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Send a $10 Donation by Texting ‘Haiti’ to 90999

redcross.org

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Re: Send a $10 Donation by Texting ‘Haiti’ to 90999

#21

Post by portman »

dariusmonsef wrote: post #15

BEFORE you RT that RedCross donation message or donate any cash yourselves... please consider. Red Cross is a giant beast of a company. It is $600,000,000 in debt. It has ridiculous overhead. As fellow hackers... We're all trying to build startups/ideas because we think big companies are missing something... that we have a better way to do things... that we can build a better product. If you want to help Haiti. Give…

I sympathize with your frustration with the American Red Cross, but please pay attention when posting financial information. The statement "It is $600,000,000 in debt" is incorrect.

The American Red Cross has $613MM in debt. But it also has $3.5BB in assets. In addition to the aforementioned debt, there are $1.2BB in additional liabilities, for total net assets of:

$1,672,466,000

Source: KPMG consolidated financial statement, June 30 2009.

http://www.redcross.org/www-files/Documents/pdf/corppubs/FY0...

There is an enormous difference between having debt and being in debt.

Re: Send a $10 Donation by Texting ‘Haiti’ to 90999

#22

Post by djcapelis »

dariusmonsef wrote: post #15

BEFORE you RT that RedCross donation message or donate any cash yourselves... please consider. Red Cross is a giant beast of a company. It is $600,000,000 in debt. It has ridiculous overhead. As fellow hackers... We're all trying to build startups/ideas because we think big companies are missing something... that we have a better way to do things... that we can build a better product. If you want to help Haiti. Give…

I agree with some of your criticisms of the Red Cross, however given that rapid response is necessary and this is time sensitive, can you actually use the money to deploy and ramp up in a short enough time to make the donation meaningful to the current crisis?

I support your aims, but the ability to move quickly is essential and it's unclear whether your organization is likely to bring support faster or slower. Could you elaborate?

Re: Send a $10 Donation by Texting ‘Haiti’ to 90999

#23

Post by dskhatri »

alnayyir wrote: post #16
dariusmonsef wrote: post #15

BEFORE you RT that RedCross donation message or donate any cash yourselves... please consider. Red Cross is a giant beast of a company. It is $600,000,000 in debt. It has ridiculous overhead. As fellow hackers... We're all trying to build startups/ideas because we think big companies are missing something... that we have a better way to do things... that we can build a better product. If you want to help Haiti. Give…

Thanks for your work, I despise the Red Cross.

Could you please elaborate? I'm sure a lot of hackers who give to the RedCross would be interested to understand your reasons so that they can make better decisions about donating to relief funds in the future.

Re: Send a $10 Donation by Texting ‘Haiti’ to 90999

#24

Post by scott_s »

dariusmonsef wrote: post #15

BEFORE you RT that RedCross donation message or donate any cash yourselves... please consider. Red Cross is a giant beast of a company. It is $600,000,000 in debt. It has ridiculous overhead. As fellow hackers... We're all trying to build startups/ideas because we think big companies are missing something... that we have a better way to do things... that we can build a better product. If you want to help Haiti. Give…

Infrastructure is expensive. It also enables acting on large scales immediately. I have no problem with the idea that money donated to the Red Cross may not go "directly" to the victims of the latest tragedy. Without the money for administrative and infrastructure costs, they would be unable to do what they do.

I think your startup is both good and noble. But I suspect that being a "beast of a company" and having large infrastructure costs is the price we have to pay for an organization to be able to respond immediately to humanitarian crisis on a global scale.

Re: Send a $10 Donation by Texting ‘Haiti’ to 90999

#25

Post by kqr2 »

alnayyir wrote: post #16
dariusmonsef wrote: post #15

BEFORE you RT that RedCross donation message or donate any cash yourselves... please consider. Red Cross is a giant beast of a company. It is $600,000,000 in debt. It has ridiculous overhead. As fellow hackers... We're all trying to build startups/ideas because we think big companies are missing something... that we have a better way to do things... that we can build a better product. If you want to help Haiti. Give…

Thanks for your work, I despise the Red Cross.

