Here's what the Red Cross say they've done:
In the last month, the Red Cross has provided tens of thousands of shelter stays, served millions of meals and snacks, handed out millions of relief supplies, and provided other assistance like thousands of health services and emotional support contacts.

And earlier:
The Red Cross response to Sandy is massive. To date, the Red Cross has helped families and individuals in ten states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico affected by Sandy. The Red Cross has:

Served more than 4.8 million meals and snacks
Provided more than 70,100 overnight stays out of a total of 130,000 provided by all organizations
Made more than 43,800 health services and emotional support contacts
Handed out more than 477,700 relief items

Possibly the article's author is a dumbass?

plumbicon: Do your research, folks. My money goes to the Salvation Army.
Aren't they led by a bunch of bigots?

http://www.boston.com/lifestyle/blogs/bostonspirit/2012/11/is_the_sa lv ation_army_antilgbt.html

monoski: Charity, the GOP's idea of a social net. What could possibly go wrong?

Pretty much the same things that go wrong when the government does it, except with less overhead.

Come on those executives aren't going to feed themselves, now are they?

OldManDownDRoad: Amos Quito: themasterdebater: Sorry, did someone forget that a non-profit is a business like every other business?


Actually, the non-profits tend to be much more profitable.

Ab-so-farkin'-lutely.

Don't believe us? Go to your local non-profit, especially something like a state-supported school. Pull their IRS Form 990. Check out the salaries for the folks at the top.

Salaries are profit now?

BarkingUnicorn: Red Cross press release archive, if anyone's interested in their side of the story.

No, I'm not interested.

These charities are cash cows. Years ago another well-known charity brought all the members of my office into a room and closed the doors, trapping us in a manditory meeting. They used all the peer pressure and cult-like tactics they could think of to make everyone sign cards giving them automatic payments from every paycheck. The cards were placed in front of each person at a table and you looked like a jerk if you didn't sign up. I didn't though. They were pushy, creepy, and acted entitled. I'm sure you know who I'm talking about. I had the impression they were sales staff on commission.

I don't know if it's true but I heard 6 months after the Japan disaster not a single bottle of water had been given out by the Red Cross despite the hundreds of millions of dollars donated.

I've heard that the Salvation Army is a good hearted organization, though and puts their money into directly helping those who need to better themselves and reclaim their lives. Their leadership draws little or no salary. They put people to work that no one else will hire, and give them a first job or second chance. I do respect that.

themasterdebater: Sorry, did someone forget that a non-profit is a business like every other business?

Because if you believe profit == "teh evil", then non-profit must be good.

royone:

Salaries are profit now?

Nope, but since non-profits (and NGO's) don't have shareholders or have financial analysts/investors look over their books, many have "administrative bloat" going on at the top level. That's money and resources not going to their stated mission. There are plenty of sites out there attempt to monitor and report on these, but I bet they are rarely used before people give money.

syberpud:
Salaries are profit now?

Nope, but since non-profits (and NGO's) don't have shareholders or have financial analysts/investors look over their books, many have "administrative bloat" going on at the top level. That's money and resources not going to their stated mission. There are plenty of sites out there attempt to monitor and report on these, but I bet they are rarely used before people give money.

Well, people are free to be as careful with their money (or not) as they choose.
Charity Navigator is a pretty easy to use resource for vetting charities. They are also a non-profit, but I wouldn't rely on them to rate themselves. :)

Here's the Red Cross score. They took in $3 billion and spent $150 million on salaries.

Here's FEMA's financial report (PDF). They got $13billion in budget and spent a little over $1 billion on salaries.

The number one rule of the Red Cross is to NOT PUT ANY VOLUNTEER IN ANY DANGER. Ya, I'm sure while you were out getting your truck stuck in disease infested mud bogs while battling fallen trees with a crowbar you didn't see any Red Cross presence. At least there's a handful of people in this thread that have clue. Unfortunately not many.

What's the average Red Cross volunteer? A 67 year old retiree. You want them out pushing a 2 ton Emergency Response Vehicle out of a ditch?

The stupid in this thread burns.

royone: Here's the Red Cross score. They took in $3 billion and spent $150 million on salaries.

Here's FEMA's financial report (PDF). They got $13billion in budget and spent a little over $1 billion on salaries.

Got a little slap-dash there in comparisons. Red Cross had about $250 million in salaries and fundraising expenses. FEMA had just over $1 billion in salaries and expenses, on $10 billion in discretionary budget.

