Moving this bitch session from IMHO to The BBQ Pit.
Oh, and Carm6773? Would you mind not posting your signature more than once per thread?
Yeah, I suppose you’re right. It IS better to let stupid stuff go in the other forums. But…you like the organization, don’t you? 
Charity Navigator is generally considered a good source for that kind of information and, for those who missed the link upthread, here’s their assessment of the Red Cross and what they consider to be its “peers”. You’ll notice the Salvation Army isn’t on that list - as a religious organization it’s not required to file a 990 so it doesn’t. No doubt that decreases the amount spent on overhead. 
I don’t respect stupid opinions. Period. I never ONCE “practiced character assassination” on YOU, just on your opinion. Because your first one is 60 years old! As for your second one, while it may be valid, did your esteemed cousin ever ask the guy how many frequent flyer miles he cashed in to get that pair of seats? Find that because of corporate travel agency voodoo it was cheaper to fly 1st class that day than business? Do anything but make assumptions? Geeze.
Quite frankly, if any of that is true I’M going to be pissed off, because the last time ARC bought me a plane ticket I was jammed into a middle seat back in cattle class and didn’t bitch once because it was the best use of the donated dollar and all that happy horseshit.
AND I WAS SURROUNDED BY KIDS!!! I hate kids. Well, not really, but sitting next to me on planes I do.
I’d hate to see your version of blatant…
Look, you don’t get to play prom queen: If you insist on the basic American right of holding stupid opinions, I insist on the basic American right of poking holes in your stupid opinions. That’s life as we know it, babe, so stop hiding behind the flag and come out and play.
Pfft. Now you’re trying to tell me I should’ve worked harder to change your opinion? Please. I don’t give a flying fuck WHO you give your money to[sup]1[/sup], just as long as you give it to SOMEONE. Have you yet, or are you a case of “(s)he that dost protest too much”?
Heh.
[sup]1[/sup]And, really, for those scoring at home - now’s the time to start coughing up the jing to battered women’s shelters in Katrinaland - the domestic violence rates are about to skyrocket.
Personally I was on the fence on whether to donate to the ARC or not, your comments chique didn’t help at all.
Which is a good thing I think the ARC would would prefer that the fewer people see your comments and attitude the better for them.
That’s what I thought too Carm; the good old Salvation Army, low overhead better bang for the buck, no 400000 CEOs to pay off first. Sounded like a good idea until chique sounded off again
and again
To answer your question chique nothing to either, you make me not want to waste my money or time. You did a great disservice to an organization that I am sure does a lot of good despite its problems. I will make my donations through work which has partnered with a local municipality for direct assistance of goods.
Perhaps there are other organizations that could use your kind of expertise in public relations such as ALF or the American Nazi Party. At least there you would be of better use to our nation.
Damfino.
I volunteered with the RC for many years as a CPR and First Aid instructor. I ran one of the aid stations that was set up for refugees during Hurricane Allen back in 1980. I have volunteered off and on with them for many other incidents, not the least of which is going on in Houston right now.
I think there must be some psychological thing about biting the hand that helps you.
I will have to say that, after recently volunteering, I am shocked by some of the beefs that people have with the Red Cross.
I know that people hate administrative costs, but one of the key strengths of an organization as large as the Red Cross is organization. You know the telethons they show on TV? That’s what I’ve been working on. All of those calls had to be routed to volunteers, and those volunteers had to be set up in a very short amount of time with equipment and training.
If there were no skilled executives getting involved with my corporation, this wouldn’t have happened. These telethons raised millions of dollars for the ARC and were earmarked for hurricane relief.
A guy making $8 an hour is not going to understand the complexity of corporate politics and the technical details of establishing secure servers for credit card donations, telephone switches for massive numbers of calls, etc.
Still, we got a lot of people who called and bitched about the ARC. My first call Friday was from a lady who was mad because some ARC worker wouldn’t give her mother money when she was 2, on the grounds that if she could afford a birthday cake, she could afford to take care of her kid. I have no idea what the backstory is on that, but she hates ARC and went on and on about how much the CEO made in 1904 and whatever. I figure any large charity is going to have those kinds of beefs. I only tend to take exception with the United Way because of the strong-arming at work that they’re involved in, and that (from what I’ve heard from United Way volunteers) their administrative costs are excessive compared to other charities.