Red Cross CEO earns $565,000 in salary.

What's interesting is that this is higher than the CEO cap the Obama administration placed on for-profit companies which received bailout money.

The Red Cross received $100 million in bailout money.

http://blog.charitynavigator.org/2009/02/non-profit-ceo-pay-...

http://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.summary...

Re: Send a $10 Donation by Texting ‘Haiti’ to 90999

#26

Post by rbabich »

dariusmonsef wrote: post #15

BEFORE you RT that RedCross donation message or donate any cash yourselves... please consider. Red Cross is a giant beast of a company. It is $600,000,000 in debt. It has ridiculous overhead. As fellow hackers... We're all trying to build startups/ideas because we think big companies are missing something... that we have a better way to do things... that we can build a better product. If you want to help Haiti. Give…

It's worth noting that the Red Cross generally ranks highly when it comes to efficiency (i.e., low overhead):

http://www.charitywatch.org/toprated.html#humanserv

Of course, this has a lot to do with economies of scale, and "low overhead" does not immediately imply "high impact per dollar."

Re: Send a $10 Donation by Texting ‘Haiti’ to 90999

#27

Post by ajju »

My family lived through the 2001 earthquake in Gujarat, India which was of similar proportions. Based on their personal experience, the things immediately needed after an earthquake are:

1) Heavy earth moving equipment (to get people out from under the rubble) 2) Tents and blankets (it is cold) 3) Medicines 4) Food

Many organizations only focused on 2 and 4 in India. In the end, there was a glut of food, tents, clothes and blankets and not enough earth moving equipment and many people who could have been saved, died. The situation may be different in Haiti but they are an underdeveloped nation and I doubt they have as much equipment as is needed. I have already seen reports that there's a scarcity: http://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/the-monitors-view/2010/0...

Obviously medicine is also in short supply.

It may be a tall order to organize to get this there but at least we have someone here who has done it before. If dariusmonsef (or anyone else) can vouch for a group on the ground in Haiti who can actually manage these things well, it may be worth the effort to try to borrow these things ourselves and try to arrange for comped air transport.

I know some folks in the airline industry who I can ask about transporting the stuff for free.

Do you guys think this is doable and worth the effort?

Re: Send a $10 Donation by Texting ‘Haiti’ to 90999

#28

Post by teej »

dariusmonsef wrote: post #15

BEFORE you RT that RedCross donation message or donate any cash yourselves... please consider. Red Cross is a giant beast of a company. It is $600,000,000 in debt. It has ridiculous overhead. As fellow hackers... We're all trying to build startups/ideas because we think big companies are missing something... that we have a better way to do things... that we can build a better product. If you want to help Haiti. Give…

The fact that donations get processed on a different domain than hodr.org is a huge red flag for me. I already donated to UNICEF, but if I hadn't, I would have really thought twice before giving to HODR online.

Re: Send a $10 Donation by Texting ‘Haiti’ to 90999

#29

Post by natrius »

kqr2 wrote: post #25
alnayyir wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for your work, I despise the Red Cross.

Red Cross CEO earns $565,000 in salary. What's interesting is that this is higher than the CEO cap the Obama administration placed on for-profit companies which received bailout money. The Red Cross received $100 million in bailout money. http://blog.charitynavigator.org/2009/02/non-profit-ceo-pay-... http://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.summary...

CEO pay means nothing. What matters is how much good they do per dollar. I'm sure the amount of money they receive each year is available somewhere, and they'll be happy to tell you what they've accomplished with it. Compare that to other organizations instead of assuming they're ineffective because they think it's worthwhile to pay their CEO well.

The magnitude of CEO pay in the private sector is similarly a non-issue, but please keep my opinion on that to yourselves, lest the pitchforks be redirected toward me.

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