Red Cross

They had only spent a third of the money they collected. Maybe they can save it and pay their CEO and managers more money.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_SUPERSTORM_RED_CROSS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2013-05-28-05-49-44

It's not a bad strategy by the Red Cross, since at least 1/3 of the affected people are not back in their homes yet!

It's a terrible strategy. Didn't you see those people with no food, no heat, no water, not bathrooms, no clothes standing on the street for days? Where was the damn Red Cross then and all the money they collected from caring Americans????????

I got a close and personal look at all of it, and all I saw was the Red Cross working in conjunction with FEMA to get people what they needed, including food and shelter. There wasn't a hotel room to be had on Long Island for a couple of months after the storm. Considering the daunting task it was to get people back on their feet, I thought they all did a great job. Now that FEMA may be pulling away from Long Island, and toward Oklahoma, it will be good to have the Red Cross still around with some assets.

I can't believe that Oklahoma's senators Inhofe and Coburn voted against the Sandy aid, and I can't believe that they're saying that Oklahoma doesn't need much federal help. Those 2 knuckleheads should take a trip back to their home state before they make such outrageous statements. All politics is local and we're all Americans!

It's convenient to have a short memory.

It is, isn't it, fsh?

Those that voted against aid did so ONLY because that 50 billion or whatever it was , was mostly for pork. Most of it was not going to Sandy victims at all! Tell the whole truth, please, NB.

The three million unpaid volunteers for the Red Cross are an able, well-intentioned bunch... and they certainly do a lot of good. But recently the Red Cross organization itself has undergone some close scrutiny, and there are some troubling findings.

According to Richard M. Walden (president and CEO of Operation USA), it is estimated that 70% of the $1.2 Billion donated to Katrina-related donations went to the Red Cross, yet the Red Cross is fully reimbursed by the government for any shelters or emergency services they provide. Repeatedly, the Red Cross has run into trouble for spending much less on disaster recovery than they collect, shuffling the extra funds into their "national disaster account," where it can be used for purposes other than that it was collected for. That's the sort of trouble they saw in the aftermath of the 1989 San Francisco Bay Area earthquake, and after 9/11.

Despite landing in trouble for soliciting more donations than they need and squirreling the rest away, the Red Cross continues to operate this way. The organization makes a total of about $3 billion annually, about half of which is from selling donated blood. Some of this surplus money ends up in disaster relief, but it seems that much does not. Last year alone, the Red Cross spent $111 million in fund raising, and their CEO Marsha Evans made just under $652,000. It seems the the main value they offer is the free help of their volunteer force.

http://www.damninteresting.com/retired/can-we-trust-the-red-cross/

From the LA Times article:
The Red Cross expects to raise more than $2 billion before Hurricane Katrina-related giving subsides. If it takes care of 300,000 people, that's $7,000 per victim. I doubt each victim under Red Cross care will see more than a doughnut, an interview with a social worker and a short-term voucher for a cheap motel, with a few miscellaneous items such as clothes and cooking pots thrown in.

Giving so high a percentage of all donations to one agency that defines itself only as a first-responder and not a rebuilder is not the wisest choice. Americans ought to give a much larger share of their generous charity to community foundations, grass-roots nonprofit groups based in the affected communities and a large number of international "brand name" relief agencies with decades of expertise in rebuilding communities after disasters.

Gail McGovern, chief executive officer and president of the Red Cross, told NBC News’ Lisa Myers late last week that the response has been timely and well-organized: “I think that we are near flawless so far in this operation.”

This is chutzpah of the highest order: at least in the first dreadful days after Hurricane Sandy hit, the best adjective to describe the Red Cross was “invisible”, rather than “flawless”. One of the best ways to judge charities is by the way in which they learn from their mistakes and constantly improve; by that standard, the Red Cross is positively ostrich-like in the way that it refuses to admit that there was even a problem at all, let alone that it might have reacted better.

It’s incredibly sad, because the Red Cross is the default charity that everybody gives to whenever there’s a tragedy. Even I did so, not that I’m any great fan of the organization: I bought the Sandy benefit print from 20×200, and the proceeds from that are going to the Red Cross. But at least in the early days, and even now, it’s hard to find a Sandy-relief drive which isn’t giving its money to the Red Cross: whether you’re donating money at Chase ATMs, or donating your Starwood points, or whether you’re giving in response to a telethon, the Red Cross always ends up being the beneficiary. And in the case of Sandy, the amount raised is truly enormous: $117 million and counting.

http://blogs.reuters.com/felix-salmon/2012/11/12/the-problem-with-the-red-cross/

That's interesting, a bill that is loaded with pork was passed by the Republican controlled House!

WHL wrote:It's a terrible strategy. Didn't you see those people with no food, no heat, no water, not bathrooms, no clothes standing on the street for days? Where was the damn Red Cross then and all the money they collected from caring Americans????????

1) Interesting that the Red Cross is taking the heat, when it's FEMA who was in charge upon Hurricane Sandy's depredations.

2) 'Shame the Red Cross administration has to deal with their own Teamsters Local #311:

http://www.abc2news.com//dpp/news/region/baltimore_city/baltimore-red-cross-employees-plan-strike

3 FOX News played a one-minute advertisement on November 2nd—a public-service commercial featuring an Obama speech:

. http://www.fema.gov/blog/2012-10-30/sandy-update-4-staying-safe-how-help