Red Cross Double Cross: When a Charity Begins at Home and Often Stays There

If you look at the “About Us” section on the American Red Cross website, one learns ‘The American Red Cross prevents and alleviates human suffering in the face of emergencies by mobilizing the power of volunteers and the generosity of donors.’

Let’s take a look under the published promise and see what we might find in reality.

In 2010 Haiti was devastated by an earthquake. The Red Cross was there, but more with its hand out than with its sleeves rolled up to work. 

The organization raised nearly half a billion dollars for Haitian relief.

That was impressive.

The Red Cross boasted about creating housing for one hundred thirty thousand people. But the actual number was slightly lower — by about one hundred twenty-nine thousand nine hundred and ninety-four. 

Six permanent homes were built — that’s it.[1]

That’s not impressive.

Naturally, the Red Cross wasn’t overly forthcoming about how it spent all of those donations.

That is instructive.

Of course, charities have administrative expenses that must be taken care of from donations. There are advertisements to buy, websites to build; fundraising commissions to pay (where applicable) and of course salaries to the officers and directors on the board.

Here the Red Cross is very impressive in its efficiency and making sure that those administration expenses are well funded from the donations it receives.

While the Red Cross claims that about ninety percent of its donations go to help others in emergency disaster situations, it ain’t necessarily so.

In a 2014 investigative report by Pro Publica, it revealed “In recent years, the Red Cross' fundraising expenses alone have been as high as 26 cents of every donated dollar, nearly three times the nine cents in overhead claimed by McGovern. In the past five years, fundraising expenses have averaged 17 cents per donated dollar.”[2]

In that same report it was stated, “Once donated dollars are in Red Cross hands, the charity spends additional money on ‘management and general’ expenses, which includes things like back office accounting. That means the portion of donated dollars going to overhead is even higher.”[3]

So, on the one hand, the Red Cross has on occasion, lied about what it does on the ground for the victims of disasters. And then it fudges the figures about what its take is from dollars donated in good faith by generous people who just don’t know the reality.

Apparently, the Red Cross isn’t all that true blue when it comes to its functioning and its finances.

Let’s take a look at some more examples. Like how the Red Cross pitched in after the 9/11 attacks. Or maybe better said, how they pitched for contributions, but dropped the ball when it came to actual aid.

After the September 11 attacks, it has been reported that:

“By the end of October, the fund had received $543 million in pledges. It had, however, distributed less than one-third of those funds to actual September 11th relief efforts. The ARC announced that more than half would be spent to increase the organization’s ability to prepare for and respond to future catastrophes instead.”

In this excellent report from Auburn University’s Center for Organizational Cultures, it was further revealed, that the American Red Cross, (which is the largest “blood steward” in the country, having forty percent of the supply): “paid over $21 million in federal fines between 2003 and 2008 related to mismanagement of screening and collection as well as failing to discard potentially unsafe donations.”[4]

In an investigative report for the U.S. House Committee on Homeland Security Democratic Staff, with respect to the efficiency of Red Cross operations, it revealed, “the Red Cross is frequently late in responding to large-scale disasters – often arriving on the scene days after other relief organizations have arrived.”[5]

But the charity is Johnny-on-the-spot when it comes to public relations for the purpose of gathering private donations. In the Committee report referenced above, it came to light that:

“Red Cross public relations staff have apparently deployed – sometimes within twenty-four hours of a disaster – with the sole purpose of collecting videos and photos in order to prepare campaigns for cash.”[6]

So, you could say the Red Cross takes a balanced approach in addressing its stated function and its less often stated function. On the one hand it shows up days late to actually pitch in and help victims, but on the other hand, it rapidly sends out its public relations people to solicit donations.

But at least the Red Cross tries to help, and spreads its wings equally in the efforts to help all communities in distress — or does it?

That government report we’re looking at concluded, “Perhaps most disturbing, however, is the fact that the Red Cross’ patterns of delayed and inadequate aid continue to manifest themselves most often in economically disadvantaged and minority communities.”

Why You Should Care

The desire to help others we don’t know that are in dire distress is praiseworthy. 

On an individual basis, there often is little more than we can do than contribute to a large organization that we believe can get the job done.

But when that organization misrepresents its results… when it understates how much it takes for itself off of the top of our donations… then we should seriously consider whether that organization deserves our dollars. Or even deserves our respect.

The American Red Cross has evidenced a history of inefficiency, of overspending on administrative costs, of showing up late to help. But it shows up just at the right time for the purpose of filling its coffers with your money.

Those who serve at top positions in the American Red Cross aren’t there to be charitable. They are making serious coin in running this charity. It was reported that in 2023, the fifteen most highly compensated employees of the American Red Cross received nearly ten million dollars in compensation.[7]

Given the above, we have to ask ourselves, have we been double crossed by the American Red Cross?

[1] HOW THE RED CROSS RAISED A HALF A BILLION DOLLARS FOR HAITI AND BUILD SIX HOMES 6/3/15 Elliot & Sullivan PRO PUBLICA https://www.propublica.org/article/how-the-red-cross-raised-half-a-billion-dollars-for-haiti-and-built-6-homes

[2] The Red Cross CEO Has Been Serially Misleading About Where Donors’ Dollars Are Going  Eisinger & Elliott 12/4/14 PRO PUBLICA https://www.propublica.org/article/red-cross-ceo-has-been-misleading-about-donations

[3] IBID.

[4] The American Red Cross Faces Organizational Integrity Challenges, AUBURN UNIVERSITY CENTER FOR ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURES, https://harbert.auburn.edu/binaries/documents/center-for-ethical-organizational-cultures/cases/american-red-cross.pdf

[5] TROUBLE EXPOSED, KATRINA, RITA AND THE RED CROSS, A FAMILIAR HISTORY AN INVESTIGATIVE REPORT BY THE U.S. House Committee on Homeland Security Democratic Staff https://democrats-homeland.house.gov/imo/media/doc/redcrossreport.pdf

[6] IBID.

[7] PADDOCK POST EXECUTIVE COMPENSATION AT THE ARC 2023 https://paddockpost.com/2024/11/14/executive-compensation-at-the-american-red-cross-2023/