RED CROSS

[hellosailor]

"I made a donation to Samaritan's Purse. 100% goes to victims."
Maybe so, but www.charitynavigator.org shows they do consume about 10% for administration and overhead. Unless this is a special pitch for the hurricanes, they have overhead, as all charities do. And someone has to pay for that.

The Salvation Army has a quiet little secret: Jesus. Their mission is basically salvation through Jesus. Which is not to say they don't do some very good work, just that they have an ulterior motive. About a decade ago, they had appointed a new high-level officer in the NY metro area, and he made a minor firestorm by announcing that anyone in the organization who didn't agree with that basic mission, could leave. Including the volunteer staff, who come from many faiths and are there to do good, not to preach.

Little things like this are the reason that so many new charities are founded each year, by people who don't think ANY of the existing ones does the job correctly. (Which of course only adds more administrative costs as it divides the pool up further.)

[SecondBase]

Originally Posted by meatservo

I would not give a dime to the red cross.

I made a donation to Samaritan's Purse. 100% goes to victims.



I will also donate to The Salvation Army. I believe that they are 80% effective but can't confirm this.



I will also donate to Branson for the BVI's, I would trust him to do the right thing.







meatservo

+1 I gave to Branson. 100% of what I gave will help the BVIs directly.

[UNCIVILIZED]

Thanks to the OP for starting this thread, & to those helping the rest of us gain some wisdom on the topic.

[SailFastTri]

I think the American Red Cross's main mission is on the blood donation supply. I make a contribution regularly (try to make it every 8 or 9 weeks). Charity navigator shows that in financial filings they keep overhead down to about 10% -- that's pretty good.
https://www.charitynavigator.org/ind...ary&orgid=3277


Also they sponsor a lot of community programs (e.g. free rides for local teens who might have had a drink or who need a lift from somewhere if they were out with drinkers) and other volunteer activities.


Also, they do a lot of first aid training, babysitter training, first responder training etc. I recently took training from the Red Cross for adult first aid and CPR/AED -- needed for my Coast Guard OUPV. Here's a link to the course catalogue https://classes.redcross.org/Saba/Web/Main

[zeehag]

ok so now mexico has rescue teams from
japan
venezuela
salvador
mexico
israel
LOS ANGELES COUNTY SAR!!!
honduras
switzerland, engineers to help redesign the city to avoid repeat of same issues
did i leave anyone out??
thankyou all for assisting mexicos tragedy in the face of so many others.
the topos are world class top of line sar folks.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Topos_de_Tlatelolco
they are also unpaid, so we are donating to them directly.
here citizens pitch in to help their community unlike many in usa.
the togetherness is only matched by the cajun navy, at this point.
so far 245 have been found dead. some handful have been found still breathing and viable. many still missing.
school collapse killed many kids and still missing.
much work to do . no time for red cross. families cook food and distribute that food, donations from restaurants.... citizens helping search...


and this quake was within 5 hours of exact anniversary of 1985 disaster.

no time for red cross here. i know they are present, but those are not about whom one hears when one reads the info coming about the disaster and results.

[Cheechako]

I have noticed the Red Cross are often there immediately based on videos. Whether they are a good bang for the buck I'm not so sure. I have heard they aren't . I tried to search for a list of organizations rated by % that actually goes to help people, but found that (surprisingly) hard to find.
My area was flooded a bit over 10 years ago. The RC were the ONLY people who actually showed up to ask if we were ok and to offer help when our house was still surrounded by water. FOrtunately, our house was on a raised foundation so it was fine. Outbuildings... not so much so.

[a64pilot]

Volkswagen many years ago used to supply photos of the snow storm to all the news agencies.
Of course there was always a lone bug making its way through the snow where all the other cars were snow bound in the picture. News agencies would publish the picture of course.
I'm not saying the Red Cross or any other agencies does this, but they would be smart if they did.

[Peregrine1983]

Originally Posted by dannc

The American Red Cross has multiple people making $500,000+ a year.
Dan

I agree that the American Red Cross has work to do to gain the trust of the public back.

However, this notion (which I hear often) that people who are running big charities should not make a very good living is asinine.

Large organizations require very qualified folks to run them. Attracting and keeping those folks is expensive.

Also, if you're the CEO of a good charity you're doing good work, right? Why shouldn't that be rewarded? IMHO it should be rewarded as least as much as someone running an organization where profit is the objective. Take a look at the folks running for profit organizations that are as large as the American Red Cross... they're making a lot more than 500k.

Just my two cents.

[Blue Stocking]

Many small organizations just start up with genuine concern, volunteers, and out of pocket finances, and get the job done. Most are never known to the public, and don't solicit funds publicly. No paid staff whatsoever. A perfect example of this in Haiti is the Feed My Lambs Ministry. I have no connection, but know of their work. Since the earthquake and hurricane some 10 - 12 years back, has built a 750 student school, dental clinic, grows it's own vegetables, provides meals to the kids, and collects clothing for them. Has purchased it's own generators, solar power and R.O plants.
Builders, doctors, pharmacists, electricians, carpenters,-- all pay their own way there from the US, UK, Bermuda, Canada, and other countries.
While named a Ministry, is non-denominational, only criteria is service above self.

[hellosailor]

https://www.charitynavigator.org/ind...ary&orgid=4423


Actually, CharityNavigator says that 87.7% of Samaritan's Purse collections go to the victims, nowhere near 100%. Unless you got that from some particular program statement, it just isn't so.


That's a lot more than some organizations but also a lot less than some others, like Direct Relief, which puts 99.4% of all contributions to the victims. I'd never heard of them before, just went looking at the 4-star organizations to see which ones had high effectiveness.


Sadly, I think the American Red Cross will never be able to get their act together. Too many problems at too many levels, including the way they burned off nearly half of the volunteers with a poorly implemented background check program around 2005. Most of those folks went elsewhere, and the resource can't be replaced. (The ARC is mandated by Congress to use volunteers, they can't just do anything they please.)