9/11 and the Red Cross

Paper Summary:

Immediately after the terrorist attacks on America on September 11, 2001, Americans opened their wallets and began contributing to different organizations. Subsequently, an excess of $1.2 billion was collected, about half of which was collected by the Red Cross. This paper looks at the resulting public relations nightmare that arose when Congress charged that the Red Cross had misled the American public regarding the way the millions of dollars in donations the organization had collected would actually be used. Suggestions for how this public relations crisis could have been avoided are also presented.
Outline
Executive Summary
Research
Problems and Opportunities
Relevant Theories
Profiles of Stakeholders
Strategies
Media Characteristics
Possible Solutions

From the Paper:

"There were any number of issues involved in the problem. Firstly, the Red Cross historically does not dedicate all funds collected following a disaster to that specific disaster. Also, the Red Cross provides emergency shelter, clothing, food and other items; seldom do they give cash grants to people. In addition, Healy made statements that were not interpreted in the way she intended; she did not make clear and definitive statements about the distribution of funds being collected. The Red Cross has no infrastructure, no procedure for disbursing cash to victims. When they finally did begin awarding cash, they did so before they had a system to keep track of it or a process to determine equity among recipients. The Red Cross finally agreed to distribute all funds collected to the families of victims of September 11 and by mid-December, the agency reported that 3,200 families had received an average of $38,000 each. "

More papers on 9/11 and the Red Cross:

• Book Review # 122971 : "French Society and "The Red and the Black"
• Analytical Essay # 26854 : "The Red Cross Organization"
• Comparison Essay # 127927 : "Everyday Use" and "The Red Convertible"

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