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American Red Cross Essay

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The American Red Cross
Summary
The American Red Cross (ARC) is an independent organization, supported by public financial donations and volunteerism. It provides relief to victims of disasters and help people prevent, prepare for and respond to emergencies. The company has been widely criticized for the way it handled 9/11 in 2001 and Hurricane Katrina in 2005 as being inadequate and poorly managed. The company has allegations of fraud, bribery and even theft on the part of volunteers and employees working for the organization. It has also faced internal challenges due to high turnover, as well as charges of overcompensation and possible corruption among its board of directors and upper management. After bad press, the ARC faces many …show more content…

* ARC received $543 million in pledges to help the 9/11 victims but only distributed 1/3 of those funds to the relief effort and the rest was used for other purposes in the company. * Improper diversion of relief supplies, failure to follow Red Cross procedures in tracking and distributing supplies. * Numerous Katrina volunteers reported the disappearance of rented cars, electricity generators, and even some 3,000 air mattresses during the relief efforts. * An ARC call center employee wrote money orders in the names of various relief victims and fraudulently cashing them herself. * The organization’s insufficient capacity to electronically accept donations especially due to the magnitude of donations during the disaster period.
3. What are some of the reasons for the ARC’s ethical dilemmas and how can the organization guarantee that these problems will not occur in the future? * Monetary donation mismanagement such as executive compensation, not preventing and handling employee misconduct, lack of transparency and accurate representation of the organization needs for and use donations, are some of the reasons for the ARC’s ethical dilemma and the organization can guarantee that this problem will not occur in the future by a) The staff and volunteers need to be well managed by capable directors and executives. b) The company must address the specific ethical risks with its disaster

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