Red Cross provided over 77,000 shelter nights IMMEDIATELY AFTER SANDY HIT. Tell all those people that had a roof over their head after their house was destroyed the Red Cross sucks. Oh, and here's a Link

The Red Cross should give that money to me. I'll make sure it gets to the right people.

imtheonlylp: Just checked. I can fit at least 2.3 million in my SUV. I'd be glad to help.

You can fit 1 million in a shopping bag and walk around with it.

What does a trillion dollars look like?

royone: OldManDownDRoad: Amos Quito: themasterdebater: Sorry, did someone forget that a non-profit is a business like every other business?


Actually, the non-profits tend to be much more profitable.

Ab-so-farkin'-lutely.

Don't believe us? Go to your local non-profit, especially something like a state-supported school. Pull their IRS Form 990. Check out the salaries for the folks at the top.

Salaries are profit now?


Salaries are not profit as currency is not money.

/Semantics

basemetal: That's pretty much the Red Cross way.

/oh look, bonuses!

Bada Bing we're done here

royone: Here's what the Red Cross say they've done:
In the last month, the Red Cross has provided tens of thousands of shelter stays, served millions of meals and snacks, handed out millions of relief supplies, and provided other assistance like thousands of health services and emotional support contacts.

And earlier:
The Red Cross response to Sandy is massive. To date, the Red Cross has helped families and individuals in ten states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico affected by Sandy. The Red Cross has:

Served more than 4.8 million meals and snacks
Provided more than 70,100 overnight stays out of a total of 130,000 provided by all organizations
Made more than 43,800 health services and emotional support contacts
Handed out more than 477,700 relief items

Possibly the article's author is a dumbass?

The problem with this is thar the shelters were high schools that didn't charge the red cross, the meals were donated by the community, the supplies from cleaning supplies to clean the shelter to diapers and bottles of water were donated from the community and the workers were volunteers from the community. The red cross had two official red cross people that I saw there as I donated, and picked up goods. (I donated things from my home that weren't destroyed by the storm such as Windex, and picked up things we needed such as diapers) I don't get it. Why did they need 150 million when the community stepped up and provided the space and the goods?

Screw the red cross, check out these guys:
http://www.operationbbqrelief.org/

occamswrist: I'll get the money to the victims. Send me the money.

Can one of you tell the red cross they can send the money to me, please?

Hey, I'm a victim of Sandy! Just send the money to me. No need for occamswrist to play middle-man.

Article fails to mention if there was a request made for services. If people and city employees don't ask for services then they might not get anything because the Red Cross hasn't been informed. Information can be put out on facebook, obtained from the Red Cross service delivery app and from the hurricane or other apps. If that doesn't work then pick up a phone and call the Red Cross or county services.

Do your research, folks. My money goes to St. Jude Children s Hospital.

I wouldn't give the Red Cross a nickel....by the time that $150 million is played around
with by the "suits" that run the red cross, the Sandy people might get 1/4th of it.
Give your money to the Salvation Army....at least they siphon off the least.

5monkeys: the meals were donated by the community

"The community" donated 4.8 million meals? I find that implausible. And nobody had to collect it, transport it, or distribute it, apart from some volunteers who needed no organizing?
70,100 overnight stays were all in donated high school space? And the bedding came from...?
They also claim to have mobilized 14,400 trained disaster workers.

I don't question that the Red Cross is only part of the response. I do question the claims that they've done next to nothing.

I don't know whether they can put $150 million all to Sandy-related use. It's a lot of money, and they have a fairly limited scope. But if they continue as they have in the past, about 94% of it will be used for programs apart from salaries and fundraising.

rocinante721: floor of my house was destroyed in Sandy (Long Beach NY)

Saw the Red Cross once, who asked if I needed food (which the Natl Guard was distributing). Not blankets or anything like that.

The Natl Guard, however, has been Johnny-on-the-spot during the whole ordeal, starting the day after the storm.

DO NOT GIVE TO RED CROSS.

CSB time

1943 the suchow pow camp, the prisoners were traded for japs we had in our country. the Sweedish ship grisfholme brought these people to the US mostly medical staff from the St Marks hospital/medical school in shanghai. the red cross charged them for their packages and other items clothes tooht powder soap. all of these items had been donated by Americans. also several of these nurses then joined the army medical corps and served for the rest of the war.

