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June 17, 2008

The Red Cross is strapped for funds
Posted by Teresa at 12:03 AM * 39 comments

From the comment thread on Five Feet High and Rising:

#120 ::: Edward Oleander ::: (view all by) ::: June 16, 2008, 09:19 PM:

The American Red Cross announced today that its disaster relief fund is completely spent, and that it is now borrowing money to continue intensive relief efforts across the midwest.

Many of my fellow volunteers from the Minneapolis Chapter are using their own vehicles and paying for their own gas, lodging and food to go help these folks. I’ll probably be joining them shortly.

Even with the volunteers paying their own way, these efforts still consume huge amounts of cash. To donate, please click here. Thank you.

#121 ::: P J Evans ::: (view all by) ::: June 16, 2008, 09:45 PM:

Edward, what’s your local chapter?

I ask because some people are recommending donating to the chapters rather than the national organization, which doesn’t always put the money where the donors intend.

#122 ::: Linkmeister ::: (view all by) ::: June 16, 2008, 10:03 PM:

PJ @ #122, Here’s the page which shows ARC chapters by state, with links to each one’s website.

Go and do whatever seems right to you. And pass it on.
Comments on The Red Cross is strapped for funds:
#1 ::: Mary Dell ::: (view all by) ::: June 17, 2008, 12:51 AM:

I just sent an email to the powers that be at my company, asking if they'll match funds for employee donations like they did for Katrina, and I'd advise anyone else who works at a charitably-inclined company to do the same.* It can't hurt, and if they're willing to do it they'll usually do it to the tune of at least the first 10k dollars, and maybe quite a bit more.

I'll send donations to a couple of chapters tomorrow one way or the other. Thanks for the heads up.

*if you're not sure, take a shot. If you don't know who to ask, call the marketing department and ask if they do any charity work. You might be surprised.

#2 ::: Melody ::: (view all by) ::: June 17, 2008, 07:25 AM:

Thank you so much for highlighting this, Teresa, Oleander and I appreciate it. Mary Dell - that's an excellent point, some employers can really surprise you.

#3 ::: Edward Oleander ::: (view all by) ::: June 17, 2008, 08:43 AM:

Teresa... wow... Thank you! The harsh realities first of 9/11 then of Katrina have really forced the people at National to take a hard look at how funds are collected, organized and spent. I think they've made some significant improvements in the last few years.

For those interested in contributing to local chapters, I would recommend the Des Moines and St. Louis chapters from Linkmeister's national map above. Anyone thinking of volunteering, either for local disasters or the larger versions, contact your own local chapter, and they will be happy to get you started.

Thank you, everybody...

#4 ::: Bruce Cohen, SpeakerToManagers ::: (view all by) ::: June 17, 2008, 08:58 AM:

Grabbing a few minutes on Eva's computer to donate some money to the Iowa flood relief, I saw the headline for this thread on my google home page and went to look. Thanks, Teresa, for putting these links in an easily accessible place; it took all of 3 minutes to donate, counting time to register for an account at the ARC website.

#5 ::: John Houghton ::: (view all by) ::: June 17, 2008, 11:28 AM:

Since the aftermath of 9/11, the Red Cross has been maniacally strict about following donor earmarks, even though this makes raising funds for the everyday local disasters more difficult. You'll notice that the Red Cross now announces when they've collected sufficient funds to cover a particular disaster. A significant amount of non-earmarked money given to a local chapter goes into the national funds (both to cover overhead and to add to the fund that goes out to chapters during disasters that exceed their 5 year average).

If you send money to national, an affected chapter, or your local chapter --stating on the check that the money is for the Midwest floods, that is where your money will go. Affected chapters are responsible for raising a significant amount of the extra money for mid-sized disasters, but less so for multi-jurisdictional disasters. Right now, giving money through your local chapter or via the national web site is the best thing to do - the local chapter needs all hands dealing with the disaster itself. After things quiet down, those chapters will need money to replenish their local disaster funds -- that check needs to be earmarked for the chapter disaster relief fund so they don't have to share that money with national.

