After Hurricane Harvey hit, people—and organizations like ProPublica—were quick to oppose calls to donate to the American Red Cross, citing their problematic history of receiving millions of dollars but only using a fraction of funds to help communities in need. The Red Cross, which still managed to rake in millions of dollars so far, is now on the ground in Texas—but people are asking questions.
NPR echoed some of these concerns to the Red Cross leadership, but the answers were far from comforting. Morning Edition host Ailsa Chang got to speak with Brad Kieserman, vice president of disaster operations and logistics at the Red Cross.
Kieserman said that as of Wednesday morning the Red Cross had spent $50 million on Harvey relief, mainly on 232 shelters for 66,000 people.
Chang: Through donations, how much of every dollar goes to relief?
Kieserman: Yeah, I don't think I know the answer to that any better than the chief fundraiser knows how many, how much it costs to put a volunteer downrange for a week and how many emergency response vehicles I have on the road today. So I think if he was on this interview and you were asking how many relief vehicles in Texas, I don't think he'd know the answer and I don't know the answer to the financial question I'm afraid.
So either this high-level individual doesn’t have access to these numbers—or he doesn’t want to divulge them. Either way, this doesn’t bode well. Kieserman remained evasive even when asked again.
Chang: You don't know what portion of that total amount is for relief.
Kieserman: No, I really don't. I wish I could answer your question, but it's not something I have visibility on in the role that I play in this organization.
This isn’t the first time the Red Cross has avoided giving details on how they’re providing aid.
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