NEVER GIVE TO THE RED CROSS

royone: 5monkeys: the meals were donated by the community

"The community" donated 4.8 million meals? I find that implausible. And nobody had to collect it, transport it, or distribute it, apart from some volunteers who needed no organizing?
70,100 overnight stays were all in donated high school space? And the bedding came from...?
They also claim to have mobilized 14,400 trained disaster workers.

I don't question that the Red Cross is only part of the response. I do question the claims that they've done next to nothing.

I don't know whether they can put $150 million all to Sandy-related use. It's a lot of money, and they have a fairly limited scope. But if they continue as they have in the past, about 94% of it will be used for programs apart from salaries and fundraising.

But the problem I see being in an effected area, and being effected myself is how the money is collected. The radio ads for donations are saying the money will be used directly for sandy victims. They don't say give us money to pay our operating costs, or money will be reserved for future disasters. They are claiming every dollar will go directly to those who need it now. The communities are doing that, not the red cross. The local school teachers went door to door on their own time delivering meals to those cleaning up. The churches are handing out gift cards for daily needs, and helping those without insurance rip out the wreckage. No operating costs. They are on the ground. There are so many examples of the community doing it without all the extra BS. We don't see that with the red cross.

I've been a Red Cross volunteer for 8 years. I'm about to deploy to the Sandy disaster area. I've also deployed to: Florida (x4), Texas (x2) and North Carolina. Unless you're involved from this end it's hard to imagine the scale of what the Red Cross actually does and how much it costs.

For example, when the Red Cross does a disaster assessment (DA) survey, the first thing they do is rent a huge fleet of cars. Volunteers drive them. We go up and down the streets to check off damage. We assess the condition of the homes, whether or not the electricity is on, the availability of food and gas, people's immediate needs, etc. We look for cheap office space. We talk to business owners. We have to do this before the Red Cross starts deploying more resources. The rest of the organization can't operation without good intelligence. DA cars aren't marked--they're just regular rental cars--so it's possible the correspondent didn't notice them. On the other hand, volunteers are supposed to be in uniform. Damage assessment is not always easy and can be dangerous, for what that's worth.

The Red Cross provides shelter. They provide most of the emergency shelter in the country. Thousands of people stayed in Red Cross shelters during Hurricane Sandy. These people would not have had another place to go--the reason they're staying in a shelter is because they can't afford hotels. Some people are still there. The space for shelters is usually donated, but shelters have to be staffed 24 hours a day. Volunteers provide registration service, food and snacks, medical and emotional care, entertainment for children and safety and security. A lot of people in the shelter need additional social services, so hopefully someone will help them get connected.

Eventually (around the 2 to 3 week mark), the local volunteers are going to burn out or have to go back to work. Then Red Cross volunteers from across the country cycle in to replace them. So you should ask yourself: how do these volunteers get into the disaster area? Once there, where do they stay? How do they meet their day-to-day needs? Here's how: they fly in on airplanes and they stay in hotels at business rates. Which the Red Cross pays. That may seem like an extravagance, but if all the volunteers had to drive their own cars, pay for their own gas, and sleep in a tent in the park, who would they get to volunteer? I don't mind sleeping in a tent in a park (I've done it), but most volunteers are retired. They're in their 60s and 70s. Would you want your parents to sleep outside in Newark in December? Does that seem like a smart decision?

Aside from transportation and shelter, you have to assume between $20-40 per day, per volunteer, in food and personal expenses (toothbrushes, etc.). Yes, the Red Cross does pay for meals if you are on deployment.

Who keeps track of the volunteers and contacts family members if they get hurt (or killed)? Who makes sure volunteers are background-checked? Who make sure volunteers are qualified and trained for their jobs? Who's going to manage the fleet of rental cars and make sure nobody gets in an accident or drives off with one? Most of the people who do these things for the Red Cross are also volunteers, but you need information systems, which means you need IT setup and maintenance. And you have to have a secure place to put that stuff. That means you have to rent office space in coastal disaster areas on extremely short notice. Sooner or later that office space also needs to have electricity, working plumbing and top-notch communications. Do you know how much a satellite truck costs? Do you know what it gets in MPG? Do you know how long it takes to get it where it needs to be when there's no gas, no traffic lights, and debris in the road? It's not easy and the Red Cross does it all the time.

