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I won't bash the Red Cross but they are the ONLY charity being pushed by the local media in the SF Bay Area...
In past disasters the media would mention several and it ALWAYS included the Salvation Army and Faith Based local and national organizations... Not this time.
In this day and age, it really isn't that hard to research it for yourself to see the facts. Look it up if you don't want to believe what I posted. I do my research. That is how I am able to make educated decisions on who I donate to.
My company donates to United Way (I kept saying UNUM in an earlier post, my mistake). I refuse to donate to them after researching their CEO, their donating history and seeing what percentage of the money is actually used for the cause. It's ridiculous.
If you don't want to believe what I post...learn how to use google search. The information is very accessible.
I've already proven your claims to be false since you can't keep most of the money and remain classified as a charity.
Seems you're conceding that as fact since you can't rebut what I've noted.
So that takes us to the "why" you made that stuff up?
I can't speak for anyone else's experience with RC. Just my own.
We drove down to two hard-hit collection points this weekend, in Smithville and La Grange. The first one was totally closed - no signs, no staff, locked doors. The second one advised us to drive 40 miles BACK the way we came with our truck full of food, bedding, hygiene products, and heavy-duty cleaning supplies because "The Red Cross wants everything to go into one shipping container there for distribution". As we were being told this we had a family approach us and BEG for supplies, which we promptly gave to them. Unbelievable! At our third stop we found a small collection point handing things out faster than people could stock them with. It was run by members of a church. As we unloaded things into one door they got right into the hands of people who needed it.
Just some little facts about different charities and the money they recieve...
The Amrican Red Cross: President and CEO Marsha J. Evans gets an annual salary of $651,957 (plus expenses). Much of the money they recieve goes to pay staff salaries and if you donate to a specific cause (like Hurricane Harvey) not all funds go to that cause, sometimes not at all.
The United Way: President brian Gallagher gets an annual salary of $500,000 and again most money donated goes to paying staff salaries.
Unicef President Caryl Stern gets an annual salary of $521,820. Most of their funds go to pay staff salaries and not to the people we think we are helping.
Goodwill CEO Michael Miller gets over $800,000 annually for running his "charity shop". He does not pay for any of his product (all clothing, toys and home goods are donated on top of money donations) and the items are sold to the public and monies donated go to higher up staff salaries.
Quote:
Originally Posted by FluidFreedom
In this day and age, it really isn't that hard to research it for yourself to see the facts. Look it up if you don't want to believe what I posted. I do my research. That is how I am able to make educated decisions on who I donate to.
My company donates to United Way (I kept saying UNUM in an earlier post, my mistake). I refuse to donate to them after researching their CEO, their donating history and seeing what percentage of the money is actually used for the cause. It's ridiculous.
If you don't want to believe what I post...learn how to use google search. The information is very accessible.
I did look it up, on Charity Navigator, which has been recommended by several posters here as a source of information. They obtain their information directly from the Form 990 which a charity is required to file with the IRS every year. Note that the ARC received a high score for Accountability and Transparency, including the "Process for Determining CEO Compensation: This process indicates that the organization has a documented policy that it follows year after year. The policy should indicate that an objective and independent review process of the CEO's compensation has been conducted which includes benchmarking against comparable organizations. We check to be sure that the charity has reported on its Form 990 its process for determining its CEO pay." The figures below are for FY2015. https://www.charitynavigator.org/ind...ary&orgid=3277
Gail J. McGovern is the CEO of the American Red Cross, and her compensation is $517,364 per year, which is .01% of the ARC's expenses. Total administrative expenses, which include administrative salaries and other overhead, is 5.9%. McGovern's qualifications are listed on Wikipedia and here Corporate Leader Named Red Cross CEO , and her salary is discussed here Does Red Cross CEO get exorbitant pay?
Program expenses, which are "Percent of the charity's total expenses spent on the programs and services it delivers" are 90.1%.
Clearly, "much of the money" received by the ARC does not go to "pay staff salaries."
Paying more attention to the fact that the Red Cross is the single most important and effective relief agency in the country would be helpful.
