Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsRed Cross Can’t Tell You How They Spend Your Money Because Then They’d Have To Kill You
http://wonkette.com/552958/red-cross-cant-tell-you-how-they-spend-your-money-because-then-theyd-have-to-kill-youRed Cross Cant Tell You How They Spend Your Money Because Then Theyd Have To Kill You
by snipy
Unless you have some philosophical objection to reading any news whatsoever about charities, you are likely aware that the Red Cross is sometimes kinda skeevy with the bazillions of dollars they take in, like when they received giant gobs of 9/11 donations but then decided it was cool if local chapters kept the money instead.
Related video, Red Cross Needs Donations, @ link~
Youd think things like that would make them be a little less weirdly evasive about what they do with donations after an enormous disaster like Hurricane Sandy, but youd be wrong. Right now, the Red Cross is seeking to block disclosure of how they raised and spent that money because they say its a trade secret.
Back in 2013, the New York Attorney General asked the Red Cross for detailed info about how they spent all that sweet hurricane cash. Somehow, the Red Cross was able to cut a deal with the AG that required them only to release summary data, which seems kind of dubious to us.
It seemed that way to ProPublica as well, so they filed a FOIA request to find out what info the Red Cross had provided that made the AG so sure that they would totally never ever do anything money shady ever again. Instead of everyone just chilling out and giving ProPublica the data, the Red Cross hired an attorney to block disclosure of a bunch of the information, saying it falls under the states trade secret exemption, because if the rest of the world finds out how Red Cross does what it does, they will totally put the Red Cross out of business or something.
The documents include internal and proprietary methodology and procedures for fundraising, confidential information about its internal operations, and confidential financial information, wrote Gabrielle Levin of Gibson Dunn in a letter to the attorney generals office.
If those details were disclosed, the American Red Cross would suffer competitive harm because its competitors would be able to mimic the American Red Crosss business model for an increased competitive advantage, Levin wrote.
If those details were disclosed, the American Red Cross would suffer competitive harm because its competitors would be able to mimic the American Red Crosss business model for an increased competitive advantage, Levin wrote.
OK. Lets grant that in order to stay competitive in the rough-and-tumble world of ginormous nonprofit fundraising, you need to keep some of your fundraising methods a secret, because you are currently the bestest at wringing money out of people. We assume the next best is fucking Race for the Cure, and the third is probably that animal humane society shelter thingy where they play Sarah McLachlan songs over sad pictures of animals until you sob and donate. But even if you need to keep the way you raise money secret, how on gods green earth do you actually justify saying that it needs to be a secret how you spend it as well? Like if the Red Cross says yeah, after Hurricane Sandy, we spent $5 million on temporary shelters, somewhere, somehow, some upstart shoestring nonprofit will now know how to dethrone the Red Cross as King of the Fundraisers??
Look, Red Cross. Youre going to get money from people no matter what. Even if youre diverting a substantial chunk of money to hookers and blow, people will STILL give you money, because they dont know who else to donate to, so theres really no benefit to being complete dicks about it.
Trade secrets our collective asses.
InfoView thread info, including edit history
TrashPut this thread in your Trash Can (My DU » Trash Can)
BookmarkAdd this thread to your Bookmarks (My DU » Bookmarks)
2 replies, 595 views
ShareGet links to this post and/or share on social media
AlertAlert this post for a rule violation
PowersThere are no powers you can use on this post
EditCannot edit other people's posts
ReplyReply to this post
EditCannot edit other people's posts
Rec (3)
ReplyReply to this post
2 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight:
NoneDon't highlight anything
5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
Red Cross Can’t Tell You How They Spend Your Money Because Then They’d Have To Kill You (Original Post)
babylonsister
Jun 2014
OP
WhiteTara
(29,703 posts)1. Which is why I don't give them any money.
This is another racket that doesn't do much for anyone but the people who work there. Same with most other charities.
MurrayDelph
(5,293 posts)2. I wish there was a good alternative
for blood donations. If I give (which I am occasionally willing to do),
I write on the donor's card that I do not want to be contacted. It usually
takes four times of yelling at them for calling before they stop.
The most-annoying was when they tried to sign me up for a donation in the big city (100 miles away) that would be a two-hour procedure. And they could not understand why I wasn't willing to commit to the seven hours it would take.