When you talk about Red Cross bulk distribution ("handing out supplies"), that's logistics on a Wal-Mart or U.S. Army scale. It takes a while to get the wheels in motion, and then you still have do to it right. Because the Red Cross is almost all volunteer-run, it's not always perfect and things don't always work the way they should. But I've seen bulk distribution from the warehouse, shelter and ERV end, and we usually get the kinks worked out eventually.

Also keep in mind that most deployments only last 2-3 weeks. So you're basically setting up a multimillion dollar company in a couple of weeks, then getting a completely new staff (including management) every 14-21 days. Which is free but not easy.

Yes, it's a lot of money, but disaster relief is expensive. It's really, really expensive. Try renting 100 cars immediately after a disaster sometime. Try buying food for 30,000 people. Try issuing preloaded debit cards for 1000 volunteers, finding them a safe place to stay in a disaster area, and then buying them plane tickets. Basically you have to turn the money spigot on and not turn it off for 3-12 months.

There is literally no way the Red Cross could "be there" at scale in the first week/s of a disaster. Even we were there, you might not see us. Your community has to be able to take care of itself for that long, because nobody else is going to be able to get in. Once they're there, it takes around a week to be operational. So what this person did is what you should do, but this person has already gone back to their daily life. That's where the Red Cross steps in. From the Red Cross perspective, this disaster isn't over. It's just beginning.

You may not be the biggest fan of the ARC, or the biggest fan of this model of disaster relief.That's perfectly respectable, and you should consider donating to the Southern Baptists (great kitchens) or the Salvation Army (which has their own ERVs). But to imply that the Red Cross is stealing the money because they're not fully deployed yet reflects a poor understanding of the Red Cross and the challenges of large scale disaster relief operations. And any other major org is going to face the same challenges in the early days/weeks of a disaster.

TL;DR The correspondent is mad at the Red Cross for not being able to do impossible things.

/The National Guard is not an all-volunteer charitable organization. Of course they were there first.
// If you'd like to help (and see what really happens to all that money), get in touch with your local chapter. There is a lot to do locally even if you can't deploy. And it doesn't cost you anything except some time.
/// Above is my personal opinion and perspective as a private citizen, not the opinion of the Red Cross.

Reminds me of an email forward my dad sent me recently. Seems like it makes the rounds after every disaster:
Link

I can understand the trepidation with giving organizations money because you don't know where it's going, but I never understood the complaint of the CEO having a substantial salary. In the case of the Red Cross you're dealing with a billion dollar worldwide organization. Shouldn't the CEO be compensated commensurately?

And according to another fun recent email forward Canada has found the cure for cancer but no one will invest in it because it's not profitable.

5monkeys: They are claiming every dollar will go directly to those who need it now.

I don't know what they're claiming, but I doubt they're saying "every dollar will go directly".

The communities are doing that, not the red cross.

Amazing, self-organizing communities.

The local school teachers went door to door on their own time delivering meals to those cleaning up.

The Red Cross supports volunteers. Just because volunteers are involved, you assume that there's no Red Cross assistance? If the teachers organized the project, made the meals, and so forth, great. If they didn't, the Red Cross may have provided organizational assistance, as well as material support.

The churches are handing out gift cards for daily needs, and helping those without insurance rip out the wreckage. No operating costs. They are on the ground.

Good. The Red Cross can't do everything. They do what they do.

There are so many examples of the community doing it without all the extra BS. We don't see that with the red cross.

What community are you in? You realize that some other communities may have had different experiences? Sandy cut a big swath.

I'll take it to them.

royone: 5monkeys: They are claiming every dollar will go directly to those who need it now.

I don't know what they're claiming, but I doubt they're saying "every dollar will go directly".

The communities are doing that, not the red cross.

Amazing, self-organizing communities.

The local school teachers went door to door on their own time delivering meals to those cleaning up.

The Red Cross supports volunteers. Just because volunteers are involved, you assume that there's no Red Cross assistance? If the teachers organized the project, made the meals, and so forth, great. If they didn't, the Red Cross may have provided organizational assistance, as well as material support.

The churches are handing out gift cards for daily needs, and helping those without insurance rip out the wreckage. No operating costs. They are on the ground.

Good. The Red Cross can't do everything. They do what they do.

There are so many examples of the community doing it without all the extra BS. We don't see that with the red cross.

What community are you in? You realize that some other communities may have had different experiences? Sandy cut a big swath.