Face it, national charities can raise a lot of money and do a lot of good in the way a little local group can’t. And, in order to get skilled leadership, they have to pay for it. Our first telethon alone – in one night – raised over $15 million. That’s covered the CEO 30 times over.
Oh, and I guess I’ll add that I don’t give to the Salvation Army because they’re a religious charity. If they had a non-religious wing, maybe I’d consider it, but as a non-Christian, not interested.
From the Better Business Bureau “Wise Giving Alliance:”
ARC - 5.4% administrative costs, CEO compensation ~$470k
Shriners Hospitals - 5% administrative costs, CEO compensation ~$250k
AIDS Research Foundation - 7% administrative costs, CEO compensation ~$295k
ALSAC/St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital - 7% administrative costs, CEO compensation ~$400k
American Heart Association - 7% administrative costs, CEO compensation ~$434k
CARE USA - 5% administrative costs, CEO compensation ~$480k
Habitat for Humanity International - 3% administrative costs, CEO compensation ~$84k
Muscular Dystrophy Association - 7% administrative costs, CEO compensation ~$360k
Ronald McDonald House - 7.9% administrative costs, CEO compensation not listed
United Way - 5% administrative costs, CEO compensation ~$500k
From Salvation Army USA’s website: 12% “Management and General” (I couldn’t find executive compensation listed.)
Looks like the ARC is near the top end on executive compensation but compares quite favorably on administrative costs. I didn’t compare fundraising costs, but it looked to me like they were near the low end there.
You’ve inspired me to up my donation to the Red Cross in order to make up for morons who can’t distinguish an entire organization from one member. I’ve dealt with organizations under fire before, and I can understand where chique is coming from.
Hmm–that is pretty crass of them. Having worked in the letter-writing department of a nonprofit, though, I can tell you that it’s a constant struggle figuring out how to phrase the letters. To put it bluntly, a fundraising letter’s end-goal isn’t to keep all donors happy (although that’d be really nice); the goal is to bring in the most amount of money, so that the nonprofit can best fulfill its mission.
To that end, nonprofits study what letters work best, and why. One thing that I’ve heard is that people respond to specifics: if you give a suggested amount for a donation, a lot of people will take that amount; and if you give people a deadline for a donation, a lot of people will make the deadline.
Our fundraising envelopes used to list several different amounts at which a donor could give, starting at five bucks and working up to $1,000. Most of our donations centered around $20. But at some point we circled the $50 gift level on the envelope and wrote off to the side that a $50 donation could provide medicine to 3 animals (or something like that; I forget the details). Immediately we started receiving more $50 donations.
Occasionally we’d get someone who’s annoyed at a letter we send out: one guy was infuriated that his membership renewal letter asked him to donate before October 12 or whatever (a year from the date of his previous donation). I wish it hadn’t made him angry, but I figured that for every guy like him angered about the specific date, there were probably two more who were motivated by that date to actually send a donation in.
Donor relations are tricky, and it’s worth remembering that they’re secondary to fundraising, which is in turn secondary to fulfilling the nonprofit’s mission. If the fundraiser screw up, it’s definitely worth letting them know; however, you may also want to consider why they screwed up, and whether the screwup is so big that it’s worth not helping the nonprofit achieve its mission.
(And yeah: if you want to restrict a donation, put the restriction on the memo line. Whoever ignored the “Boy Scout” restriction on UW donations: shame, shame, shame! 
)
Daniel
High end? Are you kidding? :eek:
I clicked on ARC and was astounded to see that it is a 3 BILLON dollar organisation. How much would a for-profit that size pay a CEO?
Then I clicked on a few others with comparable CEO pay and most of the others were tiddlers. United Way is only $50 mil annually and pay their CEO more than ARC.
Anyway, at the risk of a hijack, I have read a number of POW and ‘Great Escape’ style biographies/histories and in many of them ‘Red Cross’ parcels play a large role. I have never read of any other organisation supplying such parcels. Is this just because the Red Cross has better name recognition or were they the only group with the clout and organisation to get into POW/refugee camps?
slaphead: “High end” in absolute terms of CEO compensation among not-for-profit organizations; not relative terms. I absolutely agree that the $470k is not out of line.
