Red Cross Effectiveness Providing Disaster Relief?

[TemporaryKubotaOwnerMark]

I was involved with a flood in Ohio. Red Cross handed out supplies bought with FEMA money. They also hung Red Cross banners at volunteer sites. No Red Cross personnel actually helping. They were very good at claiming responsibility for others work. Lots of red tape doing anything with Red Cross for FEMA money. I quit donating to them after this experience. Salvation Army helped without preaching.

Bingo. There are tons of charities more effective than the Red Cross. I would not give those people one thin dime.

 

[om21braz]

I have helped out in two disasters. After Hurricane Floyd flooded eastern NC, I was down there looking for looters and bodies and thankfully found neither. The water was still high but the Mennonites were already working. I have no idea where the heck they came from but they were already on site and working. They were providing food, clothing and labor to the survivors. The Red Cross was there providing food as was the National Guard.

A week or so later I went back to help clean up. The Red Cross and the National Guard were gone...

The Mennonites were still there. :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

The Baptists had arrived in force, and both groups, along with other volunteers, were out helping people clean out and repair houses.

After a tornado hit, I was helping out in a rural area. Never saw the Red Cross or the National Guard, just locals and friends of the survivors. Except, that a local church was setting up to host people arriving from other churches in VA to help with the cleanup. :thumbsup:

From my limited view, the religious organizations provide better relief services, and if the previously mentioned websites are correct, they do it more efficiently and cheaply.

I can't find a/the Baptist organization that I saw in Floyd. They had a semi trailer set up as a kitchen, bathroom and shower that they could drive to the disaster areas. Great setup that cost a fair amount of money to buy and run but sooooo danged helpful.

Later,
Dan

Could have been these folks:

Baptists on Mission - United States

 

[TemporaryKubotaOwnerMark]

I quit red cross donations whe bob dole made white house run and his wife was head of the red cross making big, big bucks.

Over $800,000, as I recall.

No. Nobody needs that much to run a charity. I don't buy the argument that they can't get "talented" people for less.

Maybe they can't get well-connected people for less, but if that's what they really mean, all the more reason to NOT donate to them.

As for United Way, I don't understand why people think they actually do something. They never have, and have never claimed to do anything. Their only function is to collect money and give it to other charities, while skimming a ridiculous percentage off the top.

Thanks, I'll give to people who actually put boots on the ground.

 

[dmccarty]

Could have been these folks:

Baptists on Mission - United States

The people I saw might very well have been from the organization in the link. They were VERY organized and prepared. So where the Mennonites but the Baptists had the semi! :laughing::laughing::laughing:

When we got down east to help out, we went to meet a town official to get our work assignment. The meeting place was where the Mennonites had setup a warehouse to supply food and clothes. We got there and I called the contact who said he would meet us in a few minutes. We were standing around talking when one of the Mennonite woman saw us being idle and put us to work! :laughing::laughing::laughing: They only got about 15 minutes of work out of us before my contact showed up and we went to link up with the Baptists. I think the lady was thinking idle hands are the devils workshop so she made us unidle. :laughing::laughing::laughing:

Later,
Dan

 

[dmccarty]

Over $800,000, as I recall.

No. Nobody needs that much to run a charity. I don't buy the argument that they can't get "talented" people for less.

Maybe they can't get well-connected people for less, but if that's what they really mean, all the more reason to NOT donate to them.

As for United Way, I don't understand why people think they actually do something. They never have, and have never claimed to do anything. Their only function is to collect money and give it to other charities, while skimming a ridiculous percentage off the top.

Thanks, I'll give to people who actually put boots on the ground.

Yep. I know too many people who volunteer to work for organizations for NO pay and have done so for years. If one worked full time for a relief agency then they need to be paid but making hundreds of thousands a dollar a year is bovine scat. I don't buy the argument that they highly paid CEO brings in more money than a lower paid person.

