistance. The critical role of government in coordinating and leading disaster response efforts is a major theme.