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« Third Parties and Why They Suck So Much | Main | Rose Has Issues »

Profitable Non-Profit

“I’d think very carefully before giving money or blood to the Red Cross. Every pint of blood you give for nothing is sold for $165 to hospitals."

So I came in to work today not in the best of moods.  In general, on any given day, I'm not on the best of moods.  It's my nature.  Then I saw the American Red Cross left a giant poster on the circulation desk advertising their next blood drive on this campus.

I really hate the American Red Cross.  (Which should not be confused with the International Red Cross)

They are owned/run by neo-con Republican business-types.  During Katrina when Brownie was busy eating his dinner and shopping at Nordstroms for appropriate disaster attire, FEMA ordered the Red Cross out of the area and refused to allow them in to help people.  The people on the ground reported this.  The reason given was because if people got help, they might decide to stay instead of evacuating.  That's right.  Because a little food and water from the Red Cross is enough to convince me that I want to stay in my flooded house with no electricity and no sanitation.  "Oh, I'm just fine here on my roof.  No need to evacuate me, sir.  I kinda like watching the water lap back and forth over the side of the house.  It's soothing."

Needless to say, the people on the ground thought FEMA's actions were outrageous.  But the very next day, the official statement came from on high in the Red Cross corporation that stated that everything was fine and FEMA and Red Cross were good buddies and no unusual things were going on.

Then I recently found out that the American Red Cross takes the blood people donate to them and sells it.  Sells it to hospitals and pharmaceuticals and the like.  Their website says they only charge people in need for the blood because they need to cover the costs of testing the blood and other adminstrative stuffs.  According to that website I linked, they make quite a tidy profit on the sales.  The report is from 1989, so the info is pretty old.  This article is much more recent and mentions the shady things they did with the money donated when the Towers were hit.

Pretty nice for a non-profit organization.  They also have an exclusive deal with the government.  They're required to be the aid organization on site during any disaster that occurs in this country.  That sounds pretty good in one sense.  The American Red Cross will be there to help out people in need.  Except, how much of the money people donate to these disasters do you suppose gets lost in administrative costs and how much do you think the victims see?

I don't give them money anymore.  When they pull out their pie chart to show me exactly where each dollar is spent, then mebbe I'll reconsider.

By min | November 8, 2005, 8:52 AM | Liberal Outrage