Years ago, and for many years, I volunteered for the Duke Children's Classic which raises money for the Duke Children's Hospital. For a few years, they were having golf and tennis events with "celebrities" to draw people to buy tickets. This was all run by a company hired by the charity and they made lots of money. Big increase in revenue. The problem was that while they raised more money, less of it went to the hospital because their expenses were so high. Eventually, the charity stopped this method of raising money, which meant less revenue but more money to the hospital because the expenses dropped dramatically.

Some of the "celebrities" were just a... holes. I don't think they were paid, but the charity did have to feed and house them, which cost money. Some of these people just came down to play golf with the buddies, stay at really nice hotels, ate some really good food, and got drunk. Some of them would not even go visit the kids at the hospital.

There were some good celebrities like Jeff Foxworthy who put on good shows and visited the kids. Heard nothing but good things about him. :thumbsup: Not so much for some of the football "stars" aka has beens.

Later,
Dan

 

[dmccarty]

...

When I donate, its to the Salvation Army, they are very accountable with their funds.

I once helped out the Salvation Army during the holidays when they collect quite a bit of money that will fund them for the next year. I was impressed how they handled the money and they had things in place to make sure money could not easily go missing. They had three people handling the money at the end of the day so it would take all three of them to be dishonest. Not impossible but not likely. Listening to them talk about fund raising was interesting. These guys were not wearing furs and jewels but cheap uniforms. :thumbsup: They were getting paid, but they were not getting paid much that is for sure.

My mother volunteers at a charity store in Florida and she likes to "shop" at these places. The store she works at funnels the profits back into the community. Goodwill stores are often locally owned businesses and don't always put money they have earned back out as relief.

We won't give anything to our local Habitat company. We have heard too many negative things about the place and had too many bad experiences with them. The local managers seem to be running the place for their profit and building houses does not seem to be a priority. Instead we give stuff to the local PTA store which is accountable and putting money back into the community.

There are clothes collection boxes all over our town but some of them are for profit. They take the clothes and sell them overseas. They are not a charity but a business. No problem with that except they imply the collections are for charity.

One really has to be careful with charity which is a shame.

Later,
Dan

 

[Tractor Seabee]

Be informed. Charity Navigator rating of the American Red Cross:

Charity Navigator - Rating for American Red Cross

Why would a charity maintain 1.5 billion in assets? That is many times more than they take in each year on donations and whatever the can siphon from the government.
Guess where that excess was siphoned from?

I deal with only Faith Based organizations, on the board of one, and every thing we get in goes out to the cause, all volunteer, no paid people, donated property space, and donated overhead.

Our food bank is growing every year as word gets around that we have the best service and most output per family.

Ron

Ron

 

[TemporaryKubotaOwnerMark]

Why would a charity maintain 1.5 billion in assets? That is many times more than they take in each year on donations and whatever the can siphon from the government.
Guess where that excess was siphoned from?

Bingo.

Usually when this comes up there is a host of people who are horrified that anyone would dare question the Holy Red Cross! Then they start talking about the volunteers, and how hard they work and how dedicated they are.

The volunteers are not the problem. I have no doubt the volunteers work hard and selflessly. Kudos to them.


It's the organization that is the problem. The volunteers, frankly, are donating labor and credibility, and getting suckered along with the cash donors.

 

[KennyG]

I hate to jump to conclusions on charitable organizations based on Internet gossip, but my experience with Red Cross has not been favorable. An example - a few years ago I was with a church group doing flood response in Iowa and the Red Cross presence consisted of a couple of bored looking people coming by once a day in a very large expensive truck, asking if anyone wanted bottled water.

I donate to United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR). They are very effective and don't leave when the news crews go away - they stay involved for long term recovery.

A lot of people are down on United Fund and there have been scandals, but realize they are not exactly a charity. They are a fundraising organization that redistributes to other charities, so their rankings in the databases are not a fair comparison. If your local United Fund is well run, it generally is efficient in getting money to worthy charities.

 

[rustyshakelford]

I don't like Red Cross. My job does a united way luncheon every year and i have to go if I'm working. I refuse to donate to them. We also collect for MDA. We are changing the charity we collect for. I voted for Shriners hospital and Texas children's. both are great organizations.

The Cajun navy and civilians did more for Harvey affected folks than redcross

Brett