A year after Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast, experts are taking a hard look at how well relief operations functioned, including those backed by charities and other nonprofit organizations.

It’s important to know what went right and what didn’t so donors can be assured that the lessons are applied to future disaster recovery efforts, said Trent Stamp, executive director of the Charity Navigator, based in Mahwah, N.J.

One thing Americans did that was very right was to give generously to relief groups, with some $4.2 billion contributed after Katrina hit on Aug. 29, followed by hurricanes Rita and Wilma. But at least a quarter of that money didn’t go to established nonprofits like the American Red Cross or the Salvation Army but to what Stamp refers to as “the new, best thing,” which are charities that spring up to deal with a single incident or specific cause.

“I don’t think disasters are a time for amateurs,” Stamp said. “We saw people show up in New Orleans with new foundations saying, ‘I’m, going to participate,’ but they didn’t have the right skills and their track records weren’t particularly good.”

Charity Navigator, a nonprofit organization, operates the Web site www.charitynavigator.org, which provides information on more than 5,000 charities to help donors make informed decisions about giving.

Stamp said wise spending by charities is important, but he fears a great deal of money that was raised in the name of Katrina victims will never be properly accounted for.

“Maybe $1 billion went to groups that we’ve never heard of to do work we’re not sure was needed or even done,” he said. “There’s no accountability for that money, and that concerns me.”

A new study by the Public Affairs Research Council of Louisiana and the Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government at the State University of New York in Albany concluded that people moved by the devastation Katrina caused “helped fill a tremendous gap left in the response by the state, local and federal governments.”

It pointed out that in many cases, volunteers from these churches and charities were among the first to reach devastated areas. But it said there were questions about how effective they were once they got there.

“Lack of coordination, both with government officials and with other nonprofit agencies, slowed progress,” the study said. “Many small nonprofit or faith‑based organizations took on more than they could comfortably handle.”

Food, housing and transportation for volunteers was sometimes a problem, it added.

Still, Karen Rowley, special projects manager with the research council, which is based in Baton Rouge, La., said small charities should be encouraged to participate in future disaster recovery campaigns.

“They’re smaller, which often makes them more flexible, and they’re creative in their thinking,” she said.

Rowley said among the lessons of Katrina was that “the groups in our region, the local nonprofits, need to have a plan for how they’re going to handle a disaster in the future.” She added: “If they pool their expertise–get organized and have a plan–in the immediate aftermath (of a disaster) they could be very powerful.”

Patrick Rooney, director of research with the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University in Indianapolis, said he thought the media and government agencies did a good job referring people to the Web sites and toll free telephone numbers of bona fide relief agencies.

“That helped to minimize the problems with fraudulent groups,” Rooney said.

Another good thing, he said, was that many of the major relief agencies had developed better operating procedures after dealing with the fallout from the September 2001 terror attacks and the tsunami that hit Asia in December 2004.

“Many of the disaster relief nonprofits did a better job of communicating with one another and with FEMA (the Federal Emergency Management Agency) and with state and local governments,” Rooney said.

He added, however, that “clearly, one of the lessons learned for the future was that neither FEMA or the relief organizations were prepared for a disaster of this order of magnitude.”

Looking forward, he said, deciding where to contribute money “depends on what lights your fire.” The American Red Cross needs contributions to be prepared for the next disaster, he said, but churches and community groups need money to contribute to Gulf Coast rebuilding projects, too.

Charity Navigator’s Stamp, who visited the Gulf Coast shortly after Katrina and again last month, said volunteers also were badly needed.

“They desperately need bodies,” he said. “They need young healthy bodies to gut houses, pick up debris. They also need professionals, including doctors and mental health workers, because a lot of people left and haven’t come back.”