American Red Cross

How do we know the three organizations Facebook is supporting for its Ebola campaign were the best choices for our donations?

(Press release, Nov. 19, 2014) — A new American Red Cross survey found that even among social-media users, it's the messenger, not the medium, that's key to motivating social-media users to donate to charity, suggesting that personal appeals from friends matter more than trending topics and gimmicks.

A new employee survey isn't good news for the American Red Cross. Just 39 percent of employees trust the senior leadership of the organization. And four out of 10 employees have doubts about the charity's commitment to ethical conduct.

The summary of the survey results obtained by NPR and ProPublica comes on the heels of NPR and ProPublica's reporting last month that the charity struggled to meet the basic needs of victims in recent storms and diverted needed resources for public relations purposes.

Fidelity Investments, best known for mutual funds and retirement plans, now oversees more in charitable contributions than much better-known philanthrophic organizations such as the Salvation Army and the American Red Cross, and it is on the verge of surpassing the United Way. Last year, Fidelity's nonprofit, Fidelity Charitable, brought in $3.7 billion from clients, placing it second on The Chronicle of Philanthropy’s rankings of the country’s largest charities, just behind United Way.

During a press conference on Oct. 29 at the Long Island Disaster Recovery Center in Central Islip, the American Red Cross announced more than $2 million in additional grant funding to organizations helping people affected by Sandy on Long Island recover.

The Health & Welfare Council of Long Island will receive $1.323 million in additional Red Cross funding to distribute through the Long Island Unmet Needs Roundtable. The Roundtable, which brings together a diverse group of philanthropic donors, offers financial assistance to help meet unmet needs for people affected by Sandy.

A charity can't make its overhead costs disappear, but it can make it appear to be zero from the perspective of an individual donor: First convince a donor to cover overhead costs, and then everyone else can be told that 100 percent of their donations will go to the mission. When subjects in a new study were told that all of their donation would go directly to the cause, they were 80 percent more likely to donate compared with the same charity with a seed fund, and 94 percent more likely compared with matching donations.

The Red Cross botched key elements of its mission after Superstorm Sandy and Hurricane Isaac, leaving behind a trail of unmet needs and acrimony, according to an investigation by ProPublica and NPR. The charity’s shortcomings were detailed in confidential reports and internal emails, as well as accounts from current and former disaster-relief specialists.

What’s more, Red Cross officials at national headquarters in Washington, D.C., compounded the charity’s inability to provide relief by “diverting assets for public relations purposes,” as one internal report puts it. Distribution of relief supplies, the report said, was “politically driven.”

Two years after Superstorm Sandy pounded coastal communities from southern New Jersey to Connecticut, nearly six hundred foundations, corporations and other institutional donors have contributed more than $380 million in cash and in-kind gifts for relief, recovery and rebuilding efforts, a report from Foundation Center finds.

Developed in partnership with Philanthropy New York, the Council of New Jersey Grantmakers and the Center for Disaster Philanthropy, the report, found that corporations accounted for the largest share of the $328.4 million in cash pledged to relief and recovery efforts, donating a total of $136.4 million.

(Press release, Oct. 23, 2014) — Donor-recommended grants from Fidelity Charitable, an independent public charity with a donor-advised fund program, achieved record levels in the first nine months of 2014. In addition, enhancements to the organization’s program are speeding the delivery of grant money to charitable recipients and simplifying the process for donors to make multiple grant recommendations.

Giving to the nation’s biggest and most popular charities grew by nearly 11 percent last year, fueled largely by affluent donors, who are reordering the top ranks of America’s nonprofits, according to The Chronicle of Philanthropy’s annual rankings of the 400 charities that collect the most from private sources.

The rankings demonstrate a shake-up in the nonprofit world as groups that raise money primarily from the affluent see their donations soar.