The American Red Cross is a non-profit organization that was created to assist people in time of need regardless nationality, race religious beliefs, class or political opinions. This national society has a long rich history and is one of the most identifiable humanitarian organizations in the nation.
The mission of the American Red Cross is to alleviate and prevent human suffering in the face of emergencies by mobilizing the power of volunteers and the generosity of donors. It promotes mutual understanding, friendship, cooperation and lasting peace among all peoples. The programs are founded on principles of Humanity, Impartiality, Neutrality, Independence, Voluntary Service, Unity and Universality.
The American Red Cross was created in 1881 and is part of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and is one of more than 145 national societies that make up the League of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. The ICRC paved the way for the American Red Cross when Henry Dunant, a Swiss businessman, authored A Memory of Solferino in 1862, in which he described what he had seen on an Italian battlefield in 1859 – over 40,000 troops either killed or wounded, left unattended. In 1863, his memoir encouraged others to create the ICRC, which adopted the iconic red cross on a white background, the reverse of the Swiss flag. Shortly thereafter during the U.S. Civil War, Clara Barton, a former school teacher and government worker from Massachusetts, entered the battlefields to help the wounded. Following the war, she went to Europe and learned from the Red Cross Movement. Once she arrived home, she assisted in persuading the U.S. government to sign the Geneva Conventions to protect war victims. This allowed Barton and a group of friends to create the American Association of the Red Cross, with the first chapter being established in Dansville, New York. Since then, many people have relied on the American Red Cross for emergency services.
For more than 125 years, the American Red Cross remains one of the most effective non-profit organizations. For example, when the U.S. entered World War II in 1941, more than 3 million volunteers were involved in Red Cross activities a year later. By 1944, this number more than doubled to 7.5 million volunteers. Moreover, over 70,000 registered nurses served, 13.4 million units of blood were collected a for the wounded war victims, 28 million food parcels were shipped to U.S. and Allied prisoners of war and thousands of workers provided recreational and welfare services to the service personnel overseas. Americans donated $784 million (equivalent to more than $5 billion in today’s currency) to support the Red Cross efforts. Once the war ended, the American Red Cross had aided more than 75 million people, 27 million of which were children. The American Red Cross even has a “Celebrity Cabinet” which includes such notable names as Eli Manning, Jamie Lee Curtis, Miley Cyrus and Jackie Chan.
Today, more and more American Red Cross volunteers are being trained for natural disasters such as tornadoes, hurricanes and earthquakes to technological disasters such as those caused by radiation, terrorism and toxic chemicals. They also administer programs to care for the elderly, children, homeless and people with HIV/AIDS, to name a few. Instructors for the American Red Cross teach parenting and lifesaving skills and certified more than 60 million people in CPR, first aid and water safety over the last 10 years. Also, Red Cross workers administer blood drives to collect blood from more than 4 million donors across America as well as establish the first central bone marrow registry in the U.S.
The American Red Cross is a great selfless organization that truly impacts nearly each and every one of us, at one point or another. For those who wish to volunteer, donate or simply desire more information, go to their website at www.redcross.org.
"The American Red Cross is committed to learning from their prior challenges and making the necessary changes to improve the delivery of services," a statement on the organization's Web site said. The staff of the Senate Finance Committee, which formulates tax policy and has oversight over tax-exempt charitable organizations, is to meet Friday to begin developing legislation that will include new rules for corporate governance of nonprofit organizations."The Red Cross is known to all Americans as the main organization that responds to disasters," Grassley said. "It's important for the Red Cross to go the extra mile with governance reforms to ensure public confidence Johanna Neumann writes for the Los Angeles Times. In 2003 and 2004, the Post reported, the Red Cross paid consultants more than $500,000 to pitch the charity's name in Hollywood, recruit stars for its Celebrity Cabinet and give Evans a more high-profile image even as she was laying off staff and cutting travel expenses. The American Red Cross has activities in helping the physical and emotionally recovery with children in famine torn Mali.
A Manager can learn many things from the American Red Cross particularly their ability to collaborate, communicate, manage resources, train personnel and fulfill the organizations mandate with precision and efficiency in relationship with other organizations such as the American Military as they respond to millions of emergencies around the globe with cohesion among their national network of 650 chapters and 36 blood services regions as the work to respond to those emergencies for the recovery and the saving of lives during war, and natural disaster.
The challenges that are undertaken by the American Red Cross can be viewed as an opportunity for managers to learn the skill of communication, which is essential for being informed of the location, type of disaster and response necessary to perform its role effectively.
Collaborating among staff in a huge organization is essential for a manager to learn. Since the American Red Cross has more than 30,000 volunteer and employees and has to conduct their work with precision in mobilizing vast amount of resources which has to be managed with care to prevent waste and damage in their work responding to more than 67000 disasters and at the same time train more than 12 million persons annually the necessary medical skills required to accomplish their vision and goals.
Preventing waste of the organizations resources is important to prevent the raise in cost of its operations; this is essential for a manager to learn, since this measure will save huge sums and help to lower cost, which is important in promoting the efficiency of any organization.
The factor mentioned, which are; The Ability to Collaborate; Communication Skills; Resource Management; Waste Prevention; Cost Cutting Measures; The Art of Mobilization can all contribute to the organization’s success and can all be adapted by any business for its success and provide management with the effective skills and tools for the advancement and progress in any business setting.