The ads say exactly that. Every dollar will go to help those directly effected by sandy.

The red cross did not help the teachers do that. They grouped together and did it on their own. I asked them when they came to my door how they got the idea, and they said seeing so many students homes destroyed they wanted to help. This is what they came up with.

I am in ocean county NJ. Not a barrier island, but a community with a lot of lagoon and bay homes. 500 plus homes in my small section were deemed uninhabitable. Basically all of the lagoon homes. The water went through in a five foot swell, and damaged a few blocks of homes not on the water.

L.D. Ablo: You need $150 million to send fat bureaucrats off to "conferences" at five star hotels and resorts where there's plenty of rich food and drink.

That's how you truly help the needy.

That's the Jimmy Wales' way. And the Bono way.

netringer: Sheila_McSly: I've been a Red Cross volunteer for 8 years. I'm about to deploy to the Sandy disaster area. ...

You that the Red Cross is ABOUT TO SHOW UP at the Sandy disaster that happened OVER A MONTH AGO?.

No, I mean, I'm about to show up. I'm probably relieving someone who's been there for three weeks.

Sheila_McSly: I've been a Red Cross volunteer for 8 years....

Thank you! It's amazing to see people complain that a multi-million dollar corporation staffed almost entirely by volunteers can't magically appear instantaneously with zero operating costs. The Red Cross IS NOT a first responder.

royone: Here's what the Red Cross say they've done:
In the last month, the Red Cross has provided tens of thousands of shelter stays, served millions of meals and snacks, handed out millions of relief supplies, and provided other assistance like thousands of health services and emotional support contacts.

And earlier:
The Red Cross response to Sandy is massive. To date, the Red Cross has helped families and individuals in ten states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico affected by Sandy. The Red Cross has:

Served more than 4.8 million meals and snacks
Provided more than 70,100 overnight stays out of a total of 130,000 provided by all organizations
Made more than 43,800 health services and emotional support contacts
Handed out more than 477,700 relief items

Possibly the article's author is a dumbass?

And a whole lot of that food and "supplies" are donated. Volunteer workers that get called in are expected to pay their own way and provide for themselves. So unless those gift cards they handed out amount to about a hundred million dollars...

Shyla:
And a whole lot of that food and "supplies" are donated. Volunteer workers that get called in are expected to pay their own way and provide for themselves. So unless those gift cards they handed out amount to about a hundred million dollars...

Uhm, no. Local volunteers are expected to live in their own houses and drive to the disaster relief. Once the disaster response exhausts the supply of local volunteers then they need to start flying volunteers in and housing them. The Red Cross ran out of local volunteer resources two days before superstorm sandy even made it onshore.

5monkeys: The ads say exactly that. Every dollar will go to help those directly effected by sandy.

Cool. So the money they get that way will have to be spent on direct relief.

I see that all Red Cross shelters in the Ocean County Area are closed as of Nov 23. Which, of course, means that they were open for a while preceding that. There's something.

And here's a little something.
Through this beneficial partnership and the strategic planning between Red Cross mass care and feeding, the USNA Midshipmen and Red Cross volunteers delivered 500 meals to Lavallette residents and provided over 70,000 cleaning supplies to individuals in Ocean County.


You're free to think that it's all a big scam, and everything they claim to do doesn't really cost anything except volunteers. That's what all the cool kids think.

someguy945: imtheonlylp: Just checked. I can fit at least 2.3 million in my SUV. I'd be glad to help.

You can fit 1 million in a shopping bag and walk around with it.

What does a trillion dollars look like?

have to have room for the 5 hookers and 8 kilos to make the ride tolerable... sustenance, yanno?

Shyla: And a whole lot of that food and "supplies" are donated.

Not true. Most of the food, cleaning kits and hygiene kits are bought in bulk. They are also stored, organized and transported by the Red Cross at cost. You know how much it costs to rent a refrigerator truck? Or put gas in it and drive it from, say, the bulk distribution warehouse in Ohio (or wherever) to Long Island? I don't, but it's not free.

/FWIW

netringer:
You're doing a Heckuva Job There Reddie.

Wow, you are a monumental douche.

A relative of mine who was a relief worker after the November 6, 1977 flood that devastated Toccoa Falls College said that the Red Cross only stayed long enough to get the word out that they needed donations, then left. The Salvation Army stayed until they were no longer needed.