Red Cross: How We Spent Sandy Money Is A "Trade Secret"

originally posted by: OccamsRazor04
I would basically never give to a charity, waste of money.

Give straight to the source. Through charity, I think they use that money for their class A Mercedes payments and for buying their mansions.

The Red Cross has been perverted for a long time. They spy, --they aren't there to help people per-se. It is a business. Now it's fact. It is run by the same perverts as most other money-making schemes. Time to amputate it along with the federal reserve.

You dont have to get a state order for my shopping list.

The only reason corps have secrets is for competition. Do charity's compete for donations?

Worked for a nonprofit for 16 years and during that time got a pretty good picture of the nonprofit world. Executive salaries can be very high. Operations are often secretive because of high competition. Remember there is only a finite amount of charity dollars (even though it's huge), so you have many hands out asking the same companies/mailing lists.

We've all seen Red Cross and Salvation Army trucks at disasters, doing good work. The people on the line are genuine and helpful, but there is politics back in the head office.

I give to two regularly: Fisher House Foundation, which provides free housing to families of wounded U.S. vets while their family member is being treated in hospitals; and Innocence Project, which helps free and exonerate wrongly convicted inmates of U.S. prisons. Both have well-established reputations.

I DO agree with many of the comments on cancer walks, runs, etc. Where's all that money going and why is treatment so expensive?

I will donate one star and one flag as long as you use these charitable donations to enrich the lives of others with your eye opening posts.

Good job.

The "trade secret"? It's probably a laundering service.

The more I live, see, and experience the more I am of the opinion that our gov'ts, corporations, "charities", etc are really just fronts for a form of organized crime that puts the mafia to shame... The new corporate mafia?? (or should I say old). Everything seems to have been infiltrated, from top down. That's why nothing gets done. It's not meant to. Never has. Never will.

No way !!!! , My wife works for Red Cross this is crazy. Never thought I would see something like this. I have been telling her this forever just by what I've seen by the company without seeing any dirt on it and how they operate because i have been in their offices and Volunteered and got promoted to Volunteer Coordinator pretty high up to where I had a security clearance.

Now I can show her this.

Thanks guys!

originally posted by: Fylgje

originally posted by: OccamsRazor04
I would basically never give to a charity, waste of money.

Give straight to the source. Through charity, I think they use that money for their class A Mercedes payments and for buying their mansions.

The Red Cross has been perverted for a long time. They spy, --they aren't there to help people per-se. It is a business. Now it's fact. It is run by the same perverts as most other money-making schemes. Time to amputate it along with the federal reserve.

This has been my philosophy. It is shocking how little of the donated funds many of 'charities' use for genuine charity. I believe it was the Red Cross that was paying their CEO nearly $750k in salary alone (never mind benefits) per year.

It truly is a business. It is a much better policy to cut out the middle man and give directly to those in need. Plus you and the recipient have full control over how those funds are used.

I was reading an article the other day about how trains transporting oil by rail are refusing to disclose how much oil they are transporting and how often to the state because it would reveal "trade secrets."

Well, I think this trade secret stuff is a bunch of bull#. I'm glad that you found the example of the charity because a charity is supposed to put its customers first - a charity should be happy if it sets a good example for other charities that helps them to run more effectively.

I disagree with the whole "trade secrets" line of thinking, I think that it is going too far. Things should absolutely be disclosed to the public that have to do with public safety.

I feel like after just entering the "Information Age" we are going to be entering the "Age of Secrecy and Deception" where the information is available, but under lock and key.

I have known for a long time that many charities are geared more towards the profits of there CEO`s and upper management than the actual charity they parasitically attach themselves to in order to get donations from a naive but well intended public. A non profit group heading is often all the proof many need to give money to a charity,thinking that if by law a company can`t profit from donations then it must all go to the cause they represent.And while it`s true no COMPANY can profit under that heading there`s no stipulation or limit to how much the people running this charity can make.In fact some of the highest paid CEO`s run non profit organizations.The Goodwill CEO makes 2.4 million a year and pays minimum wage,the CEO of UNICEF makes 1.3 million a year plus all expenses and has unlimited use of a Rolls Royce,less than 5 cents of every dollar donated goes to the cause.United way CEO makes 400,000 a year plus expense.Less than a dime of all money donated to March of dimes goes to there cause, and finally of course there`s Red Cross. Ceo and president Marsha J Evans makes over $700,000 a year plus expenses.
Of the sixty some odd "charities" I looked at, the lowest paid (President/C.E.O/Commissioner) was heading up a charity group UP in Canada. I found, believe it or not, it was......

Ready for this...

I think you might be surprised...

It is, none other than...

The Salvation Army's Commissioner Todd Bassett receives a salary of only $13,000 per year (plus housing) for managing this $2 Billion dollar organization. Which means about $0.93 per dollar earned, is readily available and goes back out to local charity causes...truly amazing ...and well done "Sally Anne"

No further comment is necessary..."Think Twice" before you give to your Charity of choice as to which one really does the best for the most - or the least for the most, for that matter.

Easy way to see how your donations are being used, go to the offices of said charity and look in the car park, I'll bet you its all top price cars and the board members get healthy returns..

Charities now go to Hollywood style measures to produce images that will extract the most cash when often the image is faked. I simply refuse to give to charity as i KNOW the money will be used for anything but charitable means...

I learned not to donate any money to the red cross many years ago..
no one ever knows where it goes..
kinda like the government with our income tax money (which is kinda collected via mob style by way of "voluntary contribution")
Remember the earthquake that hit Haiti? the people there are still in shambles and saw little to no aid from all the red cross donations..(I was recently in the Dominican Republic and listened to many complaints about that situation..)

