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It's kind of surprising people still donate to Red Cross, given their extremely poor track record. I suppose they have brand name recognition. South Park had a great jab at them, with all the 9/11 donations being stored away in an Indiana Jones lost ark style warehouse.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Legit question - what's the alternative?
Doctors without a frontier? It's sad though, I think many europeans would like to donate money for people in need, but when you find out things like this ... Americans really managed to ruin this as well.
> The American Red Cross and the International Committee of the Red Cross are independent organizations, with very different reputations.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Legit question - what's the alternative?
Doctors without a frontier? It's sad though, I think many europeans would like to donate money for people in need, but when you find out things like this ... Americans really managed to ruin this as well.
I wonder if there is a way to make non profitsmore accountable for the money they receive from big disaster donations.
According to the charter the purposes of the corporation are:
(1) to provide volunteer aid in time of war to the sick and wounded of the armed forces, in accordance with the spirit and conditions of: (A) the conference of Geneva of October, 1863; (B) the treaties of the Red Cross, or the treaties of Geneva, of August 22, 1864, July 27, 1929, and August 12, 1949, to which the United States of America has given its adhesion; and (C) any other treaty, convention, or protocol similar in purpose to which the United States of America has given or may give its adhesion;
(2) in carrying out the purposes described in clause (1) of this section, to perform all the duties devolved on a national society by each nation that has acceded to any of those treaties, conventions, or protocols; (3) to act in matters of voluntary relief and in accordance with the military authorities as a medium of communication between the people of the United States and the armed forces of the United States and to act in those matters between similar national societies of governments of other countries through the International Committee of the Red Cross and the Government, the people, and the armed forces of the United States
The problem is that sure we can donate to other organizations but the Red Cross still is in a way a representive of America. And if they are so bad at delivering aid to Haiti; I wonder how effective they are at their other duties. I wonder if congress can revoke their charter? Or force reform? But that seems like an almost impossible task.
[1] http://www.redcross.org/images/MEDIA_CustomProductCatalog/m4...
It's astounding how powerful the Red Cross brand is. I'd like to read a study how how much the brand influences donors. For example, try to raise money using identical mechanisms under a different header. Also, I liked this: "I'm not a big mathematician, but I can make some additions. It doesn't add up for me."
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Doctors without a frontier? It's sad though, I think many europeans would like to donate money for people in need, but when you find out things like this ... Americans really managed to ruin this as well.
Charities around the world are run unethically. It's far from an American-exclusive thing.
This was widely reported back in 2015 when this was published. You might want to add (2015) to the title.
This report prompted a congressional report a year later. Ultimately Red Cross is a horribly inefficient way to give aid to areas in need of relief. https://www.propublica.org/article/senator-red-cross-misled-... https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2861873-Senator-Gras...
A plug for New Story ( https://newstorycharity.org/ ), which has built 900+ homes in Haiti for $6000 in donations each. And they think a lot about building those homes into functional communities.
That's really incredible. What's more fascinating is their 100% promise [1]: > We send 100% of all donations directly to hire local workers and buy local materials so you know exactly where your donation is going. Considering their Careers page lists they are hiring a software engineer, I dug a little further and found this info in their FAQ: > How Does New Story Fund Operational Costs With A 100% Promise? > We are c…
Like, the money going towards operations is still donated. The page about the operations money even puts it in terms of having 2 bank accounts: https://newstorycharity.org/the-builders/
So fine, they are able to advertise that they are spending 100% of certain funds on programs. But it is just a marketing gimmick, they still have some overall efficiency, just like any other charity.