The Red Cross website has donation links on the top page, or call 1-800-HELP-NOW.

Your local chapter needs your ongoing support of money or time as well. Responding to small local disasters is expensive, but doesn't get the media attention of a tornado, earthquake, flood, or hurricane.

#6 ::: PixelFish ::: (view all by) ::: June 17, 2008, 11:31 AM:

Shakespeare's Sister has a post about How to help and I found a link on how to salvage your food (if it's salvageable).

#7 ::: Constance Ash ::: (view all by) ::: June 17, 2008, 11:41 AM:

Just FYI --

The Red Cross played very, very loose with donations re Katrina. People didn't want to donate to the Red Cross, because their money wasn't going to help the people they wanted their donations to help.

Which is why so many private individuals out of the sf/f community donated to me directly, who then, directly put that money into the hands of those who needed it. These wonderful, generous, compassionate people didn't and still don't trust the Red Cross any longer.

Love, C.

#8 ::: Lee ::: (view all by) ::: June 17, 2008, 12:14 PM:

And don't forget to donate blood. We've got a big holiday weekend coming up, and people are going to be hurt in auto wrecks, boating accidents, misuse-of-fireworks incidents, etc.

#9 ::: Nicole J. LeBoeuf-Little ::: (view all by) ::: June 17, 2008, 12:23 PM:

The Red Cross played very, very loose with donations re Katrina.

Cite, please?

(If this is true, I want to be able to pass the info along with more authority than "so I hear." If this cannot be supported with citations, it would be a shame to dissuade people from a valid vector of aid due to rumor, wouldn't it?)

As I recall, the Red Cross weren't even allowed into the affected areas for a little while after Katrina, because their aid would "encourage people to stay rather than evacuate" or something ridiculous like that. I expect being denied access to the area was a non-trivial obstacle to effective use of donated funds.

Thanks to our hosts for making the donation links so accessible.

#10 ::: Laura Runkle ::: (view all by) ::: June 17, 2008, 12:51 PM:

The Grant Wood Chapter is also in need of funds. They cover both the Iowa City and Cedar Rapids floods, as well as those in Anamosa, Vinton, and Palo.

But anything is good - we still can't know the full extent of the damage, and won't for some time.

If you want to give directly to artists who have lost instruments, studios, computers, etc., Legion Arts, home of the CSPS in Cedar Rapids, has established an Iowa Artists Fund.

Me? I think general help is what's needed here, and fast. At least the clearing of homes for entrance is taking place on a block-by-block basis now, with the perimeter moved as a block is cleared.

#11 ::: Bruce Arthurs ::: (view all by) ::: June 17, 2008, 02:00 PM:

I must admit to having reticence at donating to the Red Cross. Had that attitude since long before Katrina or 9/11.

Back when I was an Army company clerk, there were a number of occasions when I had to try and get some kind of assistance for soldiers and soldiers' families who were in trouble of one kind or another (house fires, family deaths with no funds for funerals or travel to funerals, that sort of thing).

There was a Red Cross office on post, and supposedly they were supposed to help with this sort of emergency.

I might as well have just beat my head against a wall. On the about half a dozen occasions when I had to try and get some Red Cross assistance for soldiers in my unit, I was never able to get anything from the Red Cross. (In one instance, the company CO ended up personally paying for a soldier's travel to his father's funeral.)

The only time that Red Cross chapter ended up jumping into action was when nearby Petersburg had some flooding after heavy rains, and the RC got their names into the papers for their help.

The lesson I came away with was: Unless there's a photo-op involved, the Red Cross doesn't care.

(YMMV)

#12 ::: Edward Oleander ::: (view all by) ::: June 17, 2008, 11:32 PM:

#7 - Constance - The Red Cross played very, very loose with donations re Katrina. People didn't want to donate to the Red Cross, because their money wasn't going to help the people they wanted their donations to help.

