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  1. #21
    Quote Originally Posted by zenkai View Post
    I've been saying for years that the Red Cross is nothing but a bunch of crooks and I refuse to donate to them
    Generally speaking quite a lot of charities are - which is why people should focus instead on donating to charitable causes in their local community where they can see the benefits for themselves and more easily call the organisations out if they aren't actually doing anything. The bigger charities typically just guilt trip people into giving them money and then most of that money goes to overpaid individuals who...don't actually do or accomplish a whole lot.

    Sadly big businesses and politicians often support them so it's unlikely that the punishment will be as severe as it should be.

  2. #22
    My friend's house burnt down when I was a kid and they had no home insurance. The American Red Cross bought his whole family food for 3 months while they lived in a hotel. That's why I donate to red cross.

    But yea I can see why people rage when the media brings stuff like this up.
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  3. #23
    Merely a Setback Reeve's Avatar
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    There was a whole episode of Planet Money a fees years back that was all about how absurdly difficult it is to build anything at all in Haiti. After the story, an expert general contractor went down there with a shit ton of donated money to try to build a small school (think one room), and after like a year had made zero progress. This is someone who went there with the sole purpose of proving it could be done.

    Now to be fair, half a billion dollars should kick down a lot of barriers for you and should make more than 6 homes eminently possible, but don't think it's as simple as building homes in a functioning country.

    Here's one of the Planet Money episodes on the topic:

    http://www.npr.org/sections/money/20...ard-to-do-good
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  4. #24
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    Quote Originally Posted by lockedout View Post
    The American Red Cross
    President and CEO Marsha J. Evans' salary for the year was $651,957 plus expenses
    Holy fuck, that's a pretty cozy salary.

    Granted, I am not at all surprised that these guys are getting caught quite literally, red handed, scamming people into donating and failing to help those in need that the money is supposed to be going to. I'd hope that the feds start shutting down and locking up the people involved.

  5. #25
    Quote Originally Posted by Rennadrel View Post
    Granted, I am not at all surprised that these guys are getting caught quite literally, red handed, scamming people into donating and failing to help those in need that the money is supposed to be going to. I'd hope that the feds start shutting down and locking up the people involved.
    Were the donations specifically given to build permanent residences or for simply helping the people there in any way the Red Cross deemed best? It sounds more like their plans changed once they got into the realities of building things there. Doesn't mean there wasn't probably a lot of waste, but it also doesn't mean it was a scam.

  6. #26
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    Quote Originally Posted by Nellise View Post
    Were the donations specifically given to build permanent residences or for simply helping the people there in any way the Red Cross deemed best? It sounds more like their plans changed once they got into the realities of building things there. Doesn't mean there wasn't probably a lot of waste, but it also doesn't mean it was a scam.
    Half a billion dollars can build a lot of homes in a place like Haiti, they just can't be arsed to cover the cleanup costs plus bringing in all the equipment which would be half of what they got in donations easily.

  7. #27
    Quote Originally Posted by Linadra View Post
    I've known for years that charities are largely scams. Very little goes to those in need, that people think they are donating to.
    Don't some people "work in charity" as a professional career? That should be a red flag straight away.
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  8. #28
    Quote Originally Posted by Rennadrel View Post
    Half a billion dollars can build a lot of homes in a place like Haiti, they just can't be arsed to cover the cleanup costs plus bringing in all the equipment which would be half of what they got in donations easily.
    Sure, but it sounds like they chose to build more temporary shelters than permanent housing and that's where a lot of the money went. Temporary relief still costs money. And you can't build something wherever you want just because you have the money to do so, you need to be allowed to build on the land. Someone posted that they had trouble finding desirable land to build the houses on or they couldn't find out how to get the land they wanted the houses on since there's unclear ownership there. Even if I had $500B I couldn't just build a house on my neighbor's yard without their permission.

  9. #29
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    Quote Originally Posted by Celista View Post
    Half a billion dollars in aid and they were only able to provide tents? That seems pretty bad. But if we crunch some numbers...

    6,100 transitional homes
    6 permanent homes
    860,000 tarps
    25,000 "progressive shelters"

    Red Cross probably gets a discount on tarps and many were likely donated. Very conservative estimate on tarp cost: $10-20 a tarp, or a total cost of $8.6 - $16 million. Cost was probably closer to $5 or less per tarp.

    Half a billion dollars - 8.6 - 16 million/ 25,000 shelters + 6 homes + 6,100 "progressive shelters" = $13k per shelter, give or take.

    Not sure what a "progressive shelter" is, which can inflate numbers.

    According to that article they only spent $173 million on shelter, so minus the tarps (not included in this estimate) $173 million /37,100 = around $4.6k a shelter.

    Those numbers are not bad although if their "shelters" and "progressive shelters" are simply nicer tarps then yes, those numbers are quite inflated.
    I know that the progressive shelters are temporary structures with the capability of becoming permanent structures. They're wooden buildings, rather than tarps or something. Real roof and such, and with some cement or other resources, they can be made permanent should the need arise.

  10. #30
    Quote Originally Posted by Annoying View Post
    I know that the progressive shelters are temporary structures with the capability of becoming permanent structures. They're wooden buildings, rather than tarps or something. Real roof and such, and with some cement or other resources, they can be made permanent should the need arise.
    That's what it seems like, I found an article about them with pictures.

    http://www.designwithoutborders.com/...sive-shelters/

  11. #31
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    Neat, good find.

  12. #32
    Also http://www.ifrc.org/PageFiles/95899/...0FINAL_web.pdf

    Page 61 of the pdf has an image of one of the progressive shelters in Haiti.
    Transitional shelter on page 47, but the pdf has a lot of good images.

  13. #33
    wounded warrior project, goodwill, all bullshit

  14. #34
    Legendary! Collegeguy's Avatar
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    Sly business man makes his pockets fat while gullible, lazy hipsters lose their money. I don't see a problem here.

  15. #35
    If I become rich. I'll personally build and give a home to a person in need before I donate to any charity.

  16. #36
    And to think, people used to call me an ass for shitting on Red Cross. SO few charities are truly that.
    READ and be less Ignorant.

  17. #37
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    Quote Originally Posted by Celista View Post
    Also http://www.ifrc.org/PageFiles/95899/...0FINAL_web.pdf

    Page 61 of the pdf has an image of one of the progressive shelters in Haiti.
    Transitional shelter on page 47, but the pdf has a lot of good images.
    62 has them doing the cement thing to make the walls permanent. More neat finds!

  18. #38
    The Insane Masark's Avatar
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    "We don't need government! Private charities will take care of the people who need it!"

    Warning : Above post may contain snark and/or sarcasm. Try reparsing with the /s argument before replying.
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  19. #39
    Quote Originally Posted by Masark View Post
    "We don't need government! Private charities will take care of the people who need it!"
    I have not heard anyone say that.

  20. #40
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    Conspiracy theories aren't allowed here, and the site you're linking from is nothing but.

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