The Milwaukee Bucks are joining the relief efforts for Hurricane Katrina, pledging to donate $500,000, the NBA has announced.

The Bucks will give $100,000 of that amount to the American Red Cross and $100,000 to the United Way's hurricane relief efforts, the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reported on Sunday.

The Bucks are also working with the Milwaukee chapters of each of those organizations, the paper reported, along with the league to aid local and national efforts to aid the victims of one of the largest natural disasters in U.S. history.

"We felt the urgency of the situation and how we might be able to help those organizations in the first phase of the relief efforts," Bucks vice president of business operations John Steinmiller told the paper. "Both those organizations have established good footholds in the Gulf Coast area, and we knew it [assistance] would get to the right place and be effective."