Perhaps if you could explain what you mean by "fast and loose," I could put it into a context that sounds a little better than vague and slightly sinister innuendo.

Remember, 9/11 and Katrina changed everything for the Red Cross. We are still trying to sort out the lessons from these watershed (no pun intended) events. Outside of the flow of refugees in a war, nothing in our experience compared to the manner in which Katrina/Rita/Wilma unfolded. We were so involved in every aspect from the first days we were allowed in, that to separate the bulk of the donations into neat categories for this specific disaster or that particular state was, and still would be, impossible.

Case in point: I went to Washington, DC for a month to manage part of a huge phone center there. My job was to locate resources for the evacuees all across the country, and to disburse both information and (indirectly) funds where feasible and appropriate.

Every day, my nurses and I fielded calls from all three of the major disaster zones. By having ALL of the disaster victims calling one common entry point, we avoided a lot of needless overlapping bureaucracy and were able to efficiently help thousands of people.

The whole thing was a learning curve, and it still is. The resource list I put together had never been done before, and I'm proud to say that my methods will be included in future large scale disasters. If a lot of the money given in donations had not been funneled into national-based efforts like our phone center, which served multiple disasters at once, the successes we achieved would not have been possible.

Which is why so many private individuals out of the sf/f community donated to me directly, who then, directly put that money into the hands of those who needed it. These wonderful, generous, compassionate people didn't and still don't trust the Red Cross any longer.

The Red Cross completely understands that smaller efforts like yours are critical to our own success. We do things on large, even global scales. This leaves lots of little niches and cracks that we cannot fill. One of the things we have always tried to do, and are slowly getting better at, is coordinating with smaller charities and private efforts so that these groups are steered towards the areas we can't help in. No single organization can do it all. We do some things very well, but because of our size, we tend to try and fit as many people into broad categories as possible.

We absolutely rely on smaller efforts to complement our own, but we do wish that the smaller groups made a better effort to understand why we do things the way we do. Drive-by sniping does not help in getting assistance to those who need it.

So again, if you have specific examples or concerns, I would be happy to try and explain the logic of why funds were disbursed as they were.

#11 - Bruce - I might as well have just beat my head against a wall. On the about half a dozen occasions when I had to try and get some Red Cross assistance for soldiers in my unit, I was never able to get anything from the Red Cross. (In one instance, the company CO ended up personally paying for a soldier's travel to his father's funeral.)

Bruce, I'm curious as to when your last experience with our Armed Forces Emergency Services (AFES) was? When I joined Disaster Services in 1999 my impression was that AFES was still trying to figure out what its role should be. Since the start of Gulf War II, I have seen considerable improvement in the consistency of the services we offer. As I said above, we are not the end-all and be-all, but what we do, we do well.

If your experience is recent, and the service didn't meet your expectations, I would like to hear more about the problems you found. Email me.

If your experience is out-dated, and you haven't bothered to keep up to date, then my sniping comment is for you too.

To all -- I've been with Red Cross for 18 years, 9 of those with Disaster Services. Any group as large as we are who runs with as few permanent paid staff as we do (we are greater than 99.5% volunteers)is going to have problems. Our biggest problem is a need to strictly adhere to policies that may out-date themselves more quickly than we can adapt to new situations (like 9/11 and Katrina). In some ways we could teach the Feds quite a bit about mindless bureaucracy.

Having said that, we are still the best at large scale disaster relief. Unless you are an expert in disaster analysis, and relief flow management, you can hardly find a better or more careful guardian for your donations.

My HEARTFELT thanks to everyone who has donated to the current effort. These floods will probably be the biggest of the 55,000 disasters we respond to this year, and every penny is appreciated more than I can tell you...

#13 ::: Carol ::: (view all by) ::: June 18, 2008, 12:29 AM:

I'd been meaning to donate, but hadn't gotten around to it. This post, letting me know how urgent the matter is and making it so convenient for me to find a local branch, motivated me to write a check tonight. It'll be in the mail tomorrow. I am sending it to the Grant Woods branch. I did not earmark it for any specific purpose... maybe I should, but isn't that part of the issues, money being overspecified in terms of what it is spent on? Anyway, I didn't want to overthink it at the expense of getting it done.

