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In Search of the Red Cross' $500M in Haiti Relief

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Re: In Search of the Red Cross' $500M in Haiti Relief

#161

Post by Matth3wMarshall »

cletus wrote: post #4

Sadly this kind of mismanagement and questionable decision-making isn't new [1] [2] [3]. It really seems like a lot of big charities are simply in the business of raising money rather than helping people. One wonders how that money is actually spent. It seems very much like good local charities are a far better conduit for charitable gifts. [1] http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Red_Cross#September_... [2] http:…

cletus, we're New Story (YC S15 nonprofit) - http://newstorycharity.org

We had similar experiences to you in the past, where we would donate to a large org and NEVER know where I money went or who it helped.

So, we're on a mission to change charity by showing our donors EXACT where their money goes - here's an example: http://newstorycharity.org/maria-rose

I'd love your thoughts!

Re: In Search of the Red Cross' $500M in Haiti Relief

#162

Post by GFischer »

notahacker wrote: post #142
GFischer wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But maybe good ol' capitalism would have worked then, if many people had some income to spend, an enterprising importer could have shipped some stuff out of China or something :) . Relief can be very inefficient in those cases. I posted on https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9666194 that jbniche's theory seems to be supported by the studies in that article. Edit: I think a combination of both approaches might be nee…

Good 'ol capitalism is more likely to operate the other way though: the since all my tenants/customers have significantly higher cash reserves than before and this village's supply chain and living options are actually even worse after the earthquake, I can put my prices up by even more way. A fair amount of GiveDirectly's recipients' success comes from it only being a fraction of people in the village that receive t…

Indeed.. I might have been a bit naïve. But the current model doesn't seem to work.

Watsi-style disruption might be the other option, but it doesn't scale for fast relief.

Re: In Search of the Red Cross' $500M in Haiti Relief

#163

Post by Matth3wMarshall »

kyrre wrote: post #107

this is the exact scenario in envision whenever someone asks for donations, which happened /a lot/ when i was living in London, where it appears to be a thriving "industry" imo, working for charitable organizations is unethical

kyrre, unfortunately the world of big NGOs and charity is broken. I think you'd also like the book - Confessions of an Economic Hitman

A couple months ago 2 friends and I launched New Story (YC S15 nonprofit) http://newstorycharity.org

Our mission to show donors EXACT what their money goes to funding (by showing a home breakdown costs) and EXACT who they help by showing donors a video of the family in their new home - here's an example http://newstorycharity.org/maria-rose

Re: In Search of the Red Cross' $500M in Haiti Relief

#164

Post by [deleted] »

Brakenshire wrote: post #77
jacquesm wrote: post #3

I stopped giving to 'big charities' twenty years ago and since then have only helped people locally where I can see what happens to the money. That's a real pity because of course on a relative scale those are probably much less in need than the people in Haiti (and Nepal and other areas devastated by natural disasters). But the red cross - once a paragon of virtue - and a number of other big time charities that were…

> Governments are similarly inept at spending their money efficiently ... [big charities] will never get another cent out of me until at least one of their large scale disaster responses works out well...Because of the total lack of end-to-end accountability with organizations like the red cross... Your post is ideological - sweeping application of game-theory style logic, but without the evidence to suggest that the…

[deleted]

Re: In Search of the Red Cross' $500M in Haiti Relief

#165

Post by Lawtonfogle »

Alupis wrote: post #111
scarmig wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Morally reprehensible," in this situation, could be something like "bribe a corrupt official." If it takes bribing a corrupt official to save lives, I don't think most donors would have a real issue with that. However, admitting that publically would embarrass the official (if named), remove the efficacy of all future bribes (which are by nature secret), and could even open the organization up to legal action. I don…

> If it takes bribing a corrupt official to save lives, I don't think most donors would have a real issue with that. Except in this case it seems they bribed so many corrupt officials that there was nothing left for actual aide... I think it's far more plausible they just waste the money away on "Administrative" fees and project mismanagement at enormous scale. This is a "charitable" organization which has run rampan…

When people expect you to pay far below market rates for management (and sometimes expect it to be volunteer only), it is inevitable that you will suffer massive mismanagement. Even organizations with great management make massive expensive blunders.

