Rapid action. Real impact.

The REACT Rapid Response Fund is pre-secured funding that allows our volunteer Responders to take action on day one - trained, equipped and ready to deploy. 

You can choose to focus your support on:

• UK Rapid Response Fund – powering assistance for communities across the UK facing floods, storms and other emergencies.
• International Rapid Response Fund – backing specially trained teams that deploy into complex disasters worldwide.
• Combined Rapid Response Fund – giving REACT the flexibility to deploy wherever the need is greatest, at home or internationally.

To become a Rapid Response Fund partner or to simply find out more, please contact:

• Naomi Edler, Director of Partnerships
• Phone: 01722 702 516
• Email: [email protected]

Thank you for helping REACT to move fast when disasters strike.

Why a Rapid Response Fund is needed

Emergencies are hitting harder and more often.

• Globally, there were nearly 400  natural hazard disasters in 2023 alone, causing around £290 billion in economic losses – most from storms and floods.
• Over the last twenty years, 7,348 major disaster events have claimed about 1.23 million lives and affected more than 4.2 billion people.
• In the UK, around 6.3 million properties are already at risk of flooding; by mid-century that could rise to eight million – roughly one in four.

Behind every statistic are communities facing the worst days of their lives: homes under water, power and communications down, roads and ports closed, hospitals and care facilities struggling to cope.

In these moments, there is a narrow window to restore access, stabilise the situation and prevent a serious emergency becoming a long-term disaster.

Right now, the only thing that limits how many people REACT can reach in that window is ready funding.

How the Rapid Response Fund works

The Rapid Response Fund is a pre-positioned budget for crisis response. Instead of waiting for appeals and approvals, it ensures that:

• Responders are trained and ready – recruiting and preparing new volunteers for UK and international deployments, including rigorous humanitarian training and specialist flood, logistics and coordination skills.
• Deployment costs are covered in advance – transport, insurance and medical cover so teams can deploy quickly and get home safely.
• Specialist equipment is on standby – from radios, satellite communications and protective equipment overseas to PPE, pumps and rafts for UK flood response.
• Coordination is professional and integrated – a lean HQ operations team (50:1 volunteer to staff ratio) able to plug into Local Resilience Forums, national coordination, UN and regional agencies, ensuring REACT augments the wider response.

Choose your focus: UK, International or both

Your commitment to the Rapid Response Fund can be tailored to your priorities:

UK Rapid Response Fund

Power rapid, effective assistance for communities across the UK facing floods, storms, severe weather and many other emergencies. Our flood teams can be deployed anywhere in the UK, often within six hours of tasking, to reinforce local responders with in-water rescue, welfare checks and last-mile logistics.

Illustrative impact of your support:

• £5,130 covers the full training of 10 new UK Responders.
• £12,285 covers the full training of 25 UK Responders.
• £25,000 could fund a typical UK rapid deployment.
• £55,000 could fund a complex or protracted UK deployment.
• £100,000+ could help fund a major response at a time of national crisis.

International Rapid Response Fund

Power rapid, effective help on the frontlines of disaster worldwide. Our international teams deploy within seventy-two hours to reinforce national, regional and UN-led responses – particularly in high-risk, hard-to-reach areas affected by hurricanes, earthquakes and other major disasters. REACT is a Standby Partner to the UN via the World Food Programme (WFP), embedded in the UN’s global surge network.

Illustrative impact of your support:

• £5,930 covers the full training of 5 new international Responders.
• £11,860 covers the full training of 10 international Responders.
• £25,000 could fund an overseas rapid deployment.
• £55,000 could fund a complex international deployment.
• £100,000+ could fund a major international disaster response.

Combined Rapid Response Fund

Enable REACT to direct resources where they are most needed, whether that is a named storm in the UK, a Category 5 hurricane in the Caribbean or a multi-country emergency. A combined commitment lets us act decisively at home and internationally.

About REACT

REACT Disaster Response is a humanitarian rapid response charity. When there is an emergency, our volunteer Response Teams provide assistance to communities affected by crises in the UK and internationally when they need it most. We are:

• Highly trained – many volunteers are military veterans or former emergency services personnel; others bring critical civilian skills. All are rigorously trained in humanitarian principles and practice. We have around 700 Responders, giving more than 15,000 volunteer hours last year.
• Agile and self-sufficient – deploying in small teams capable of operating independently in demanding environments.
• Experienced– since 2015, REACT has responded to hundreds of emergencies in the UK and overseas, supporting over one million people in the chaotic early phase before larger-scale arrangements are fully in place.

Our core capabilities include situational awareness, incident management, last-mile logistics and surge capacity; delivered in partnership with local authorities, national agencies, UN coordination structures and other humanitarian organisations.

More about REACT

To become a Rapid Response Fund partner or to simply find out more, please contact:

• Naomi Edler, Director of Partnerships
• Phone: 01722 702 516
• Email: [email protected]

Thank you for helping REACT to move fast when disasters strike.