Google Finance: The American Red Cross

Message from discussion Is The Red Cross Effective?

sstannard-stock...@ensemblecapital.com

More options Dec 15 2007, 1:26 am

From: sstannard-stock...@ensemblecapital.com

Date: Fri, 14 Dec 2007 22:26:24 -0800 (PST)

Local: Sat, Dec 15 2007 1:26 am

Subject: Re: Is The Red Cross Effective?

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Maura, congrats on the quick reply. It is a great experience as a
donor to have a nonprofit respond to my question so quickly.
Everything you wrote sounds great. However, personally I'm interested
in rigorous impact evaluation. I realize that most nonprofits do not
have this sort of data, but the Red Cross has a lot of resources. Does
the Red Cross produce any analytical analysis of their historical
impact? If so, could you send me some links so I can check it out?

I'm not giving you a hard time. I think that these new Google
Nonprofit pages are quickly going to be quite important in the
nonprofit sector. I'd love to see Google resist sticking any useless
overhead expense ratios on these pages. If nonprofits are able to
supply some form of impact analysis, maybe we can show Google that
this is the data that is actually important.

Great talking with you!

mojo...@gmail.com wrote:
> Hi, Sean. This is Maura from the Red Cross. I think we are very
> effective. We collect, process and distribute more than 40 percent of
> the nation's blood supply. Our local chapters, which are funded by
> their own communities and rely primarily on volunteers, together
> respond to more than 70,000 disasters every year. Most of those
> disasters are home fires. The Red Cross makes sure people have a
> place to sleep, food to eat and clothes to wear. Chapters also teach
> millions of people every year in first aid and CPR, swimming and water
> safety, lifeguarding, disaster preparedness and more. And if you are
> a military family with a loved one serving far from home, the Red
> Cross is where you go to get word to that person about a family
> emergency.

> Last week, the Red Cross sheltered people in the Pacific Northwest
> after strong winds and mudslides destroyed homes and knocked out roads
> and power and also set up a family center for the families affected by
> the mall shootings in Omaha. They sheltered people in Great Neck, NY,
> after a car crashed into an apartment building and helped people when
> a Greyhound bus spun out of control on a snowy interstate. In Africa,
> we learned, measles deaths have dropped by a staggering 91 percent
> because of an American Red Cross led vaccination program. And we
> helped negotiate a historic agreement allowing five Red Crescent
> ambulances to operate in East Jerusalem. This week, we're helping
> people affected by the ice storms and a bunch of pretty serious
> multifamily fires around the country.

> I hope you are getting the idea: the Red Cross is a great link
> between people who want to help and people who need that help. You
> can go to our Website at redcross.org and view our annual report and
> read much more. There's also tons of good info on keeping yourself
> safe in a disaster.

> sstannard-stock...@ensemblecapital.com wrote:
> > Is the Red Cross Effective? I don't mean do they have low overhead
> > expenses or some silly measure like that. I mean do they take donor
> > dollars and use them to fund an organization that produces high levels
> > of social impact? If the answer is yes, I'd love to know about any
> > data that backs this claim up.

> > Thanks to anyone who can help.

> > Sean Stannard-Stockton
> > TacticalPhilanthropy.com

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