" Trade Secrets " what a bunch of BS ! Any "charity" that isn't willing and even anxious to account for how the funds people generously donated to help people in need after a disaster was used is a big RED ( Cross ) FLAG!

Here is what we heard after the Earthquake devastated Haiti.....



Here is the Reality.........

originally posted by: Britguy
If those details were disclosed, "the American Red Cross would suffer competitive harm because its competitors would be able to mimic the American Red Cross's business model for an increased competitive advantage," Levin wrote.

That's right.. "Business" with a big 'B".

When I watch TV late at night and see the many ads on national television (which are very expensive btw), with hungry children or abused animals.. it makes me sick at the thought of the possibility that someone is doing this to capitalize by pulling on peoples heart strings. I guess I can't know for sure, but judging by the aggressive nature in how they advertise, I have my suspicions.

There should be laws of mandatory transparency for "charitable' organizations. The government shouldn't let any sort of these scam/con businesses to exist. People working for these organizations should be paid a proper wage, but should not go beyond that.

a reply to: Britguy

As with any charitable organization, you've gotta do your research.

I did volunteer work for the salvation army-sorting and cleaning the donations, and deciding what is trash and what was worth selling. I had to throw out Dora the explorer books because I was told to. I wasn't even given a reason. And anything to do with dinosaurs-forget it, it's going in the bin.

I left not long after that, then after coming out of a subway one day I was accosted by my former boss-who was dressed in fine attire and was hell bent on making me feel guilty for not donating my time and money, even though he did not lift a finger the whole time I was there. It took a lot of restraint from my part not to floor him, I gave my time and effort to them, but clearly it wasn't enough.

And now the same organization wants money from me to help those who are less fortunate.

a reply to: Britguy

The secrecy side of things here does not surprise me in the slightest, The Red Cross after all is a Masonic organization.

That's all i am saying

In the UK virtually all high streets have on average 5 or 6 charity shops. I knew personally 2 people that worked as managers in these charity shops. Now the run of the mill workers in the shops work for nothing, giving their time for free. The managers get paid an average of £22,000 a year ,plus a free week or fortnight (depending on which charity) holiday, Sorry I mean team building exercises. Now think how much a small charity shop has to make just to break even not make a profit.

a lot of people involved in charity work, should never have been involved. i know a case of a small charity that was rather questionable for years. it was a children's home started up by a rich North American. someone who got rich by buying up companies, breaking them then selling them off piecemeal sound like someone who should be involved in charity work? there were many issues over the years the way he ran it, including such things as stacking the board of directors with his wife's relatives, and hiring relatives in most positions. telling (non family) staff to do things, then when they did FIRING them for doing it, and lieing about the fact they were following his direct orders (people really should have gotten orders in writing, but they sounded reasonable). refusing to pay 13th month pay,(a legal requirement here for all workers). he even moved kids illegally from one part the the country to another after taking over another children's home, and in the end shutting it down (sounds a little like how he made his fortune doesn't it? funny thing is he screwed up, he couldn't sell that property due to laws here). all the while he was living like a king, having the charity pay for things like building a big house for him, buying a car, plus high wages for both him and his wife.

now this was an organization that was funded mostly through church donations. well the problems in the US hit his donations rather hard. at the same time he apparently lost everything in the stock market, and ended up fileing for personal bankruptcy in the US. so here he was, broke, and donations were not enough, then something interesting supposedly happened. he went to the states to drum up support, when he returned he supposedly found out the board (remember most of the board were his wife's relatives), had decided to shut down the home. now there are interesting laws about charities here. anything like property that has been donated such as the property he donated to the charity reverts back to the donater in cases like a charity shutting down (even if say the charity needs to relocate they can't sell the property it goes back to those that donated it). so he of course will gain ownership of it.

in his e-mail to supporters telling them how sad it was that this happened, he went on to inform them all was not lost that he will be now working with a couple of big name charities, habitat for humanity is one, the other escapes me right now in the area (charities i will definitely not support now). charities that collect big money in North America, and are financially secure. anyone else smell a RAT? seems like his own charity couldn't afford him any longer so he shut it down, to join up with organisations he can make money off of. sadly this type of scum tend to become part of charities for their benefit. yes a lot of charities especially big ones are just schemes for people to make money from, he fact they might actually help people is just a pleasant side effect for them. the worst thing is there ARE good charities out there where money you give DOES go to help people. one i know has an interesting set up that prevents the gross misuse of money that tends to happen, more should be set up like it. they have TWO separate donation areas. you can donate to the organization it's self which covers things like wages and other things. the other you donate for a disaster, and ALL that money actually goes to help people who are suffering.

Red Cross is stealing AT THE MOMENT money collected for victims of floods in Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia.

People collected over 10 million dollars in last month and a half in Croatia, and none of that money went to victims. Red Cross deposited about half of that money in bank. Nothing was paid to victims in last month and a half.

Literally, nothing was paid, money just sits and medias speculate on how it will be spended.

a reply to: Britguy

Well as far as Red Cross and a number of other charitable industry's the majority of the monetary funds given to the business is actually going into the CEO's pocket. That information is in the public domain and available for anyone to see if you look for it.

Know as far a charity's go in general i would say they are prominently corrupt and made primarily to enrich the board members. That's not to say all charity's are built this way just the majority of them such as Red Cross.

a reply to: Britguy

oh what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive - Sir Walter Scott

Yeah

The Red Cross could survive without another citizen donating another dollar...
Why? They aren't a charity!!! (by definition)