Why The American Red Cross Sells Blood For Billions

It’s the season of giving with Thanksgiving and Christmas on the horizon, and the American Red Cross has long been recognized as the universal symbol of humanitarian services. It’s an enormous and expensive operation. The American Red Cross has about 230 chapters nationwide with almost 18,000 employees and more than a quarter of a million volunteers, responding to more than 60,000 disasters every year. In 2022, the American Red Cross had net assets of about $2.7 billion and spent just over $3 billion in operating expenses the same year. So how exactly does the American Red Cross make and spend its billions?

Chapters:
01:35 American Red Cross
03:32 Finances
07:44 Transparency

Produced by: Juhohn Lee
Edited by: Nora Rappaport
Animation: Andrea Schmitz
Supervising Producer: Lindsey Jacobson
Additional Footage: Getty Images, American Red Cross, Library of Congress
Additional Sources: Nobel Prize, United States House of Representatives, Congressional Research Service

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Why The American Red Cross Sells Blood For Billions

[LearnToWin]

I think transparency is very important key factor to check especially with non profits organizations like the Red Cross due to their size and public image.

[hugoochoa]

I used to be a blood donor at Red Cross. I was getting call to donate and didn't mind. The one thing got me annoyed is that they ask me to do Power Red donation and I always tell them no because I used to do heavy lift at my previous job and working out at the gym. One point got so annoyed that I ask to Supervisor/Management and she told me that they would never ask me to donate Power Red. Then months later, I got a call from an agent and ask me for Power Red, got so mad of feeling lied and keep asking for it. I ask the agent for the Supervisor and then I complained about the situation and he told me : because the agents get commission/bonuses for Power Red donations. After that I stopped donating for Red Cross and never associated with them.

[PaulADAigle]

I can't donate blood.
Back in the 90s, I donated blood in Michigan. Years later, while living in Washington state, I received a phone call asking me to donate blood again in Michigan. I told him I no longer lived in Michigan, so I couldn't. He stated that if I didn't donate, I'd be put on the "can't donate" list. Years later in the 2020s, I went to donate and found I was on the list so I was unable to donate ever again. I explained and asked them to fix it, but they said it may never be corrected.
There's nothing wrong with me or my blood, but due to some idiot demanding I donate immediately, I'm not allowed.

[canyon]

Tried to give blood in highschool to fulfill some ridiculous new community service requirement implementation mandatory to graduate. I had to give them my parents' number and email in case i passed out or something. That was 8 years ago and apparently they still call and email them asking for my blood to this day 😂

[arjunaadjinna]

I once worked for a door to doot sales company.

One of the products we sold was red cross donations.

Read that statement again and wrap your mind around the implications.

a SALES organization, paid commission, SOLD DONATIONS

[AnonymousanonymousA]

Why does a non profit charity have proprietary information on their profits?

[DJAlexParker]

Find it hard to support charities financially when their bosses get paid sometimes over £100, 000 a year

[kineticstar]

I've always supported the red cross as when I was in the military they were always there with us trying to help when things were hard for military families.
It hurts when I see the red cross get into scandals. I know that many of the people are there to help but it only takes a few to ruin an image build up over a century.

[jm]

Answer: collect 10-figure donations for Haitian Earthquake relief and subsequently build 12 houses

[MoniqueMarine-ktpn]

We donate but if we need blood, why do we have to pay for it. 😢😢😢

[I-Teee]

Anyone, ANYONE, who looks at charity oversight, knows a 90/10 (90% to the cause, 10% operating expenses) is insanely efficient. Charities like Wounded Warriors are almost the opposite of that ratio.

[jetfire]

Heh, they don't want to tell you the cost they sell blood for because you'll start to wonder why the hell you give it for free.

[eastfamous]

How do I sell my blood directly to the hospital?

[emchammer]

Used to be a phlebotomist for ARC. They don't pay well and you have to travel to bloodmobiles getting very little in travel expenses. Never expected to be rich but raises were few and far between. Enjoyed the work though.

[AndIwandermuch]

A for-profit non-profit? Didn't they "make" a few billion dollars from that earthquake in Haiti a while ago?

[Nakkisampyla]

Great business and possibilities to make lot of bucks without elbow grease

[Bbbmurr]

As someone whose town was destroyed by a ef3 tornado idk what i would have done without that 1 boiling hot bottle of water the red cross gave me while driving their big billboard around town

[j.frankparnell]

Well first you pay the CEO $819, 082 and then you pay the other executives all over $400, 000. Then you have a non-profit.

[DK-qfpr]

NGOs might not be making direct profits like an investor would make but the profits are distributed as salaries

[ShelvedBooks-lwtd]

A heart is valued at a million dollars.