As far as parcels, the International Committee of the Red Cross is sanctioned by the Geneva Conventions to “assume the humanitarian functions performed by Protecting Powers” for POW’s detained by signatories to the conventions. It’s the only organization specfically mentioned in the conventions as “an impartial humanitarian body”, under the Red Cross and Red Crescent eblems, and is typically the organization which assumes the role.
And in Dallas. Clusterfuck of ineptitude is the best way to put it. Granted, they weren’t expecting so many evacuees to arrive and had almost no notice. But still…this IS what they do. It’s not like they normally, say, sell insurance and then were suddenly asked to provide disaster relief. And it’s not even an excuse that they’ve never handled anyting of this magnitude before, because the RC has an emergency response team that is nothing but people going from disaster to disaster of this magnitude. One of these teams is currently in Dallas.
You have to keep in mind that in Dallas, all they are doing is running the two evacuee shelters. That’s ALL. They will “eventually” start giving out debit cards, but almost two weeks later they are still telling the evacuees that they have no idea when the program will start or how it will be administrated and executed. Yes, you have to keep in mind the magnitude, lack of notice, etc. but you must still remember that this is what they do. They are an organization that exists to provide disaster relief.
Keep in mind that the buildings and almost all the equipment used is donated - by the City of Dallas, by Microsoft, by Southwestern Bell, etc. The RC staff there is virtually all volunteer, as the paid staff remain mostly in the RC offices. And most of the paid staff at the shelters are from the travelling relief team.
The food service is being handled entirely by the Salvation Army and the Baptist Men. The RC is handling the supply of water, diapers, and a “comfort kit” that includes a washcloth and toothbrush, nothing else. They are also distributing laundry soap (although they don’t even know if the shelter has laundry facilities according to the person in charge of training the shelter volunteers).
I have been working in the “phone room”. This was set up for evacuees to call when they needed assistance of any kind. What are we telling them? Go to FEMA. Go to the Salvation Army. Go to Potter’s House. Go to the Texas Department of Human Services. The RC is actually not doing anyting - no clothing, no food, no gas vouchers, no medicine that these people can come pick up. Oh, but if they call back everyday we may be able to hook them up with a voucher, but we don’t know for how much, or when, or how they can do that. The only other services they are offering is to arrange for insulin and dialysis for evacuees (neither of which will be paid by the RC) and an two-week hotel voucher FOR THOSE ALREADY IN HOTELS.
Where is the millions in donations going to? I took call after call from people saying all the charities we’ve been referring these people to have run out of supplies and money and have nothing else to offer, so could we stop referring people. And no wonder, they’re all local charities who don’t have the resources to make huge donation drives, nor the facilities to collect the goods. They may be able to serve, what, 100 people, and there are, at last estimate, 50,000 evacuees in the Dallas area. Only 5,000 are at the shelthers, so the RC is basically serving 5,000 people, and a few thousand others who could afford a hotel room but whose money has now run out. That’s IT. And like I pointed out they’re basically offering them some diapers and wash cloths. That’s IT. Some of these people have NOTHING because the buses kept coming long after the shelters were closed and they were deposited on the sidewalk outside the convention center with nothing except the clothes on their backs and what was in their pockets. They can’t get to these other charities becuase DART is only giving free passes to the actual shelter residents. Why can’t RC use some of these millions to at least buy these people some bus passes so the can at least go to the closest DHS or unemployment office? Why can’t the RC use some of these millions to at least buy these people some phone cards? A few people drove here on their own, only to find out that the only people allowed in the shelters were people who had been driven by buses from the other shelters. Walk-ins were NOT allowed. So now they’re living in their cars - cars that have no gas in them. Why can’t some of the millions the RC is collecting go to buying gas cards for these people? And why are only a few people being offered hotel vouchers?
But all this was not even the real point of my rant - it was the clusterfuck that is the phone room. First of all, you have to go to a class before you can work the phones. Great idea! That’s how it SHOULD be. The only thing is, the class is on working at the SHELTER. There is no actual phone training. Basically you are put in front of a phone with a stack of papers listing the phone numbers for all the area charities. Therefore, people are spouting all kinds of myths and out-and-out lies to these people - “call back tomorrow, they’ll have the vouchers then.” No, they won’t, and since the RC themselves don’t know when they’ll be available, how do you? “The vouchers aren’t available yet becuase the government hasn’t released the funds.” Hello? The government has never funded charities! “Sure, bring that 18-wheeler full of clothes right up here!” The RC is only taking monetary donations, and donations of water and diapers. I’m sure those people bringing that truck up will be very happy when they are turned away. “We are working hand-in-hand with FEMA.” “We” are? If there is any evidence of any communication between FEMA and the RC, it sure hasn’t trickled down to the phone room.
