Red Cross uses last of wildfire fund


 
Red Cross uses last of wildfire fund
 

05 March 2013

published by www.amarillo.com


USA — The American Red Cross now has spent the last of the $282,000 it raised specifically to respond to devastating 2011 wildfires.

The charity’s Texas Panhandle Chapter this week emptied a $103,000 fund created when the chapter raised but did not use all the funds it solicited to aid February 2011 wildfire victims and first responders, Executive Director Steve Pair said.

The chapter raised $282,000 in donations, but used just $119,000 to provide water and food to emergency personnel and water, food and shelter to displaced victims, Red Cross officials said in September 2011. The chapter spent an additional $60,000 to restock its shelves after the wildfires.

Following the fires, the Amarillo Globe-News and United Way of Amarillo & Canyon officials questioned the charity’s handling of the contributions.

The United Way allocates money to the Red Cross chapter, and has been monitoring the wildfire fund balance as it has been depleted by Red Cross to help victims of house fires, United Way President Riley Hill said.

The chapter used the $103,000 to respond to 157 incidents, with 87 percent of those being
single-family home fires, said Pair, who has been executive director of the charity’s Texas Panhandle and Eastern Texas Panhandle chapters since November.

Those incidents involved about 679 adults and children, Pair said.

The chapter had been keeping United Way apprised of how the remaining funds were being allocated, Pair said.

“We want to be as open, as transparent with the people that live in the Panhandle, as possible,” he said.

The United Way is satisfied the unused funds have been allocated to help Texas Panhandle residents, Hill said.

“Early on, we had questions about how the funds in excess of the wildfire needs would be used,” he said. “Those excess funds have been accounted for, and we are pleased to note that the Red Cross, in a goodwill effort, has chosen not to use any of the funds raised following the wildfires for administrative expenses, even though their policy would have allowed it.

“In other words, the funds raised above what was needed for the wildfires have gone 100 percent to victims of house fires.”

In March 2012, United Way leaders grilled Red Cross officials, including North Texas Regional CEO Tracy D. “T.D.” Smyers, about how the chapter used wildfire donations. Smyers told the gathering he had been unable to find records giving a detailed accounting for the distribution of money.

Nationwide, the Red Cross went through a major restructuring in 2011 that took accounting, information technology and human resources functions out of the hands of individual chapters and centralized them at the regional level for greater efficiency, Smyers said.

Expenses are tracked as items related to particular services, such as disaster relief, but are not broken down into specific purchases, he said.

However, procedures put in place since the reorganization mean he can get information about fire victim assistance, down to “how many pairs of sweat pants” the victims received, he said in September.

The United Way now is getting the level of accounting detail it needs from the chapter, Hill said.

United Way allocated $101,440 to the Red Cross for its current financial year, which will end March 31, United Way Interim Executive Director Jeff Gulde said.

The allocation includes $64,500 for the Red Cross chapter’s disaster services. The rest is divided between health and safety programs and services to the armed forces, Gulde said.

 


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