#14 ::: Lee ::: (view all by) ::: June 18, 2008, 12:31 AM:

Edward, maybe you can answer a question that's been bugging me for almost 10 years: why are blood donations/drives in Houston not handled by the Red Cross? When I lived in Nashville, I could call the Red Cross Center and schedule a blood donation at my convenience, and whenever there was a Bloodmobile drive anywhere, it was always run by Red Cross personnel. Here, that doesn't seem to be the case... and though I'm ashamed to say it, I'm not as eager to donate blood as I used to be, because my donations no longer track for my gallon total. Any information?

#15 ::: Edward Oleander ::: (view all by) ::: June 18, 2008, 12:46 AM:

#14 - I'll see what I can find out, Lee...

#16 ::: Nicole J. LeBoeuf-Little ::: (view all by) ::: June 18, 2008, 12:53 PM:

Edward, thank you so much for your post, and for everything you do.

My donation will be coming along shortly, and good thoughts/energy/wishes for those in need are coming along constantly.

#17 ::: sherrold ::: (view all by) ::: June 18, 2008, 12:53 PM:

I am unbelievably lazy, and I hate typing my credit card information in (and I work/play on 4-5 different computers regularly, so the google toolbar fillin (which is kept on your computer, not in the google cloud) doesn't work for me). But PayPal has a new plug-in that will let me use PayPal to pay, even on sites that don't take PayPal.

I've been telling MoveOn for months that if they let people use PayPal, they'd get more impulse money -- now, MoveOn doesn't have to do anything, and the PayPal people can use it if they want to.

All of which sounds like an over-the-top ad, but I just used the plug-in for the first time to give money to the Red Cross, and it worked just like I wanted it to, and how often does that happen!

#18 ::: Constance Ash ::: (view all by) ::: June 18, 2008, 04:05 PM:

Type into Google and you get your answers.

Here's a sample.

If you say none of this is true, well, there you are.

But with so many reports of monies donated to the RC, going for honcho's perks and salaries, on top of embezzlement, and so on, no wonder people became sceptical.

Again, if the RC was so good at handling large scale disasters, why not what happened in New Orleans and across the Gulf? Katrina is what actually destroyed most of that Gulf region. It was the levees' failures, from the storm surge of waters, that destroyed New Orleans -- not the same thing.

I'm curious to learn just why this large scale disaster was so difficult for the RC in particular, when it still characterizes itself as so good at handling large scale catastrophes in other countries.

These are not snarky accusations by any means. They are made in all honesty, because I haven't heard anything from the people in Louisiana that the RC has particularly stepped up to the plate yet. Of course those who were best off before the catastrophe have been taken care of, and sooner, rather than later, or not at all, even as yet. FEMA has done no better either.

Love, C.

#19 ::: Lin D ::: (view all by) ::: June 18, 2008, 06:54 PM:

Money sent.

#20 ::: Alan Bostick ::: (view all by) ::: June 18, 2008, 10:35 PM:

The Red Cross is running out of money? Boo hoo hoo.

I wonder what happened to the hundreds of millions of dollars that Americans donated in early 2005 for tsunami relief that was sitting in a bank account unspent?

Corrupt bastards. Don't give them any more money.

#21 ::: Nicole J. LeBoeuf-Little ::: (view all by) ::: June 19, 2008, 01:04 AM:

sherrold, that's a great tip. I'll be grabbing that plug-in when I sit down to do the household books and make our donation.

#22 ::: Edward Oleander ::: (view all by) ::: June 19, 2008, 03:12 AM:

Sherrold -- Thanks for the PayPal tip... I'm all over that one...

Constance -- "Type into Google and you get your answers."

