If you’re contemplating making a financial donation to help the millions of people affected by the recent string of hurricane disasters, and you’re considering the Red Cross as the place to send your hard-earned money, you might want to think again!
Current Events
Natural disasters frequently give birth to a plethora of scams looking to steal your heart as well as your cash. So, many Americans often select the Red Cross as a reputable and safe charity to help those in need. Sadly, that belief is now being reconsidered and the organization questioned.
According to ProPublica, the Red Cross launched a multimillion-dollar project in 2011 to transform the desperately poor areas of Haiti that were hardest hit by the devastating earthquake from a year earlier. The project was known as LAMIKA (an acronym in Creole for “A Better Life in My Neighborhood”) and included a promise from the organization to build hundreds of permanent homes for displaced residents.
The Red Cross received nearly half a billion dollars in donations following the Haiti earthquake from concerned and caring world citizens. Soon thereafter, they gleefully announced that they had provided homes to more than 130,000 residents. However, that number has since been discovered to be a bit off.
So, exactly how many homes did the Red Cross build with their nearly 1 billion-dollar booty of donations? SIX!
Yes, after a closer look at confidential memos, emails from worried Red Cross officers, and accounts from a dozen frustrated insiders, the old charity has proven to have frequently broken promises, squandered donations, and even made totally false claims regarding their success.
Now, more than 5 years after the earthquake, many residents of Haiti continue to live in rusty sheet metal shacks and continue to be without drinkable water, electricity or basic sanitation. If the Red Cross used almost a billion dollars to build only 6 homes, where’d the rest of the money go??
Hmmm…
The story of the Red Cross doesn’t end on the shores of Haiti.
Current Events
While you were watching television and images of a flooded Houston from Hurricane Harvey tugged at your heart and prompted you to make a donation to the Red Cross, please know that you cash may never actually reach anyone in Texas.
The American Red Cross regularly touts how responsible it is with donors’ money. “We’re very proud of the fact that 91 cents of every dollar that’s donated goes to our services,” Red Cross CEO Gail McGovern said in a speech in Baltimore last year. “That’s world class, obviously.” McGovern has often repeated that figure, which has also appeared on the charity’s website. “I’m really proud” that overhead expenses are so low, she told a Cleveland audience in June. The problem with that number: It isn’t true. After inquiries by ProPublica and NPR, the Red Cross removed the statement from its website. The Red Cross said the claim was not “as clear as it could have been, and we are clarifying the language.” – ProPublica
According to ProPublica, only 74% of donations actually make it to victims of a catastrophic event. The rest goes to “management and general” overhead expenses — or in other words, toward the travel, perks, and paydays of those who run the organization.
Additionally, the Red Cross conducts a bit of profit diversion. For example, when people donate to a “well-known” disaster such as the Haiti earthquake or Hurricane Irma, some of those donations actually end up going to lesser known disasters that fewer people may have donated toward.
So, the lesson here is this: if you are so moved to make a donation toward a specific cause, the Red Cross may no longer be the best place to send your funds. Do some research and find organizations where 100% of the money raised goes directly to those affected by your specific cause.
I had heard this about the Red cross before so thanks for the reminder. The funny thing is I was reading the same thing about the pink breast cancer charity yesterday. I forget what it’s called but it’s the Susan something organization that they found out only gives twenty percent to breast cancer and keeps the rest. You can’t trust all these charities these days. They wait until something happens then then they take advantage of people while they are feeling sorry for others.