Red Cross First Aid

“Mayday, Mayday” is the international distress call, even though it’s originally French--”M’aidez, m’aidez” (Help me, help me). Some might say it’s an appropriate cry for the American Red Cross right now as that unique institution tries to recover from its disastrous handling of the riches showered on it by generous Americans.

The United States suffered a severe national concussion in the terrorist attacks and mass murders of Sept. 11. Although Americans were stunned, their unprecedented outpouring of sympathy and hundreds of millions of dollars was steady and inspiring. Not so Red Cross management of $542 million in donations.

From Red Cross fund-raising ads a reasonable person would infer that money given to a fund dubbed the Liberty Disaster Fund would go to Sept. 11 victims or their survivors. However, last month Red Cross President Bernadine Healy indicated that about half the donations would, in fact, go to prolong the life of donated blood, improve the charity’s telecommunications capabilities and create reserves for future terrorism relief. Public outrage ensued. Healy resigned. Last week Harold Decker, Red Cross chief executive, moved to stop the hemorrhaging of his organization’s credibility.

Decker vowed that Sept. 11 victims would be the Liberty Fund’s sole focus, that coordination with other charities would improve and that half the money would be distributed by year’s end, when a plan to disburse the rest would be revealed. His ensuing apology couldn’t be clearer.

Truly, the Red Cross has overhead expenses; it’s a massive operation with 37,000 employees. It handles about half the nation’s donated blood and responds rapidly to some 67,000 “Maydays” from disaster victims each year, one of the latest being last week’s plane crash in a New York City neighborhood. But it has to be straightforward about what it does with donated money.

Now, with Decker’s crisp action, the American Red Cross has responded rapidly yet again and this time rescued itself.