Furthermore, ALL calls are being routed through the phone room. This includes calls for “accounting” or “Sue Jones”. The RC refuses to give us internal extensions unless it pertains directly to Katrina - for instance, calls about dialysis, etc. We are having to tell those people to call back in, say, two weeks when the crisis is over. Some of us got the bright idea to ring one of those extentsions and then hang up, instead of “announcing” the transfer. We figured if we weren’t being given internal extensions, we’d route the calls to those who were deemed able to handle such confidential information. Uh-uh, the only time we ever saw a supervisor or paid staff member was to remind us that we MUST only route calls that pertained to that extension, and we MUST announce the call.
The lists of charities to refer are being constantly updated, but the information is no good because none of the paid staff is listening to the phone room people when they say the charities have asked us to stop referring, and the referred charities cannot get in touch with the paid staff themselves to reuest removal from the list. The lists are being updated on a word-of-mouth basis - in other words, some paid staff person saw on the news that this or that organization is doing this or that service, so their name goes on the updated list. No verifications are made, apparently. And, of course, other charities who still have resources and goods are calling the phone room to say they can offer assistance but that word is not being conveyed to the paid staff.
Suggestions to the paid staff that they may want to go in two or three times a day and have a quick five-minute training session to cut down on the volume of calls and in some instances, save their reputations were ignored. As are requests for some liaison or something to field these calls from the other charities.
The few extensions we do have seldom answer and only a handful of them are equipped with voice mail. So fully half our calls are ended with “I guess you can try calling back later.”
After Friday I had decided I had had it. I couldn’t beleive this was the best they could do, this charity that was chartered by Congress to provide disaster relief to the nation. I’m going back to the Salvation Army, who I was working for until I heard that the RC had a greater need for volunteers.
Check the links in posts #1, 26, and 27 in this thread.
I donate platelets once a month to the ARC. The folks there are great, and I don’t begrudge it one bit. However, knowing that they must charge something for my platelets, I tend to send my charitable $ contributions to other organizations to spread it around a little. If I weren’t able to donate platelets, however, I wouldn’t have a problem sending them cash.
I worked with a guy who was in Vietam. He told the same story of paying for coffee and doughnuts, and had no use for the ARC. (I dunno, this policy was obviously a bad one with a lot of staying power, so it’s a good thing if it is discontinued). It was the reason he gave for not donating blood, but I’m sure he wouldn’t refuse a transfusion from the ARC for himself or his family if it was needed, so I think it was a little bit irrational.
I think that it’s like any huge organization; they have a chain of beauracracy and can’t respond quickly to anything without considering litigation. I think they do a lot of good, and I cut them a lot of slack.
It’s nice to hear this, sciurophobic.
I used to do this as a volunteer for the Red Cross. We would go to fires and help the residents. By “help” I mean any of the following:
[ul]
[li]offer coffee and blankets and a warm place to sit and a listening ear[/li][li]give them clothes and toiletry kits[/li][li]give them this chemical thing you could wash your belongings with to get out the smoke[/li][li]offer minor first aid – I once picked superficial glass shards out of the foot of an elderly woman who had fled her home barefoot and asked us to do something so she could just walk and try to deal with the rest of her life[/li][li]make sure they had a place to go for shelter – most people would go to family, but in several cases we would drive them to a hotel and provide vouchers to pay for the room and breakfast[/li][/ul]
When the residence was deemed safe by firefighters and the residents were taken care of, we would enter the house in protective gear and do a survey of necessities. We would note if their beds, clothes, refrigerator, etc were destroyed. This survey would go back to the agency, and trained Red Cross workers would contact the residents to help them find ways to replace these necessities.
I’m not trying to brag about myself, and I am no longer associated with the Red Cross in any way. I just think people should know about the things that Red Cross agencies do every week of the year. There was never ever any charge for any of these services. When the Red Cross is paying for hotel rooms for displaced people in your very own city, it’s frustrating to hear the stories of charging for a doughnut in WWII.