Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

In Search Of The Red Cross' $500M In Haiti Relief (2015)

npr.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

81–90 of 182 posts

Re: In Search Of The Red Cross' $500M In Haiti Relief (2015)

#81

Post by SolaceQuantum »

craftyguy wrote: post #76
siddboots wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The structure of the international red cross movement is a bit confusing. There are completely independent national societies in most countries (E.g. The American Red Cross), as well international organisations based in Geneva (The ICRC and the IFCR). In the US, the phrase "Red Cross" often is used to refer to " American Red Cross ", which is the national society who deliver blood services and local disaster response…

> They've come under some criticism for apparent lack of transparency around how donations are spent, and for allegedly having very high overheads. They are also borderline abusive with how often they will call you and harass you if you miss an opportunity to donate blood. They apparently have unlimited funds to pay phone operators.

How is this possible? I simply asked to never be called again, and was called perhaps once more where I reiterated this. Then I was simply never called again.

Re: In Search Of The Red Cross' $500M In Haiti Relief (2015)

#82

Post by craftyguy »

SolaceQuantum wrote: post #81
craftyguy wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> They've come under some criticism for apparent lack of transparency around how donations are spent, and for allegedly having very high overheads. They are also borderline abusive with how often they will call you and harass you if you miss an opportunity to donate blood. They apparently have unlimited funds to pay phone operators.

How is this possible? I simply asked to never be called again, and was called perhaps once more where I reiterated this. Then I was simply never called again.

I don't know how it's possible for them to disregard my pleas to remove me from their lists. I even told them I have traveled to SE Asia and been exposed to locations with malaria (true story), but ultimately had to resort to blocking their dozens of local and 800 numbers on my phone.

Re: In Search Of The Red Cross' $500M In Haiti Relief (2015)

#83

Post by yeukhon »

masters3d wrote: post #79

"The point is that the concern we should have is not just about the $500,000,000 donated for Haiti for which the good hearted donors received just six $400 shacks. The concern is about billions of donated dollars intended to help people all over the world. The Haiti data demonstrates that for each billion donated to the Red Cross we get a total of 12 each $400 shacks which we wouldn't put our lawn mower in. The great…

Good question. There is Salvation Army, which accordingly to the comparison to Red Cross, has done extremely better job, delivering its mission well. But why didn't orgs like FB or Google (I forgot which) advertized SA? SA is well-known too.

I think there is a social effect, but more likely because the people working at Red Cross has better reach to the big organizations and media outlet, despite the backlashes.

The same with World Health Organization (WHO). Top officials still buy luxury first-class ticket and hotel room. Why? Whatnis wrong with an econ seat?

Re: In Search Of The Red Cross' $500M In Haiti Relief (2015)

#85

Post by yeukhon »

astura wrote: post #80
craftyguy wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> They've come under some criticism for apparent lack of transparency around how donations are spent, and for allegedly having very high overheads. They are also borderline abusive with how often they will call you and harass you if you miss an opportunity to donate blood. They apparently have unlimited funds to pay phone operators.

Not borderline abusive, they are straight up abusive with their phone calls. If you ever decide to give blood do NOT give them your phone number. I tried to give blood ONCE and found out that I was ineligible. For the next five years or so they harassed me non stop about giving blood. I told them I was ineligible they just said "ok" but I still got phonecalls. I asked them to stop calling me but they didn't stop. Aft…

I actually blocked them, just went straight to blood center whenver I can.

Re: In Search Of The Red Cross' $500M In Haiti Relief (2015)

#87

Post by fencepost »

masters3d wrote: post #79

"The point is that the concern we should have is not just about the $500,000,000 donated for Haiti for which the good hearted donors received just six $400 shacks. The concern is about billions of donated dollars intended to help people all over the world. The Haiti data demonstrates that for each billion donated to the Red Cross we get a total of 12 each $400 shacks which we wouldn't put our lawn mower in. The great…

> Hotes Foundation

Who?

And yes, I did look it up. It's a tiny private foundation about which almost nothing is known, and the quoted articles are basically trash talking based on a couple of news stories and saying basically "see how much better it is to give to us?" except (in theory) they don't accept donations they want people to go in person to disaster sites and help on site.

Re: In Search Of The Red Cross' $500M In Haiti Relief (2015)

#89

Post by fencepost »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #69
bretthagler wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks, Trevor. Hi all, I'm the ceo and co-founder at New Story. We're proud of the work we've done in Haiti as we've also used all local material and local labor to build the homes. What's more transparent than just the "100%" promise, is that we prove to donors via family profile pages and move-in videos the exact results of their donation. If someone donated $6k on our site now, 100% of that goes towards local mat…

What's the biggest challenge your organization faces? My kneejerk reaction is: local labor!? local materials!? So inefficient! But I'm wrong. You're doing exactly what's needed; bootstrapping skills and contributing towards the local economy. I'm curious how much housing is still needed in Haiti, how much more money into the pipeline would fix the problem, etc. Would you be able to scale beyond Haiti? Sorry to ramble…

It's been years since I was an American Red Cross (local) disaster services volunteer, but at the time I believe the philosophy was also providing funds rather than materials because it helped local economies recover.

Re: In Search Of The Red Cross' $500M In Haiti Relief (2015)

#90

Post by brownbat »

masters3d wrote: post #79

"The point is that the concern we should have is not just about the $500,000,000 donated for Haiti for which the good hearted donors received just six $400 shacks. The concern is about billions of donated dollars intended to help people all over the world. The Haiti data demonstrates that for each billion donated to the Red Cross we get a total of 12 each $400 shacks which we wouldn't put our lawn mower in. The great…

I would like to see major disaster relief specials try a tagline at the bottom:

Text ##### to donate $5 to GiveWell, which will channel your funds to the charity measurably best equipped to alleviate human suffering like (but not exactly like) the suffering caused by this disaster.

On the other hand, there was outrage after 9/11 when donated blood was diverted to other needs. Some donors apparently wanted all 475,000 units of donated blood to be used specifically to treat 9/11 victims (who required in total something like 200-300 units of blood, which was available in existing stocks).

One of the best things we could do would be to convince people that suffering is suffering and helping is fungible.

Post reply on HN