The American Red Cross is one of the most prominent charities in the United States. It achieves its mission, in part, by mobilizing mass waves of volunteers in times of crisis. What may be surprising to some, however, is that the American Red Cross is not funded primarily by individual donations or government grants. A significant portion of its annual revenue is generated through “Biomedical services,” according to a November 26, 2023 report by CNBC. “Contributions only make up about a third of the organization’s revenue,” CNBC reports.
CharityWatch CEO, Laurie Styron, was interviewed by CNBC for the piece.
“The American Red Cross is a large and established and very well-funded
organization. And so it’s really able to have its hand in a lot of different
programs.”
“One of the primary things it does is that it mobilizes volunteers to provide
boot-on-the-ground aid in the wake of domestic national disasters. And so it helps
to transport and distribute aid to people in emergency situations…”
“The American Red Cross is essentially responsible for about 40% of the blood
supply in the United States. It’s central to the supply chain for blood transfusions,
so its collects and tests volunteer blood donations, and then it’s responsible
for distributing these blood donations to about 2,500 facilities and hospitals
across the country.”
The American Red Cross essentially collects blood from donors and then as part
of the way it raises revenue to recover costs, then sells that blood to about
2,500 hospitals and medical facilities across the country,’ said Laurie Styron,
CEO and executive director of CharityWatch.”
“’It’s really important for people to understand, we are all stakeholders,
either as donors or as taxpayers, in the Red Cross, as well as other charities,
in terms of, we do need to hold them accountable for operating efficiently and
effectively. Because we’re essentially, as taxpayers, subsidizing this and
other charities’ ability to exist. When it’s well-placed criticism, that’s part
of what helps a nonprofit to evaluate how it’s operating and to improve and to
get better. So while it does receive some criticism because of the huge volume
of work that it does across the country, the best thing it can do is to take
that criticism to heart and kind of self-reflect and find ways to improve its transparency,
to improve the way it operates, and to mitigate any sort of fraud or mismanagement
or theft that goes on during natural disasters. There’s all kinds of ways to
improve.”
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| Charity | |
|---|---|
| American Red Cross |