I tried "red cross scandals" and got a whole bunch of hits that centered around 3 actual scandals and one CEO who quit over an office love affair.

The one you used as an example was about 50 people who contract employee stealing from the Bakersfield Service Center. They weren't Red Cross volunteers or staff, and we gleefully cooperated with the prosecuters to put those bastards away. Our mistake was in hiring a firm that employed dishonest people. We VERY rarely hire out for those types of functions and needed lots of people fast. It was an opportunity for scam artists and they took it.

We're learning from that one. We learned to streamline our volunteering application process so that now we can get more reliable people into the field faster. I helped supervise about 100 outside contractors working the phones in Virginia, and a few needed to be dismissed for various reasons. Screened volunteers are always better when you can get them.

Most of the other reports centered around the handling of donations for 9/11 and Katrina. The 9/11 difficulties arose when we applied our standard business practices to a unique situation. The 9/11 disaster was the first major cause where people really specified where their money was to go. We didn't pay enough attention to that, and used our normal business models. That was a mistake. We had some good reasons for developing the normal practices we used, and top management saw no reason not to continue a strategy that worked well. Public opinion should have been taken into account, and it turned into a PR nightmare. We now go to great lengths to make sure that ANY earmarked funds go where the earmark says it should, even if doing so wastes money in the long run.

Problems with Katrina funds were caused by there being three major hurricanes within one month, and the need to centralize as much of the response as possible. Lots of money got shuffled to the hurricanes from other efforts, and those funds needed to be replaced out of Katrina donations, which made it look to some as if we were diverting funds.

Also, much was made about the high percentage of administrative and overhead costs. Read below for my explanation of what we do, that should demonstrate why those numbers seem high. It takes a lot of money to move a quarter million volunteers around, and keep them fed.

There have been other smaller scandals about people embezzling, cheating, and outright scamming of donated money. Those people are scum, and we help put them away when they're found. Those few give the other 1.5 million of us a bad name, and it's embarrassing when it happens. Like any other outfit that funnel $3 Billion a year through it, we attract some bad apples, and don't always catch them quick enough. We're getting better at it, if you'll note the dates on the reports...


"Again, if the RC was so good at handling large scale disasters, why not what happened in New Orleans and across the Gulf? Katrina is what actually destroyed most of that Gulf region. It was the levees' failures, from the storm surge of waters, that destroyed New Orleans -- not the same thing."

I'm not sure what you're asking me here... or what your point is in separating New Orleans from the rest of the damage done by Katrina...


"I'm curious to learn just why this large scale disaster was so difficult for the RC in particular, when it still characterizes itself as so good at handling large scale catastrophes in other countries."

The difference here was the sheer scope of the disaster, and the fact that we had two other hurricanes within just a couple weeks. At one point we had 250,000 volunteers working from Florida to Texas. That's like moving the entire city of St. Paul 1000 miles and feeding and housing them while they help other people (who we were also feeding and housing). That's far more than all the troops in Iraq and Afghanistan combined. We had to go out and get that many people together almost overnight, and it just can't be done. Because so many were moving out from the hurricane zones, the need for shelters outside the immediate zone became critical. We needed thousands of nurse alone, just to have medical presence at each shelter 24 hours a day.

NOTHING has ever come close to the logistical nightmare we faced trying to feed, house, and transport a million people. No modern nation on Earth has ever had to pack out an entire metropolitan population. The situation was made many times worse by the Feds, who delayed in letting us get into the area and begin our set-up until several days into the crisis.

To put it into perspective, the military moved more supplies around the nation for us and FEMA than the entire Berlin Airlift in 1948.

No matter how good your plans are, BIG holes will be found the first time you use them... Especially when Mother Nature tosses two extra hurricanes into the mix.


"These are not snarky accusations by any means. They are made in all honesty, because I haven't heard anything from the people in Louisiana that the RC has particularly stepped up to the plate yet. Of course those who were best off before the catastrophe have been taken care of, and sooner, rather than later, or not at all, even as yet. FEMA has done no better either."