Debatable. Where have they ever been effective? I can think of many cases where the Red Cross was totally ineffective, most notably Hurricane Katrina.
Quote:
Foreign Experts Critique U.S. Red Cross on Katrina APRIL 5, 2006
The American Red Cross's response to Hurricane Katrina was poorly planned, relied too heavily on inexperienced managers and often failed to meet the needs of victims, say reports by international Red Cross officials who were dispatched to assist their American counterparts.
The unusually harsh reports, prepared in late summer and the fall, detailed mismatches between the needs of victims and the supplies the Red Cross had arranged, the absence of a plan to guide the distribution of supplies and a lack of record-keeping, which allowed inventory to go astray.
Lack of record-keeping, which allows inventory to go astray. Does that sound like something you want to donate your money to? I bet if you read that and it was about some organization other than the Red Cross, you wouldn't even consider donating to them.
I donated to a faith-based organization that had a designated fund for Harvey and already had people on the ground from the beginning, and will have their people on the ground for months after. And I'm not even a Christian. I knew they had a great track record.
I fail to understand why anyone would donate to the Red Cross when there is so much evidence they have a poor record.
"A 2015 investigation by ProPublica and NPR documented the Red Cross’s glaring failure to account for how it spent the $488 million it raised in the aftermath of the Haiti earthquake in 2010, including such basics as how many people were assisted and how much money was spent on overhead."
"In the aftermath of Hurricanes Sandy and Isaac, Red Cross officials in Washington “compounded the charity’s inability to provide relief by ‘diverting assets for public relations purposes,’” ProPublica and NPR reported in 2014, citing an internal Red Cross report.
During Isaac, a Red Cross relief truck driver named Jim Dunham described how supervisors ordered trucks usually laden with aid to drive around empty, for appearance’s sake. Mr. Dunham characterized the Red Cross’s relief effort as “worse than the storm.”
During Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005, the organization was plagued by delays in distributing aid, amid profound disorganization on the ground."
"Despite the Red Cross’s enormous size and revenues ($2.7 billion in 2015), most of the disasters it responds to are relatively small, like single-structure fires. Its record on large-scale operations is spotty, and given the enormous amount it collects from Americans, the scope of its ambitions and the fact that a chunk of its budget comes from government agencies, there has been less accountability than Americans might expect emanating from its grand marble headquarters in Washington.
In its most recent assessment, Charity Navigator, a nonprofit organization that evaluates charities based on their Internal Revenue Service filings, gives Red Cross three of four possible stars based on its 2015 filings, but only two stars for financial performance."
They fail again, and again, and again, but people keep donating money to them anyway.
I did look it up, on Charity Navigator, which has been recommended by several posters here as a source of information. They obtain their information directly from the Form 990 which a charity is required to file with the IRS every year. Note that the ARC received a high score for Accountability and Transparency, including the "Process for Determining CEO Compensation: This process indicates that the organization has a documented policy that it follows year after year. The policy should indicate that an objective and independent review process of the CEO's compensation has been conducted which includes benchmarking against comparable organizations. We check to be sure that the charity has reported on its Form 990 its process for determining its CEO pay." The figures below are for FY2015. https://www.charitynavigator.org/ind...ary&orgid=3277
Gail J. McGovern is the CEO of the American Red Cross, and her compensation is $517,364 per year, which is .01% of the ARC's expenses. Total administrative expenses, which include administrative salaries and other overhead, is 5.9%. McGovern's qualifications are listed on Wikipedia and here Corporate Leader Named Red Cross CEO , and her salary is discussed here Does Red Cross CEO get exorbitant pay?
Program expenses, which are "Percent of the charity's total expenses spent on the programs and services it delivers" are 90.1%.
Clearly, "much of the money" received by the ARC does not go to "pay staff salaries."
.....and BOOOOM! Apparently Fluid thinks that 10% is keeping "most" of the money lmao.
Typical. People get caught making stuff up and when called on it tell you to look it up and try to climb out the bathroom window to skip the check.
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