Re: In Search of the Red Cross' $500M in Haiti Relief

#166

Post by pvaldes »

orbitingpluto wrote: post #148
pvaldes wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Making sure the white Canadian could poo-poo comfortably counted as aid. Well, yes of course, it is aid. And making sure also that this doctor can wash his hands before their next chirurgical intervention (is really so relevant to notice that is canadian, thus probably white?). Doctors also need to go to the bathroom (is not so easy if you are a woman). Or clean itselves of vomit and blood after a hard day. Somebod…

I'm going to counter with the fact that the CIDA worker thought that this was a complete waste of resources. Sending a team of people to look at how pretty the toilets are is ridiculous. If you can't see that, please don't oversee any charity money. And I never said it was a doctor. And it wasn't. Just an official taking a tour.

> Sending a team of people to look at how pretty the toilets are is ridiculous

Not if you have paid big money for those toilets.

To survey and document if the work was really done is a normal procedure all around the world to increase transparency in organizations. And yes, it costs a lot of money (it saves money also).

Re: In Search of the Red Cross' $500M in Haiti Relief

#167

Post by cpeterso »

sopooneo wrote: post #57
avar wrote: post #16

The biggest revelation to me in that article, which I feel should be highlighted more, is that the Red Cross provides almost zero information about how it spends its money. It refuses to provide more than very vague information about how the money was spent in Haiti (information like "35% of $488 million on shelters"), with no specific details about what projects they spent the money on, how those projects went etc.…

Could it be that actually getting things done in horrible environments requires interacting with, and paying off, some shady people? This is of course a charitable guess, but could it be that the Red Cross has made a decision to make morally questionable choices in the short term in support of the greater good, and they know they can't publish such truths and continue to exist?

If they need to bribe people, they could hide that in some "Administrative fees" budget item. They could still disclose how much they spend on projects and aid.

Re: In Search of the Red Cross' $500M in Haiti Relief

#168

Post by TylerE »

rosser wrote: post #149
TylerE wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not that they are duplicitous really - it's that stockpiling large amounts of supplies has a leadtime measured in months. Money you give today can't buy tents in Haiti tomorrow - those have to be ordered, manufactured, shipped...

I'm sorry, but tents do not have a lead time of five years .

Sure, but if the lead time is more than about 12 hours, it doesn't matter how long it ACTUALLY is, it's too long, people are dead before whatever $essential gets to them.

Re: In Search of the Red Cross' $500M in Haiti Relief

#169

Post by yardie »

jimrandomh wrote: post #134
mlrtime wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Great, as if I didn't need more excuses not to give money. I think I stick to the local community soup kitchen/churches even though I'm not religious.

It's good to do things where you can witness and verify what's going on, but soup kitchens are many orders of magnitude less effective than distributing insecticide-treated bednets to combat malaria, or Givewell's other recommended charities.

Wait, are you saying that soup kitchens are ineffective at combating malaria (which goes without saying)? Or are they simply ineffective at the problem they are trying to solve, hunger?

Re: In Search of the Red Cross' $500M in Haiti Relief

#170

Post by snowwrestler »

jonstokes wrote: post #60

My wife and I worked in some Red Cross shelters in Lake Charles, LA in the immediate aftermath of Katrina. I wrote a bit about what I was doing here: http://arstechnica.com/security/2005/10/disaster-livecd/ My take-away from that is that I would never, ever donate a dime to that organization. The people in the local chapters who were the first to respond immediately after the disaster were fantastic. But when the nat…

One way to get your story on record might be to see if the reporters for this piece are interested in your story. Here's one of them:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9665838

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