Part of the problem here is that people don't often have a real good idea of just what it is the Red Cross does in these disasters. We have two main functions: Immediate needs and resource coordination. In large disasters they meld together as we supply some needs directly (like shelters) and coordinate with others for their specialties.

Our Congressional mandate puts us in the role of coordinating the efforts of all the other relief agencies. Even FEMA used us as a conduit to disburse about $1 Billion of their money. At the service center here in St Paul, we made sure that all 1300 families that came up here only had to go to one place to sign up for EVERY state agency, as well as other charitable groups like Salvation Army. In a single 4 hour marathon, they could sign up for emergency medical and general assistance, housing referrals, replace lost medications and getting hooked up with local doctors (my specialty), find a local church congregation, and then find a couple changes of clothes, shoes, diapers, hygiene needs, gas cards, gift cards, and finally arrange transport to a local grocery store to use the food money we gave them.

Now multiply that times a hundred centers across the country. Now add to that the thousand shelters set up in 12 states. We had to make sure that groupd like Baptists, who specialize in mass food service, knew where to go to set up their kitchens. We arranged for the food to be delivered for them to cook. We tracked the flow of refugees so the supplies were where they were needed TODAY, and not just arriving at a place where everyone had moved on.

As for saying people who were well off being taken care of first... That is a snarky accusation by any means. I'll try to answer any legit concerns you have, but to someone who invested 3 months of volunteer time to help those folks, that kind of sniping is irksome.

#23 ::: Edward Oleander ::: (view all by) ::: June 19, 2008, 03:16 AM:

#20 - Alan - I wonder what happened to the hundreds of millions of dollars that Americans donated in early 2005 for tsunami relief that was sitting in a bank account unspent?


I lost every penny of it following your Texas Hold 'Em advice.
:-P

#25 ::: Bruce Arthurs ::: (view all by) ::: June 21, 2008, 02:40 AM:

My military service was in 1972-75, Edward. I'm pretty slow to form bad opinions of people or organizations, but once they're formed, I tend to keep them an insanely outrageously long time.

#26 ::: Kathryn from Sunnyvale ::: (view all by) ::: June 21, 2008, 03:07 PM:

This picture set (h/t Jay Lake) captures how big the flood is more than anything else I've seen*. #9--things caught up against a bridge--is simply... ["poignant" isn't quite the thought I have. Some word-phrase implying "just not supposed to be"]

-----------
* I've stopped watching news on TV/cable, so I would have missed seeing these there.

#27 ::: Edward Oleander ::: (view all by) ::: June 21, 2008, 10:05 PM:

What is a Mutloid, and why should basting turkeys prevent them?

#28 ::: Volunteer ::: (view all by) ::: June 21, 2008, 11:06 PM:

Found this blog quite by accident, and then realized I knew the moderators and others from a few cons.
As a long time volunteer with the Red Cross (20+ years... and yes, I started as a youth volunteer), I want to thank Edward for his cogent and logical response to the posts. I started to reply, and realized that I just couldn't say it any better than he had already done. Thank-you.

#29 ::: David Dyer-Bennet ::: (view all by) ::: June 23, 2008, 11:15 PM:

Lee @ #14, on who handles blood collection where:

I don't pretend to understand it the history in any detail, but it looks to me like in places where there were competent and well-established blood banks, the ARC avoided competing with them. Around the Twin Cities we have Memorial Blood Center operating. Seems like they used to have Minneapolis, and the ARC had St. Paul, but that has apparently changed in recent years because I see ARC stuff in Minneapolis now. (I last donated at Memorial, but long enough ago I can do so again. Though "fireworks misuse accidents" isn't perhaps the thing I'm *most* enthusiastic about donating to cover; my friends seem to not have accidents while "misusing" fireworks, and I don't think it's an accident.)

So maybe the Houston situation is something like that?

