Just yesterday a major relief concert was held in New York City to raise funds for the millions of people that were severely affected by superstorm Sandy. The group behind the concert hoped to raise millions of dollars for the relief effort and the mission was an absolute success. Thanks to the help of dozens of high profile celebrities and singers there was plenty of money flowing into the charity.

The one night concert drew nearly 2 billion viewers which is an absolutely incredible statistic. Obviously not everyone donated to the cause but early reports say that at least $35 million were raised in ticket sales alone with around $50 million in other donations coming throughout the night. This type of relief effort is becoming relatively common when it comes to massive disasters such as this and everyone agrees that last night’s relief concert was an overwhelming success.

Raising millions of dollars is not enough to fix everything that was destroyed, but basically everyone is happy to report that this is a great start. Experts estimate that the total damage in the area is likely around to be around $50 billion. The very high damage count will take a long time to cleanup and fix but this is a great step in the right direction.

The devastating wildfires in Colorado have made national and worldwide news accounts in recent weeks and touched the hearts of many who wanted to do something to help. A group of local businesses and a few designers put their heads together and came up with some t-shirt designs they could sell with the profits going to relief efforts for the victims of the fire.

The group’s initial goal was to raise $1,500, more than they thought they could manage by opening their own wallets. As the news of their effort went viral on social media outlets, though, their initial goal was shattered. Sales surpassed predictions by a ridiculous amount and the group raise over $320,000 –in just six days! All of the profits are earmarked for Care and Share, a local food bank and the Colorado branch of the Red Cross as both groups are instrumental in providing relief for victims in the area.

The response has been overwhelming but not without problems too. The group could not handle the volume of sales they were getting and had to bring in a t-shirt shop in Denver to help with the project. The sudden inflow of cash also created some concern with PayPal, the group’s financial component in the project and they had to scramble to get their non-profit paperwork pushed through quickly to accommodate the requirements. Both of these are good problems to have and have been rectified.

The largest spike in orders came shortly after a large number of homes were destroyed last week. Orders were even received from Canada, Britain and Denmark.

Wild Fire Tees is now working on new designs and working on a plan to raise money to pay for shirts for all the firefighters as a simple thank you. Funds for 650 shirts have been raised and they are moving closer to their goal of 1000 – enough to clothe all the firefighters. The group has expanded their goal to $500,000 and wants to provide relief statewide for victims of the wildfires.