Disaster Relief

A key congressman who sits on a committee that oversees the American Red Cross is pressing the group’s CEO for information about how layoffs and other cuts have affected its ability to respond to disasters. In a six-page letter sent Wednesday, Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., cited ProPublica’s recent reporting on Red Cross CEO Gail McGovern,…

When Gail McGovern was picked to head the American Red Cross in 2008, the organization was reeling. Her predecessor had been fired after impregnating a subordinate. The charity was running an annual deficit of hundreds of millions of dollars. A former AT&T executive who had taught marketing at Harvard Business School, McGovern pledged to make…

Months after a missing shipment of Haiti-bound relief supplies was discovered in South Florida, the shipyard where it still sits is refusing to release it. That’s despite pleas from the Grand Rapids, Michigan-based charity that shipped the container, which included $150,000 worth of medical and other supplies donated by more than a dozen West Michigan…

With consumers shifting their shopping online and their in-store purchasing from cash to plastic, The Salvation Army’s familiar red kettle campaign isn’t the reliable source of donations it once was for the nonprofit. Local Salvation Army chapters, which on average raise between 40 to 50 percent of their annual budgets during the holiday season, are…

A check made out for $500,000 was dropped in a Salvation Army kettle over the weekend in Rosemount, Minn., a startling act of generosity that a couple said was their way of saying thank you. The Salvation Army said the donation made Saturday at the Cub Foods on County Road 42, just east of Shannon…

The American Red Cross experienced a 32 percent drop in donations over the past year amid growing competition from newer nonprofits. The organization’s rank among the nation’s best-supported nonprofits fell from ninth to 21st place in an annual survey released Thursday by The Chronicle of Philanthropy—its lowest position since the survey began in 1991. The…

At least seven U.S. cities and counties have stopped firefighters from collecting charitable donations at busy intersections citing safety concerns. For nearly 61 years, career and volunteer firefighters around the country have participated in “Fill-the-Boot” roadside charity campaigns, often around the Labor Day and Memorial Day weekends. They raise money, while on duty and in…

As Syrian refugees continue to flee the violence at home, President Obama is turning to the modern tools of Silicon Valley entrepreneurship as a supplement to the more traditional means of humanitarian relief. At the request of officials from the White House Office of Digital Strategy, the crowdfunding website Kickstarter has begun its first social…

In November 2005, New Orleans was still reeling from Hurricane Katrina. Homes were uninhabitable, electricity was unreliable, and most people still lacked a permanent address, let alone the appliances necessary to clean the clothes on their backs. That’s when Tide showed up with a fleet of Whirlpool washers and dryers, offering free laundry service for…

All the world's a stage, especially on social media. Last year gave us the Ice Bucket Challenge, and now celebrities and others on social media are doing something decidedly classier to raise money for charity. These master thespians are putting their acting skills to the test by reciting the lyrics to hit songs, but with…