#30 ::: Lee ::: (view all by) ::: June 23, 2008, 11:53 PM:

David, #29: You'll notice that I said "incidents" rather than "accidents"; that was why. Also, remember that sometimes the victims of such incidents are folks who just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

OTOH, even the professionals aren't immune; there's a guy in our local SF group who's been doing pyro professionally for 25 years, and something misfired a few weeks ago and put him in the hospital. (He's okay now, but he'll have a couple of interesting scars.)

#31 ::: Mt ::: (view all by) ::: June 24, 2008, 04:55 PM:

I can answer Lee's question (#14) about why the Red Cross doesn't handle blood donations in Houston. They don't have a blood region there. ARC's blood regions are primarily along the East Coast, the South, part of the Midwest, and the West Coast. Most everything between the Tulsa and Salt Lake City is not their blood collecting territory. So Texas (along with New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming and several other states) are not serviced by ARC but by regional blood centers or United Blood Services (USB) based in Scottsdale AZ.

Former ARC employee

#32 ::: Edward Oleander ::: (view all by) ::: June 27, 2008, 03:52 PM:

#28 - Volunteer - Thank you!

#14 - Lee - #13(Mt) is correct.. I've been trying to find out why we limit our areas, and so far the biggest consensus is that, once again, we're geared toward large responses, and the potential for those areas doesn't take advantage of our bigginess (it's a perfectly good word since I just invented it)...

You may see a change in the future as the Red Cross (which really does have some problems with bureaucracy and resistance to change) finally realizes that a LOT of population has shifted to those areas where we aren't...

#29 - David - Most of the reason you see more activity west of the river is that the Mpls and St Paul chapters combined to form the Twin Cities chapter in 2006. The old chapter building in St Paul is essentially empty but for Blood Services.

Since most of the personnel and (and Twin Cities population) are in the West Metro, I think they are concentrating the majority of our resources and marketing there... It's a little unfortunate, because when St Paul was independent (and the state lead chapter) we were able to preserve a little more small-town feel. The Mpls chapter has always been more formal and business-like. We can respond to more disasters, and use funds more efficiently, but at the cost of some our character and personality.

#33 ::: Spam deleted ::: (view all by) ::: July 09, 2008, 10:27 AM:

Spam from 98.203.65.198

#34 ::: Spam deleted ::: (view all by) ::: July 15, 2008, 12:22 PM:

Spam from 78.186.252.241

#35 ::: David Goldfarb points at probable spam ::: (view all by) ::: July 16, 2008, 02:50 AM:

There's an odd URL in the name, and the comment repeats something said above.

#36 ::: John Wilkes Booth ::: (view all by) ::: September 14, 2008, 03:19 AM:

According to Forbes.com, the CEO of Red Cross makes over $600,000 dollars a year:
http://www.forbes.com/finance/lists/14/2004/LIR.jhtml?passListId=14&passYear=2004&passListType=Misc&datatype=Misc&uniqueId=CH0013

That's waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too much salary for a charity,
considering they're begging for more money with sleaziest tactic they have: "we're broke!!!"

Red Cross is no longer a legitimate organization.

#37 ::: Terry wonders if the above is spam ::: (view all by) ::: September 14, 2008, 06:21 AM:

It might just be political comment, but...

#38 ::: James D. Macdonald ::: (view all by) ::: September 14, 2008, 07:18 AM:
Sandra Miniutti, director of external relations for Charity Navigator, a Washington-based watchdog group that will release its compensation survey this week, said such salary increases are not unheard of.

"It's a competitive marketplace, and if charities want to retain employees, they have to increase salaries over time," she said.

Susan Galler, a consulatant and recruiter for nonprofits with offices in Miami and Boston, said that when she helps her clients recruit top executives, salary decisions are based on the complexity of the organization, the number of constituencies that need to be managed, the number of employees and the organization's budget.

"There's a mind-set that nonprofits are about poverty. That's old-fashioned. In order to compete, they need to have best practices and people who are at the top of their game," Galler said.

-- Palm Beach Post, 3 October 2006

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