Charities, good and bad from a disaster area.

[RSKY]

First off let me say that I did not receive any damage in the tornado. One sister had about $100,000 worth but her house was still standing. She is shocked at how much the total has come out to be. And that is with hordes of volunteers descending on her property to do cleanup at no cost to her.

But I talk to a lot of people. So do my sisters and the rest of my family. If you wish to donate to a charity for tax purposes or out of the goodness of your heart here are my suggestions from what I hear and see.

Good: Samaritans Purse is #1. Head and shoulders above the rest. They arrived in town two days after the tornado and crews are still here. They work hard, are very respectful, and did I say that they work hard while seeming to have a good time. Attitude us everything. The Mennonites also showed up a couple days after the event and are still working. They are a smaller group, not as obvious, and worked mainly on getting damaged homes livable and still have a smaller presence here. Bread of Life is a local charity. They are a smaller group but have done amazing work. Their distribution efforts were better organized than anybody else's. If you search Bread of Life several groups will come up but the local one is a Church of Christ group located in Graves County. They were literally first on the scene in events that took place within a hundred miles of here before the December tornado. All of these are groups that are affiliated with religious organizations and use volunteers and donations.

Bad: The Red Cross has received nothing but criticism locally. People have donated to them but nothing has happened. I will have nothing else to do with them. Note that the blood donation and distribution efforts are a completely different organization. United Way has to my knowledge not been here.

Just my two cents worth of advice.

RSKY

 

[ROUSTABOUT]

Salvation Army dollar for dollar gets more to the person. I believe it is $89.00 per hundred gets to the people.

Most other places one dollar out of 200 donated. Humane society too. Look it up fer yoself.

 

[sea2summit]

Salvation Army lost my money just before Christmas but we can't talk politics so I'll leave that.

The red cross is absolutely in the business of making money, just look at their blood theft...I mean donation program. You donate then they sell it to hospitals for a significant amount of money.

I fully concur with supporting the local guys, one of the only good things about facebook is that it makes it easy to check up on how you're money is being used. Red cross pictures of handing out cups of coffee or setting up donation centers. Smaller charities folks out there with saws and hammers getting chet done!

 

[Oaktree]

Bad: The Red Cross has received nothing but criticism locally. People have donated to them but nothing has happened. I will have nothing else to do with them. Note that the blood donation and distribution efforts are a completely different organization. United Way has to my knowledge not been here.

I haven't heard much good about the Red Cross either. Between "expenses" eating up a very large percentage of their donations, and kind of sleazy practices (charging recipients/responders for things that were donated, food, etc.) they seem kind of slimy.
Don't know how much good the United Way actually does, but I dislike their tactics of badgering people to donate. Couple places I've worked I've had to sit thru presentations where they try to make you feel guilty if you don't sign on for recurring paycheck deductions to support them.

Salvation Army seems to be better. Funny, wasn't until maybe 20-25 years ago I realized they were a church group (though the name should have been a clue).

 

[shooterdon]

I no longer contribute to organizations. I help local people I know need help.

 

[oosik]

My father was in WWll. He never had a good word to say about the Red Cross. There are plenty of local organizations that I do contribute to.

 

[MossRoad]

...United Way has to my knowledge not been here.

...

That's not their role in KY.

United Way of Kentucky

Improving lives and strengthening Kentucky communities for over 35 years

www.uwky.org

 

[MossRoad]

The red cross is absolutely in the business of making money, just look at their blood theft...I mean donation program. You donate then they sell it to hospitals for a significant amount of money.

From what I've read, they sell it at about 98% of the cost to cover the process. Labor, supplies, facility, etc.

Pretty much every blood bank does the same thing, not just the Red Cross.

How else would they pay for all of that?

 

[sea2summit]

From what I've read, they sell it at about 98% of the cost to cover the process. Labor, supplies, facility, etc.

Pretty much every blood bank does the same thing, not just the Red Cross.

How else would they pay for all of that?

Take a look at their income ratios over the last 10 or more years, you'll see several years of "profit" followed by a year that looks horrible. They play the 501c3 rules by having an off year to offset the profit years, I would imagine it's not by accident. They are shady at best in my opinion. It may not be their intent but when the organization is that large of course the management is trying to "make" income to support and justify themselves and their position. It's the nature of the beast once you start paying people inside a charity. Just one more reason I don't like contributing to anything that has an identifiable percentage of the cashflow as "administration".

ETA, they do provide a critical service with their blood bank but I wish they would just go for profit and stop hiding it as a not for profit endeavor.

 

[ponytug]

I understand where you are coming from about donating to charities that make great use of the donations. I wish more people asked and understood where their donations go, and how much gets to the end recipients. I highly recommend looking at neutral third parties like Charity Watch.

However, I do feel the need to stand up for blood banks.

I am sorry that the Red Cross didn't do a great job in your community, but that is no reason to make misstatements of fact about their blood division.

I think that one of the most selfless that you can do for the good of your community is to donate blood. If you can, you should be donating blood. Communities run short of blood all the time, but especially around the holidays when there are more accidents. Most people have no idea how much blood an accident victim needs or how critical the blood need is for babies, or liver transplants which go through enormous amounts.

I hope that you, your family, and friends never need blood. Anyone being transfused is in dire straights. People on the verge of dying routinely try anything to stave off death, no matter the expense. Be thankful that blood is donated by millions of people so others whom they don't know can have a shot at survival, having a brain, being able to survive cancer treatment or get a donated organ. Blood can be purchased, but all things being equal local blood is preferred to blood that has to be air freighted from fill in the blank country.

Blood banking is a tough thing to run. Demand is variable, supply even more so, the product itself is highly perishable, and the process requires an enormous amount of quality control and double checking. Contrary to the comments above, no blood bank that I have worked with, or know about, is "in it for the money." For one thing it is federally regulated to a cost plus operation so that you as the patient don't get gouged when they actually need blood. Yes, there are paid staffers in any blood program, and paid administrators. That isn't evil per se, it is just the nature of having to run a highly technical, highly regulated organization. The average Joe/Jane doesn't legally have the skills to handle blood or blood processing.

The very nature of the blood business are large fixed costs (equipment, repair contracts, leases), and somewhat, but not too variable, staffing costs, against a variable demand and supply. That is going to result in good years and bad ones, but not through any particular or intentional gaming of the accounting.

Blood ages out, and then it goes to non-medical uses like research, where it is also highly valued, just not immediately lifesaving. Platelets are gone in three to five days, whole blood 21-35 days, and packed red blood cells 42 days. http://pathology.ucla.edu/workfiles/Education/Transfusion Medicine/RBC-Products.pdf

I would encourage you to take a tour of your local blood center, whether it is Red Cross, or run by someone else. Unsung heroes.

Yes, I have been a life long blood donor. Through no particular reason, very very rarely for the Red Cross, which had everything to do with my personal convenience and supporting my local blood centers, and nothing to do with their operations. I get pinged almost every eight weeks on the dot for more blood. It is not in over supply for most communities for most of the year.

Please give regularly! The cookies and juice are great and you get to meet wonderful folks in your community, all for free.

All the best,

Peter