The space people won an ASAE award. Now, everyone was doing something for Katrina relief but I'm not convinced how useful classroom grants are in the face of widespread devastation. It seemed to me that what would have been useful is folks going down there and actually rolling up their sleeves and shoveling muck. But I am not the fount of all wisdom, alas.
Here's an article from the UK's Design Council talking about how information design is important in public-sector efforts. Of course, it's helpful to everyone, but this is a good example of the universal need for better presentation of information--and more design.