The earthquake that hit Haiti last Tuesday has prompted an unprecedented flurry of donations that vastly exceeds the amount raised for previous international catastrophes over the same number of days.

Donors have already contributed more than $150 million to major U.S. relief groups for the catastrophe in Haiti. By comparison, such charities had only raised around 25 percent of that amount – $30 million – in the week following the 2004 Asian tsunamis, and $108 million in the week following Hurricane Katrina.

Many groups are raising large sums of money on the Web and through text messages. To date, the American Red Cross has received over $12 million through its campaign to encourage $10 gifts through texts. That’s a record for the group in terms of text messages; by contrast, it raised only $200,000 from texts after the 2008 hurricane season. Overall, the Red Cross has raised nearly $90 million to date.

But, due to the immense devastation caused by the earthquake, many nonprofit leaders fear the response will not be enough.

Speaking to reporters on Saturday, Gail McGovern, chief executive of the American Red Cross, said that while the current focus is on immediate needs, the organization expects that relief will be needed in Haiti for many years.

“Make no mistake,” she said. “This is going to be a massive long-term recovery.” McGovern said she would go to Haiti this week to work directly on the relief effort.

I am personally grateful for how generous Americans have been to the Haitian cause so far, especially given the economic stresses so many of us face because of the economic downturn. The aid pipeline is beginning to open up, and the Red Cross will be distributing large amounts of desperately needed food and other supplies beginning this week.

View a previously written post by Mouli Cohen about philanthropy