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 Asherian Command wrote:
Still much better than what PETA does with its money.

At least they did something but. Half A billion most of been laundered somewhere.

I don;t think there's been any evidence of laundering presented, just of waste, mismanagement, and ineptitude.

Relax, if you donated to Red Cross, your money was well spent: hookers, blow, and chocolate fondu. In that order.

1. Remember this is the American branch of the Red Cross, not the Red Cross itself.
The Red Cross is orders of magnitude more effective.

2. The American Red Cross has nothing on Oxfam, with Oxfam 98% of donations are absorbed prior to reaching the destination country,

Oh yes Oxfam and their massively well paid directors, it is just legalised theft.

I used to donate to the Red Cross each month from my salary. But they kept calling me up constantly asking for outlandish one off donations (upwards of £100 a go) or trying to guilt me into upping my donation.

I hate getting unsolicited phone calls, and I told them more than once that I did not want to agree to anything over the phone, but they kept calling me up and wasting both of our time, so eventually I cancelled the donation. I still feel like cancelling was a bit of a gakky thing to do, but I don't want to support such aggressive tactics when I am already donating what I am comfortable donating to them, I feel they should be trying to get others to donate rather than hassling me for more money. Every humanitarian disaster had them show up with the hand out, and I figured that is why I was donating each month, so that they could respond to these disasters.

Unfortunately, the NSPCC was just as bad as the Red Cross, so I cancelled my donation to them as well. Unicef were not nearly as obnoxious, so I still donate to them.

I donate to a few charities a month, but I more or less resign myself to the fact that some of it will get wasted somewhere along the way.

If anyone is looking for one that definitely puts their money to good use though, I'd advise the Princess Alice Hospice. When my Grandmother was in her final days of terminal breast cancer, they gave a comfy bed, a massage service, good food, and excellent overall care, kindness, and attention. She passed away in one of their wards the most comfortable she'd been after years of intense chemotherapy treatment. I genuinely cannot recommend them and their work highly enough.

 Orlanth wrote:
2. The American Red Cross has nothing on Oxfam, with Oxfam 98% of donations are absorbed prior to reaching the destination country,

This is a thing that floats around the internet and is somewhere between wildly exaggerated and total bs.

Oxfam spends abot 15% on fundraising, and another 7.5% on administration. This puts it pretty squarely in the middle of charities for service delivery %.