LAFAYETTE – South central Louisiana has been threatened by rising waters in Acadia, Lafayette, St. Landry and St. Martin parishes with almost 1,400 homes and families affected in addition to damaged roads and water systems.

Community Foundation of Acadiana (CFA) has partnered with Acadian Companies to respond with an innovative online fundraising campaign, “Rise Up, Help Now”.

Powered by KIMBIA, CFA has launched a branded, embeddable fundraising widget on its website at www.cfacadiana.org. CFA has activated its Acadiana Disaster Fund as part of the widget to receive donations.

The widget can attract donations to the Fund locally and nationally with its ability to go “viral”.

The widget is available to anyone who wishes to participate in this online fundraising effort. If you or your organization would like to help now, please take the following simple steps:

1) Visit www.cfacadiana.org and make a credit card donation on the embedded form.

2) Or, to embed the form on your website visit www.cfacadiana.org. Click on the "EMBED THIS" button at the bottom of the form to reveal the widget code. Copy the code and republish the form onto your own Web site or Blog.

A State of Emergency was declared in all four parishes in the Acadiana region. As of March 20th, officials reported an estimated $2 million in road and water system repairs in addition to the not yet estimated cost of almost 1,400 damaged homes and affected families.

Where are the funds going? CFA has activated its Acadiana Disaster Fund as part of its relief, restoration and rebuilding efforts in Acadiana. All funds received will go to the Fund.

CFA will only grant to other 501 (c)(3) nonprofit organizations who are assisting those affected from the floods. CFA will NOT make grants to individuals. For individual assistance related to the floods, CFA urges individuals to call 232-HELP.

CFA’s core purpose to connect all generous people to the causes they care about.