Posted on 03/17/2011 6:30:25 AM PDT by quesney
Who cares? It's a very timely topic, and it's a question I have also been asking.
I’ve given to the Red Cross, but after 9/11 and all the stories about the donation mismanagement, that was it for me!
The Salvation Army is the only ones I give to now! I’ve given to them numerous times, and they’ve never come back asking for money!
They’ve got a couple of different e-mail addresses of mine, and I never receive anything from them, except for a thank you note!
http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2011/03/ceo-3-2-11.html
Now that really sucks.
Bono is just a worn-out old fool - here’s the new kids for Japan >>> http://www.radaronline.com/exclusives/2011/03/hollywood-celebrities-raise-money-japan-relief
Thanks for the link.
The yungins are doing good, it’s nice to see them being responsible and concerned. I’m sure plenty donate privately without fanfare.
But it does help to have them speaking up.
Most of the money sent to the Red Cross will not go to help people truly in need of emergency help.
The Red Cross has many government contracts that gets their name listed as a “go to” charitable organization.
They are essentially a government agency, and frankly just syphon off desperately needed charitable funds to pay for their large and basically useless bureaucracy.
The Salvation Army does the hard, unglamorous grunt work that needs to be done “right now”, and doesn't demand media attention for doing what must be done.
And yes, I once worked in a paid, part-time position at the Red Cross.
Some truths must be experienced, to be believed.
In this...at least pay attention to experienced honorable USA military veterans of every era for the past 60 years.
Ignore the Red Cross.
The Salvation Army has Japanese staff on the ground in Japan, which is an enormous advantage.
That seems to be the consensus of opinion here and I've given more to the SA than to other charities on this one. The SA is my most basic charity, it was just less than clear to me that they operated well outside of the US.
They’re dropping quite a bit of cash there aren’t they.
I hadn’t realize the Red Cross tried to tap into our tax dollars too.
I guess our donations aren’t enough.
Food for the Hungry ( http://www.fh.org/ ) is great. A charter member of the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability, more than 93% of donations go out to the field. Very low overhead costs.
Don’t be so certain on the first one. While they do have the largest network of blood banks. They have also been under a near constant Consent Decree from the FDA for a very very long time. You can go to the FDA web site and see it. Basically for nearly all types of failures related to following controls and procedures while acquiring, testing, tracking, and maintaining the blood.
A consent decree is pretty much the worst type of punishment the FDA can put on any biz related to othe medical profession. Of course they can also take all profits retroactive to when they establish an issue started, but for a non-profit the consent decree is the creme-dele-creme. Basically the FDA signs off on every decision and nothing ships or moves without their ok.
Heres a link to the last amendment I’m aware of:
http://www.fda.gov/downloads/AboutFDA/CentersOffices/ORA/ORAElectronicReadingRoom/UCM170620.pdf
ooops that pdf only has the first 56 pages. The remaining 16 are here:
http://www.fda.gov/downloads/AboutFDA/CentersOffices/ORA/ORAElectronicReadingRoom/UCM170622.pdf
Oh and here is some info showing that they were still having issues in 2008 5 years after the amended decree of 2003 - amended from 2001.....
http://www.fda.gov/downloads/ICECI/EnforcementActions/EnforcementStory/UCM129807.pdf
Thanks Mrs. Don-o.
Also remember The Salvation Army:
https://donate.salvationarmyusa.org
Also note there’s a fake SA email running around:
http://www.jsonline.com/news/crime/118207934.html
E-mail scam affecting donations to Japan
Now all that out of my system - my wife and daughters and I have been asking the same questions on how we could help. Her family isn’t impacted directly (I don’t consider electrical outages and semi-empty stores direct in this instance), but we want to assist.
A number of the broadcasts have had a shortlist of items that were being specifically asked for by those impacted. Some practical for us and some not so much: gasoline, water, toilet paper, sanitary napkins, diapers, wet wipes, hand and body towels, blankets. (Not thinking the gas would be accepted by the post office, in any case shipping liquids is always expensive.) We thought about gathering some of the other items to send to her sister, but for some reason they still aren’t accepting those type of donations -
I think, and it’s a guess, that it’s because they just haven’t been able to get but a few emergency vechicles into the distressed areas due to the number of bridges and tunnels impacted in those ares. The outlying areas are starting to see some trucks, but those people seem to be in shelter buildings. Some of the others seem to still be sitting around fires in the worst impacted areas based on some of the aerial shots. I’m expecting that to improve shortly, but....
So we’ve decided to go the money route immediately and then followup with clothing and comfort items thereafter to the shelter areas that are already being reserved/setup away from the impacted area. Something like chocolates or dried squid (I know it doesn’t sound quite right, but after 6 months with only bare necessities and plain rice/bread; I think they would like a snack as a change of pace if given from the heart - and there dried squid is a snack - and besides it tastes good - at least in certain flavors...)
My understanding is that the government has already reserved whole hotels as far away as Osaka to house the families as it will be quite some time before any houses will be able to be rebuilt. The accents and foods will be different from what they grew up with and many won’t know just how long before they can go back....so anyway that’s what we’re thinking....other freepers thoughts?
Oh and the girls got the school Beta Club to start a penny war between classes.
Oh and the girls got the school Beta Club to start a penny war between classes and contribute the $ for the cause. Not sure which route they are sending it I should check into that.
Thanks for asking/posting. GRRRREAT thread! Thanks to all posters.
BUMP for Japan!
Thank You. . .
Japanese and gaijin living in Japan need a lot of help, particularly in finding and reuniting survivors and families and rebuilding infrastructure and reopening the plants / factories after the devastating earthquake and tsunami destruction, instead of panicking about effects of "radiation" in places far from Fukushima plants.
It doesn't make it any easier, but... sho ga nai. Hope everything turns out well with your family and friends, as well as others there.
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