Free Essay Sample on American Red Cross

Food, shelter, and emotional support to disaster victims

American Red Cross provides food, shelter, and emotional support to disaster victims; supplies approximately 40 percent of the country's blood; educates people on life-saving skills and provides humanitarian aid (Forsythe, David, and Barbara 213). It is a non-profit making organization, and it only depends on volunteers from the American public for it to perform its missions. Red Cross assists communities avoid, get ready for, and appropriately respond to emergencies by coordinated volunteer efforts and training programs. This paper analyses the activities undertaken by Red Cross, and recommend what should be done to make it effective in our communities.

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Red Cross, among many other services, is well known for its efforts in disaster management; it helps the military to stay connected to their families, assists in blood donations and provides safety classes. Red Cross highly depends on the help of volunteers to achieve its objectives (Koliba, Christopher, Russell, and Asim 456). This is one way of keeping their costs low. It gets donations from many sources such as financial, blood and in-kind donations. Donors are concerned on how each dollar they donate is spent. For instance, how much is allocated to humanitarian programs and how much is used for general management. It, however, does not track the fundraising and management of every donation type separately. One of the organization's top priorities is being cost-conscious (Forsythe, David, and Barbara 2016). For it to ensure that costs are kept low, it would be advisable for them to track and manage each donation separately.

Red Cross should account for every dollar they spend and explain to the public how their donations are spent (Dorsey, Kerri A., et al. 1251). Separate accounting statements would be appropriate instead of combining all the expenses. For instance, disaster services expenses should be separated from blood collection and selling expenses. Though Red Cross officials claim to keep their fundraising and administrative costs low, and maintaining financial transparency, it is clear that they mislead the public. With different disasters happening in different years and different amounts of money being raised in these years, it is not clear how Red Cross uses 91 cents of every dollar in different years to finance its services (Koliba, Christopher, Russell, and Asim 87).

Volunteer needs

Red Cross has diverse volunteer needs, which include telephone support services, event coordination roles, and board membership for local units. Conducting matches helps all the 800+units countrywide to recruit more volunteers effectively (Koliba, Christopher, Russell, and Asim 92). Everyone has the ability to be a volunteer. College students, for example, can help by forming recruitment committees and sign potential donors. Find necessary support from key people like the school principal. The needs of a community can be used to determine what Red Cross service a unit is expected to provide. A unit can come up with activities, which involve mostly children and the youth, spreading Red Cross messages at campus or community events and involving everyone in their events. The needs of a community can be used to determine what Red Cross service a unit is expected to provide. A unit can come up with activities, which involve mostly children and the youth, spreading Red Cross messages at campus or community events and involving everyone in their events. When people feel that Red Cross presence in their communities is decreasing, they do not feel the need to donate or volunteer. It is, therefore, important for Red Cross to develop local structures that allow efficient service delivery and serve many local communities.

Red Cross should streamline all its operations, taking into account financial and sales processes. In recent years, demand for Red Cross services has increased and to meet its demands; they should look for ways of touching more lives but still maintaining low costs and outline a plan to lower operation costs by expanding volunteers in each community. They should aim at increasing a number of resources made available to their clients by adding volunteer leaders (Dorsey, Kerri A., et al. 1258). Volunteers are an important asset to the organization, and their wellbeing should be a priority. Though volunteer leaders help in meeting the needs, it is also evident that paid staff is ultimately countable. Thus, Red Cross should consider having more of them. The organization also has its Website where a sales team sells emergency preparedness products such as books.

It is evident that volunteers are a key asset to the Red Cross organization. It is, therefore, important to encourage more people to participate and volunteer. This can be done by asking them face-to- face, advertising or using the organization's communication channel. Given Red Cross operations, though volunteers are important and critical to the organization's success, the role of paid staff and their presence in the communities they serve is of particular importance. Transparency is also an important factor to encourage more people to donate and offer financial support. The government should also consider making Red Cross classes in schools compulsory. Children can be taught at an early age on First AID, emergency services, and volunteering

Works Cited

Forsythe, David P., and Barbara Ann Rieffer-Flanagan.T The International Committee of the Red Cross: a neutral humanitarian actor. Routledge, 2016.

Koliba, Christopher J., Russell M. Mills, and Asim Zia. "Accountability in governance networks: An assessment of public, private, and nonprofit emergency management practices following hurricane Katrina."T Public Administration ReviewT 71.2 (2011): 210-220.

Dorsey, Kerri A., et al. "A comparison of human immunodeficiency virus, hepatitis C virus, hepatitis B virus, and human Ttlymphotropic virus marker rates for directed versus volunteer blood donations to the American Red Cross during 2005 to 2010."T TransfusionT 53.6 (2013): 1250-1256.