Exactly. I used to process all the donations for my state. There are little codes on everything to indicate what a donor wants the money to go to but at the end of the day, when this kind of thing happens, the money just flys out the door. Charities cannot sit and wait until an appeal is set up and the money has arrived.
As an example, Oxfam fund a lot of "goat loans". This means a few goats will be provided to a village for milking. When the goats have babies the kids are given to the next village, and on it goes. If Oxfam waited until there was enough money to provide all the villages with breeding goats the first goats would be dead.
Hmmm, dunno if that made sense.
Anyway, I worked the last Indian earthquake and yep, the money was going straight out the door before the appeal was raised, before the radioathon was aired, etc. Then when the money comes in from these emergency appeals some of it eventually makes it way back to the planned programmes.
A lot of these charities/ NGOs will have people on the ground already from the planned programmes. Field officers, locals, expert in the ways of the local community and customs.
Does that make sense?